The funny thing is I sounded Orthodox years before I joined the OCA, because in seminary I focused on Patristics and also took some exchange courses to get away from the majority of elective courses that focused on various liberal theologies, and to avoid the cognitive dissonance of being a conservative in a liberal denomination I created an Orthodox-inspired bubble around myself, and instead of writing sermons, edited the various ancient homilies by the likes of St. Chrysostom, St. Gregory Nazianzus, St. Ephrem the Syrian, and others, as well as more recent sermons by Protestants I like, such as John Wesley, compacting them so as not to exceed 15 minutes (my notoriously short sermons were short because of the attention span of modern congregants; my theory was if I could fit a usable and coherent message, taken from an ancient homily, either part of it or the whole thing, or in the case of some short metrical homilies by the likes of St. Ephrem or Jacob of Sarugh, more than one, into 15 minutes, it would likely work, and if it failed, at least the boredom of the people would be limited.
Just out of curiosity, are you a Maronite Catholic or a convert to Orthodoxy from the Maronite church? Because one ministry I have considered, based on my enthusiasm for all forms of Lebanese, Arabic and Syriac Christianity, is forming a Maronite Orthodox Vicarate, (which would tick all three boxes) like the Western Rite Vicarates in the Antiochian church and ROCOR, not because of any disrespect for Maronite Catholics, but rather, because in the United States, I have found it incredibly hard to find Maronite parishes with traditional liturgies, and while I am not myself Maronite or even Lebanese, I love the Maronite people, and I can’t be the only one who finds this frustrating.
Also, they’ve been promising to bring back the Liturgy of Peter (Sharar) for decades now, and it still hasn’t happened, and young people will forget it, and the traditions associated with it, which are unique because unlike the other Maronite anaphoras, it is East Syriac rather than Antiochene in form, like the Assyrian or Chaldean liturgies. So if I could find a dozen or so Maronites who want the liturgy to be celebrated with traditional music, with the same reverence one associates with Antiochian Orthodox or Syriac Catholic or Chaldean liturgics, in a city with no Maronite parish that is respectful of traditional Maronite worship, including A Capella harmony and the use of some West Syriac in the liturgy, I would do it, mainly because if it was a success it would cause the Maronite churches in the Diaspora to make their liturgics more on a par with those in the Old Country.
Of course, it would be ideal if I could find a disaffected Maronite Priest or Deacon or a Maronite convert to the Antiochian church (my understanding is Maronites and Syriac Orthodox don’t get along well, like Copts and Assyrians, there is some rivalry), who shared my interest, who spoke Arabic, and who I could empower financially and otherwise (I am on good terms with bishops who would support such a venture and receive or ordain someone who wanted to do it).
But before I do that, I have to either complete my current mission of setting up a traditional Congregational church using the beautiful 19th-20th century ultra high church liturgy of Reverend John Hunter of the King’s Weigh House, to set right what the UCC is doing wrong and to atone perhaps for my not leaving the UCC sooner; it was the comma advertising campaign that made me want to leave, but due to misguided loyalty I hung on until the impending retirement of the senior pastor, so he would have time to select a replacement junior pastor and thus partially compensate for the likely very different beliefs of his replacement. But I think I should have thrown in the towel as soon as the Comma advertising campaign started, and then immediately pursued another career working for a different church.
