An explanation of "abitadeacon"

With the recent move to a new parish in Covington, La someone asked me if I was going to keep my internet monicker. At my farewell party yesterday, rather tongue-in-cheek style, my pastor suggested some new nicknames. Since my new parish is meeting and worshipping in an old retail space that once sold tropical fish maybe I could try Holy Mackerel Deacon. And because I minister in prison he also suggested inmate deacon.

Then one of my Deacon brothers on the internet mentioned recently that he often wondered about the origin of the name.

When I was ordained in 2008 one of my goals was to keep my family and friends apprised of the ministry entrusted to me. I found this fulfilling but a little tedious. Someone suggested I try blogging. Not being a computer genius I thought this would never happen. Then one cold and uneventful weekend in February, just two months after ordination, I sat down with the computer and gave it a shot.

Much to my surprise, it looked manageable. I was prompted to name the blog so I kept coming up with bunches of ideas, none of which my wife liked. She suggested abitadeacon. We live in Abita Springs, La. and everyone shortens it to Abita. And my home parish, which also was my first assignment, St. Jane's, is in the heart of Abita Springs. But not wanting to be too pretentious I was concerned about the name because as the new Deacon at St. Jane's I was number 4. Yep, when I came along we had 4 permanent deacons.

Over here on the Northshore of New Orleans, towns run together. So even though I live 10 miles from the church my mailing address is Abita Springs,zip code 70420. So I pulled out the phone book and my 3 predecessors all lived elsewhere; even though two are much closer to the church than yours truly. One has a Mandeville address, zip code 70471; another Covington, zip code 70433 and one in Bogalusa, zip code 70427. It seemed good to me to claim the name abitadeacon!

And now that I've moved it still seems fitting to be known as "abitadeacon".