Millions of Orthodox Christians are celebrating Easter this weekend. They'll hear the traditional chants and hymns, centuries old, always solemn, and reverent. But some would they are also distant and unconnected to the daily reality of the culture we live in. No one knows that better than Rev. Dr. Nicholas Louh, a Greek Orthodox priest who's lighting a fire, you could say, to the Orthodox world with his motivational speaking around the country. In style, substance and easy to understand theological message, he sounds more like Billy Graham than Basil the Great, a fourth century Orthodox theologian. For the first millennia of Christianity there was only Orthodoxy. One Church. Then came the great Schism of 1054 separating East and West. Five hundred years later, the Protestant Reformation and more splintering. But Louh is true to the Orthodox roots of the faith. However, of the Orthodox world he admits, "We've had this beautiful what I call the deep end of the pool of faith... where what we're challenged with is how do we share it in a way that's practical, applicable and relevant to people's lives?" On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, I am on the road again, this time to Southampton, New York, at the Lenten Retreat at the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church, where Fr. Louh was the keynote speaker for three seminars. His bio shows that he's breaking the boundaries of the church building to build bridges with other religions, but also breaking down the separations between the more than thirty-thousand Christian denominations, the divisions of which have been the source of many a Holy war throughout the centuries, and even today in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Both countries are majority Orthodox Christians. Louh is the senior priest at St. John the Divine Greek Orthodox Church in Jacksonville, Florida. He's also the Adjunct Professor of World Religions at the Florida State College at Jacksonville and is the chaplain for the Jacksonville Sharks Arena Football Team. He's all about interfaith dialogue and social justice... and helping people understand what God's purpose is for their lives.

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