Devshirme

This year Orthodox Easter fell, as it often seems to do, a week after Western Easter (how timely, right, since it is now many weeks after Easter?  But we are still in the Easter season for another week or so, so there: ).  I noticed something on Facebook, where I am part of a pretty good sized network of people from all backgrounds but with a lot of Orthodox friends (a buddy of mine said my friends list looks like the Athens phonebook), that was rather disquieting.  I saw a lot of my Orthodox friends writing status updates that said “Happy Easter to my Orthodox friends” (or kalo pascha or some such variation).  My main problem is with the “to my Orthodox friends” part.

Do we contain our holidays amongst ourselves?  Would non-Orthodox or non-Christian people be offended if we joyously wished them happy Easter?  I hope not.  We have, seemingly, been cowed by political correctness and fear of offending people to the point that we are hesitant to wish a simple religious or cultural greeting to friends.  Really?  I understand that the hesitation is well-intentioned, but come on now.  As Orthodox Christians we are called upon to spread the gospel message.  I understand that people may be uncomfortable approaching friends about Christ or whatever but this is just a greeting.  Surely we can do at least that!

I fully expect my friends of other faiths to wish me their own greetings for their holidays.  It is a nice thing, makes me feel included, and exposes me to stuff I would not normally know.  If someone knows you well and is offended by a holiday greeting, especially a blanket one on something like Facebook, well then, good grief.  I understand that we all use Facebook for different reasons – personal, ministry, business, a combination, whatever – but at the very least people in our orbit should be comfortable with the fact that we like to say Kalo Pascha or happy Easter.  Let’s not be afraid to own and be proud of our holidays.  God help us if we don’t welcome people into them.  And let’s not remove the soul from Easter and other special days by keeping them to ourselves.

This brief post is inspired by a discussion on Facebook started by my koumbaros Fr. Andrew Damick…

When we (in the Orthodox world) think of liturgy we are almost always thinking of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.   This is the service that week in week out we go to on Sundays.  There are, though, other liturgies in Orthodoxy, and we are occasionally exposed to them.  The most common one is the Liturgy of St. Basil, which is identical to that of Chrysostom except for the longer and different anaphora (the time around consecration and communion) prayers*.  Basil’s liturgy is done on his feast day, Sundays during Lent, and a few other times a year.  During Lent we celebrate another liturgy during the week – the Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified Gifts or Presanctified Liturgy.  This service is noticeably different than the other two.  There exists a Liturgy of St. Mark which is done on his feast and his more or less identical to Chrysostom, although it includes some cool stuff like a prayer for the rising of the waters of the Nile (reflecting Mark’s relationship with Egypt).  The Liturgy of St. James is done on his feast day and can be celebrated on the Sunday after Christmas.  This service has even more of a different character than the Presanctified.

There are other liturgies that have fallen out of practice in the Orthodox universe, and one  was recently done for the first time in centuries in the Greek Orthodox jurisdiction.  Archbishop Gregory of Great Britain celebrated the liturgy of his patron saint Gregory the Theologian on his feast day.  You can read accounts of this historic event here and here.  I am hoping that video exists of this rare and no doubt awesome liturgy and I hope it comes to the surface at some point.

*Our yearly Lenten clergy retreat at the Metropolis Retreat Center featured Fr. Maximos from Mt. Athos.  His topic was the anaphora prayers of the Liturgy of St. Basil, and in passing he mentioned that the anaphora prayers of the Liturgy of St. Gregory, recently celebrated for the first time in centuries by the Archbishop of Great Britain, are the only anaphora prayers of any Eastern Orthodox liturgy to be addressed to Christ rather than God the Father.

It has been a while.  Let’s ease back into things – here is His Eminence’s recent Paschal reflection:

At this very moment we relive the Holy Resurrection, the central mystery of our Christian faith.  We will shortly light our Paschal candles to boldly proclaim that “the light of Christ shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overtake it.” (John 1:5)

At this very moment “as the first day of the week dawns,” (Matthew 28:1) we mystically draw near to the life-giving tomb together with Mary Magdalene and the other Myrrh bearing women who discover that the great stone placed there has been rolled away, and that the body of the Savior is nowhere to be found. We overhear Mary Magdalene lament, “they have taken away the Lord from the tomb and we do not know where they have laid Him.” (John 20:2)

How sad it was for the myrrh bearers not to find the Risen Lord.

