Folks who’ve been here a long time may remember the issues I had with the priest (Orthodox) from my previous parish which caused me to leave the parish in early 2008. Not long after, he tried taking me down online, even going so far as to try to get me in trouble with the regional Orthodox group I was involved with. He was a women stay at home right from the beginning of marriage, have many babies, homeschool only type. I was an outspoken single woman which he didn’t like.
Anyway, I’ve been much happier at current parish. I have had no contact at all with priest from previous parish. I barely have contact with anyone who attends that church. I found out recently from a friend that used to go there that that priest is talking about how I’ve fallen and need to be reformed since I’m gone from church in the summer when I’m scuba diving. I hate gossip!
Anyway, a young woman from my current parish is marrying a guy from the old parish - where the troublesome priest still is. Wedding is this summer at my current parish. The troublesome priest will be doing the wedding with my priest. Normally, I’d be singing, but that means missing diving. I was also asked to do one of the readings at the wedding. I politely declined, saying I was taking a lot of trips this summer. When I was asked, they didn’t have a firm date.
The real reason I’m skipping this wedding is that I don’t want to be anywhere near the old priest. The family doesn’t know that and they don’t need to. I did warn the bride’s parents that when I was at the other parish, the priest had no issues getting very political (very conservative) about issues like gay marriage during wedding sermons. That has no place and a lot of guests always got upset. I don’t know if he’s like that now, but I felt I had to at least warn them, and they do what they like with the information. Sad situation, but keeping myself away from the wedding is the best thing for me to do.