Plus, venturing onto Substack –

I feel honored and humbled by the endorsement of The North American Thebaid by noted writer and thinker Paul Kingsnorth. Paul came upon the Thebaid Project a few years ago, and even pre-ordered the book in early 2023, a full two years ahead of its eventual publication this past Spring. His new book, Against the Machine ~ On the Unmaking of Humanity, has just been published. It’s an important — even essential — book for our age, written by, in my estimation, one of the most significant voices, Christian or otherwise, of our time.

I have been following Paul’s writing and his spiritual journey into the Orthodox Church for several years now (you can read his account of that journey here), especially after he launched his Substack, which he titles The Abbey of Misrule. After some of my comments on his essays, some back and forth, and a few email exchanges with him, I was fortunate enough to meet Paul Kingsnorth in person last year here in Birmingham, Alabama, after one of his talks. What happened next was completely unexpected: Paul invited me to submit an article to be posted on the Abbey as a guest essay, about my project and book. Here is his intro to the piece, which was posted this past Sunday:

Since I am currently on tour in North America, it seems an appropriate time for this particular guest post. I don’t often ask guests to write here, both because I guard my territory jealously, and because I’m very picky. But sometimes I come across something that needs to be written about, and which I think my readers will connect with.

This is one such time. Some of you may know Ralph Sidway, or ‘Zosimas’, from his comments here over the years. Ralph is also a photographer and writer, and his latest project is a beautiful and original photographic pilgrimage across North America. I will let him tell you more.

It means a great deal to me to have such appreciation shown for what is definitely my own magnum opus, and especially by someone whom I hold in such high regard. Clearly we both share an appreciation for pilgrimage itself. Some of my favorite works by Paul are his extended series on his own pilgrimages, including a year-long, weekly series on the Holy Wells of Ireland, and his ongoing series (to be published in book form hopefully next year) on The Wild Saints. Most recently, he wrote a three part series on his road trip from Montana to Alaska, following it with a special coda about his pilgrimage to Spruce Island, home of the wilderness Monk Herman, first saint of North America. As many of you know, Spruce Island and other sacred Alaskan Orthodox sites form the symbolic pinnacle of The North American Thebaid pilgrimage, and complete my book in a way no other place could.

With far greater economy of words than I will ever achieve, Paul added this concluding endorsement following my guest article:

You can read more about Ralph’s project on his website, where you can also order a copy of his book. It’s both a beautiful object and the story of a profound journey, and I highly recommend it.

Venturing onto Substack

I joined Substack a few years ago to better follow PK and some other writers, and have used it mainly to comment on and/or restack posts of interest ’til now. But my guest article on The Abbey of Misrule has prompted me to consider this an opportunity to resume writing about topics of interest to me.

Please be assured, this website, Thebaid.org, will continue, and I look forward to starting a series of essays with photo “outtakes” from my pilgrimage, as well as reflections on photography as an artistic medium, as a craft for sharing the beauty of Orthodoxy and God’s creation, and related topics.

My Substack platform (tentatively to be titled, “Through a Lens, Darkly…”) will include material I post here, as well as original essays not related to the Thebaid Project. Everything posted here will be cross-posted on Substack, but not everything posted there will be posted here.

Lastly, a final push on rewards distribution

It has come to my attention recently that there were a few remaining gaps in distribution of the Thebaid book pre-orders, even to a couple of the monasteries featured in the book. I am very sorry for these misses, and ask your forgiveness even as we get the books shipped to you. I’ll also be working with St. Tikhon’s Press to reconcile our distribution lists and make sure all pre-orders have been fulfilled.

There are also a number of signed and matted fine-art prints still being completed, and which will be shipped soon to complete the last remaining preorders for those supporters.

Thank you for your patience through this process! I look forward to rejoicing with all of you once all deliveries are made.

Wishing you good pilgrimages!