How sad it is that we cannot seem to find Him either.  We cannot find Him in the world of politics or the world of finances.  We cannot find the Risen Lord in our schools or in our judicial courts.  We cannot find the Risen Lord in our homes. Sadly, some claim they cannot even find him in our churches.

The Risen Lord met the myrrh bearers as they were going to the disciples, and He said to them “Do not be afraid, go and tell my brethren to go to Galillee and there they will see me.” (Matthew 28:10) Like the myrrh bearers, we, too, are directed to go to Galillee to see the Risen Lord.

Galillee is Boston.  It’s Worcester and Springfield.  It’s Manchester and every city and town in America and throughout the world.

The Risen Lord awaits us in Galillee where the rich have removed God from their altar of worship, and placed instead their money and their perceived importance.

The Risen Lord awaits us in Galillee where the powerful plot to marginalize the church and muzzle its voice in society.

The Risen Lord awaits us in Galillee ——- in every corner of the earth ——- but especially where our fellow human beings are victims of human trafficking, of cultural wars, of crimes, of genocide, of ethnic cleansing and every other conceivable atrocity.

The Risen Lord awaits us in our personal Galillee to shine His mercy, His forgiveness and His love in our hearts. In the midst of our failures ——– in our emotional solitude, in our doubt and abandonment, on our spiritual death beds, in our tombs of doubt and disbelief ——– the Risen Lord comes to raise us up to experience our own Resurrection.

Let us greet Him in Galillee and boldly proclaim our faith in His Resurrection. Let us share the Light of the Risen Lord in a world that is steeped in every conceivable form of darkness, in a world which faces financial turmoil, in a world suffering from both spiritual and material poverty, in a world of violence and deprivation, of terrorism, of incivility and divisiveness.

Let us light our Paschal candles of hope and joy, and let us proclaim together with St. John the Evangelist “the light of Christ shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overtake it.” (John 1:5)

Come receive the light from the unwaning Light and glorify Christ who is risen from the dead.

Metropolitan Methodios

Easter, 2012

We have a very cool new thing at our church – an icon stand in the narthex that is the perfect height for young children to kiss and venerate an icon.  A month or so ago I was talking with Nick Kofos about us acquiring such an object.  Nick is in his own right a talented woodworker but he suggested I contact Steve Caragian to execute the project.  Steve readily agreed to take this on, and after taking measurements in the vestibule of our church he created the masterpiece you see below.  We have an enormous amount of young children at our church, and this stand is at the perfect height for them.  Its finish and size also blend in well with the surrounding icon and candle stands, and we managed to place it so that it doesn’t block access to the other icons.  Many thanks to Steve, who humbly suggested we dedicate it to his mother Eleni, which we will indeed do.  The “soft opening” will be this Saturday, and the “hard opening” will be Sunday when we announce the presence and background of this new stand.  Thanks also to Amy Polymeros, who has volunteered to donate an icon of Christ With The Children for the stand, as well as to Nick K. who helped come up with the concept and made this happen.

To my fellow clergy who may chance upon this post – please consider identifying a parishioner who can take such a project on.  I know many churches have an icon on the wall in the narthex for children to venerate, which is great, but it is important for them to have their own special stand like the adults have.  We always talk about children being the “future” of the church but in truth they are the present, and they deserve this amenity.

Several years ago during our Lenten clergy retreat Fr. Calivas mentioned, in passing, that the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, which we celebrate during the week (not on weekends) during Lent, at one time had a connection with the marriage service in the Orthodox Church.  He mentioned this to show that there is more to the service than its penitential character, which is a big reason we celebrate it during the 40 days leading up to Holy Week.  The combination of the marriage service and the liturgy fell out of practice in the 8th or 9th century.  I imagine the spirit behind it was similar to the Roman Catholic tradition of having a wedding mass.  I have never been able to find anything about this connection online, which is amazing, but I did notice something the other night while celebrating the liturgy that is perhaps a remnant of the old practice; at the very least it is a strong connection.

During the part of the liturgy labeled “second setting of the psalter“, Psalm 127/128 is read.  These verses are also part of the wedding service.  They are sung with a refrain of “Glory to you O Lord, glory to you” right at the beginning of the crowing service.  Here is the psalm itself:

Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways. You shall eat of your hand’s labor: blessed are you, and it shall be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your house: your children like olive shoots around your table. Behold, in this way shall be blessed the man who fears the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Sion, and may you see the wealth of Jerusalem all the days of your life. And may you see your children’s children. Peace upon Israel!

