This is not going to be a typical week here at GetReligion, so I thought I would let readers know what is going on and what to expect. Right now, your GetReligionistas are in the midst of a kind of perfect storm, in terms of our jammed calendars.

For one thing, this is the rare year in which Holy Week occurs at the same time in both the churches of the East and the West, leading to Pascha/Easter this coming Sunday. For the Orthodox, that means about 800 pages of intense and beautiful liturgy in more than a dozen special services in the next five days. All of us will be busy in our various traditions, to one degree or another.

For me, this week also represents the start of the exit activities here at the Washington Journalism Center, with stacks of work from our swamped, but energetic students to grade and critique -- internship folders, research papers, personal reflections on urban life, etc., etc.

In another academic land, it's that time again for law-school student Brad Greenberg, when the assignments and the tests add up to another month-long leave of absence. He will, as always, be writing some at The God Blog at The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, his own online home, but he'll be away from this here weblog.

At the same time, Bobby's family has suffered a great loss in the death of his grandfather -- a man who clearly was the patriarch of his clan, in every valid sense of that word. You can get a sense of that in this essay that Bobby wrote a decade ago and in these opening paragraphs of his oh-so-Southern obituary:

Lloyd Lee Ross was a faithful Christian, a devoted husband, father and grandfather and a decorated veteran of World War II. A member of the Huntingdon Church of Christ in West Tennessee, he celebrated his 93rd birthday less than a month before he gained his eternal reward April 17, 2011. ...

On February 5, 1941, at age 22, Lloyd married the love of his life, Margaret Magdaline House, who was barely 16. Married for nearly 69 years, they built their lives on faith, love and hard work until Margaret’s death on December 20, 2009, at age 85.

Lloyd fought with the Army in World War II, where he survived a gunshot wound to the face. After the war, he worked as a farmer, carpenter and commercial fisherman. He and Margaret served for several years as houseparents at Christian children’s homes in Arkansas and Texas. A sweet man with an ornery streak, Lloyd loved hunting, fishing and spending time outdoors.

Bobby hopes to be doing a bit of GetReligion writing again later this week, before he, too, heads into the Easter weekend.

GetReligion will remain open during this busy time, but expect one or two posts a day instead of our usual three or even four.

It may also take us a bit longer to jump on off-topic comments. Please be patient and help us watch for ghosts in the news, or even -- in this season of Passover, Holy Week, etc. -- the obvious religious topics that get turned around upside down and backwards.