As a weak Orthodox individual I need to be around people, it helps me. It is like support or something for one another. What I find so frustrating is that everyone seems to be too busy to do anything. Even the priest, he is doing whatever during the week and most of the time its hard to get ahold of him. I wish we had church more often, but everyone is too busy! When Abouna comes over, it seems as if he is always in a big hurry and wants to move things along. This is aggravating, sometimes I just want to scream but I said to hell with it I am just going to church and working on my salvation and if people want to hang out then cool, I dont hate anyone or anything but I have just given up on trying to have a support network of Orthodox people.
Anyone else notice this? Its killing the church.
With regard to the priest, it could be he is stretched thin and literally doesn't have the ability to hang out for long periods of time. It's not that he doesn't care. It just could be that his congregation has a lot of demands and needs. Add to that the fact that he also (if he's married) has his own family to take care of, and then in some churches the priest will be holding down a secular job on week days. I don't know your priest's situation, but I would try to be understanding.
