When I was working as a full-time religion-beat reporter, the phrase I most dreaded hearing my editor say was, “I think we’ve got to do a trend story on that.” Well, that and the dreaded, “There’s a call from a furious (insert denominational name here) minister on line one.”

Through the years I have attended my share of conferences and seminars about the status of religion coverage in the mainstream press. This is what I do.

One of the challenges that veteran God-beat reporters face is finding a way to send something new and fresh to their editors during the annual holiday seasons. Now, you could get away with quirky and strange stories during the Christmas season because, you know, that’s a cultural thing. But journalists have tended to play it straight during Holy Week and Easter, along with the heavy seasons in the other world religions. Seen any funny Yom Kippur or Ramadan stories?

Well, my column is out for the week and my classes are done for the day. This is Holy Week, of course, and for the Orthodox that basically means we live at church. It’s a beautiful time, though hectic. There are so many stories that I want to point out and comment on from the past few days that I don’t even know where to start. I’ll try to catch up.