In the days leading up to the March for Life, I kept meaning to blog my appreciation for Metropolitan Jonah’s strong encourgement to his fellow Orthodox to take a public stand for Life. The Orthodox Church has always stood strong in condemning abortion, but they have unfortunately been mostly silent in this country in fighting legalized abortion (with Frederica Matthews-Green being a very notable exception). But this year Metropolitan Jonah urged all Orthodox – from bishops to the lowliest layman – to attend the March and to work against legalized abortion. I thank him for that effort.

But what reminded me was seeing this photo over at Byzantine, TX:

(Metropolitan Jonah is in the center in white).

What struck me about the photo was seeing my former classmate Jeff Fortenberry (second from left). Jeff was in the Masters of Theology program with me at Franciscan back in the mid-90′s and we worked together in the campus computer lab during that time. Jeff is now a congressman from Nebraska (quite a step up from assisting students and faculty in using MS Word!).