User:Mike

My fiancée and I dining in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, MX

My name is Michael Fulton and I am a student at the University of Texas at Austin, studying Ancient History and Classical Civilizations with a Greek minor. Brought up a Roman Catholic, I was led to Orthodoxy through research after becoming disturbed by post-conciliar Rome. I was brought into the Church Holy Saturday 2004 and have been a faithful congregant at St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church located in Austin, TX ever since.

Education and Prospectives

Upon leaving the den of postmodernism which is UT and after my marriage to Gabriela, I plan on teaching world and European history in the Houston area for a while. God willing, I will some day become a seminarian (hopefully at St. Vladimir's).

The eternal acolyte. At my fiancée's chrismation on Holy Saturday, 2006.

My Interests

I have a fondness for liturgical theology, which would explain my beef with current innovations in Western liturgics (particularly the Novus Ordo Missae). I am also keenly interested in patristics, angelology, pre-schismatic Anglo-Saxon and French saints, and ecclesiastical history as well as Byzantine history in general are passions of mine. Aside from trudging through Latin and Greek (often with much pain on my person), I have a sick fascination with cultology, and from that stems my interest in apologetics (specifically responding to Islam, Mormonism, Scientology, and the Baha'i Faith from a Christian perspective).

I'm a nerd and cajun at heart, finding delight in spicy foods and jazz. My parents' families have unique histories which are closely tied to the Texas Gulf Coast and Southern Louisiana. Beyond my pious interests, I am a trekkie, and I have a habit of rubbing it off on Gabriela (she is learning to tell the difference between a Cardassian and a Klingon). However, since there are no more Star Trek franchises being produced, Gabriela and I have found solace in the Re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series. When we aren't watching Law and Order: SVU episodes together, we delight in Starbuck slaying Cylons.

Much to the chagrin of my long-suffering fiancée I also have a profound interest in the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Slowly and surely Gabriela is starting to take my Hobbit-loving and ramblings about wizards in grey hats with humor and understanding.