I’m not much for the gossip column, but I’ll give it the old whirl. In case you didn’t know, today is Orthodox Easter (or Pascha), celebrated by most Eastern Orthodox for the same reasons as everyone else, just not on the same day. Pascha is also commemorated communally the night before, usually at 11pm.
So that’s where I was last night, at St. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church in Potomac, somewhat struggling to keep my attention on the proceedings. Father George had a hard time too come 1am, when I thought I caught his voice trail off into mumbles at various points. But I won’t begrudge him his dedication to serve the faithful.
In any case, my ability to focus was doing about alright when I noticed something out of the ordinary in the far transept (go look that one up). At first I thought it was one of the faithful so enraptured with the ceremony that he was standing on the pew.
Turns out that Ghitza wasn’t standing on anythng but the bare floor. On a Saturday night after the Wizards (for whom he is a Suite Ambassador) got their tails handed to them in Cleveland, all 7-foot-7 of Gheorghe Muresan was celebrating Easter with the rest of the Orthodox world. Needless to say, the only reason I stayed afterward was to see how they were going to manage communion. Big Gheorghe did go up, stood in line like everyone else, knelt like everyone else and made the proper observance. However, as much as he knelt, Gheorghe was still taller than the priest.
Just thought you might want to know what happens to NBA players (ok, former NBA players) late on Saturday nights…