The latest Facing East podcast is now up.  This time Fr. Peter and I recorded live from Zorba’s in Worcester.  As usual our discussion is all over the place but the talk did coincide with Lent so much of the discussion is centered around the season.  Check it out here.

I returned today from our annual Metropolis Clergy Lenten Retreat up at the retreat center on the grounds of our metropolis camp in Contoocook, NH (this partly explains my lack of blogging recently).  It was awesome but exhausting, in a good way.  We began with lunch on Tuesday, with the usual delicious (and fast friendly) food and hellos to old friends.  We then had our first of three sessions with Fr. Maximos, who is visiting from Mt. Athos.  Fr. Maximos spoke on the anaphora prayers of the liturgy of St. Basil (these are the prayers said by the priest from “let us stand well” to communion).  I had my notebook and did my best to write down everything he said – hopefully I will not need wrist surgery because it was intense:).  We broke for vespers and supper, had session two with Fr. Maximos, and then went back to the chapel for compline.  After compline there was some socializing and a hearty sleep for all (I roomed with Fr. Chris – they put the two Worcester boys together).  Several of us woke up early and went for a hike through the snow-covered trails in the 300 or so acres (mostly woods and water) that make up the campground.  The initial goal was to check out the area where our monastery may end up taking shape but we took a detour towards the center of the grounds.  We made it back safely and the rest of the retreat was basically 9th hour, presanctified liturgy (with His Eminence serving), breakfast and the final session with Fr. Maximos.  So it was a retreat but the focus was more on continuing education.  The bonding came during the breaks and the social time, and the church services helped with spiritual recharging.  Tomorrow I will write some about the presentation on the anaphora prayers.

We had a nice pan-Orthodox Sunday Of Orthodoxy vespers service tonight at St. George Cathedral in Worcester, with the newly elevated Bishop John presiding.  I was impressed that a group of Marlborough peeps came down for the service.  The hall at St. George features icons of all 12 member churches’ patrons, and we decided to take a picture in front of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, the Holy Anargyroi:

My birthday comes near the end of February – the 27th, so it was on Monday – and very often when people find this out they say “oh, you were almost a leap year baby!”.  It is a natural reaction, I suppose, but I have to chuckle and tell people that I was born in a non-leap year so I was actually nowhere close.  Leap day is a strange thing, though.  Of my 2900 or so friends on Facebook only one has a birthday on February 29.  There happens to be one or two days of the year where no birthdays pop up, and most days have between five and fifteen so, considering that every three out of four years there is _not_ a Feb. 29 then the numbers seem to make sense.

So what about the church calendar – who, if anyone, is commemorated on February 29?  St. John Cassian, a great church father (as well as a rare saint who seems to have a first and last name like a modern person) is celebrated on leap day.  He is also the name sake of His Grace Vicar Bishop Ion Casian of the Romanian Archdiocese.  His Grace is a wonderful man whom I met last fall when he visited Fr. Peter’s parish in Southbridge.  So does the Bishop only celebrate his name day once every four years?  Well, the feast moves to Feb. 28 in common years (unlike a birthday, which I imagine would be celebrated March 1 in common years since that would be 365 days later).  So a belated la multi ani/chronia polla to His Grace.

I received a text from Fr. Peter this morning that Davy Jones had passed away.  I immediately tweeted a RIP tweet and said he was on “the last train to Clarksville” (and yes, I know Mickey actually sang that one).  I have been meaning to write about the Monkees and unfortunately it took the sad news of Davy’s passing to get me to do it.  In music circles the Monkees are often criticized for not playing or writing their stuff and being a created group (the “Pre-Fab Four”).  In truth the boys were all musicians and entertainers, and ultimately did play on and write plenty of material after the first two albums.  And those initial albums had great session players and songs written by songwriters like Neil Diamond and Boyce & Hart.

The Monkees ultimately represent a transition from the pre-Beatles days of outside songwriters and session players to the era of full artistic control (and the perils therein) of the artists themselves.  There are lots of great songs in the Monkees’ discography.  Check out songs like Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow) – a great unknown Neil Diamond tune – on Youtube.  And RIP Davy Jones.  He initially was going to be the drummer for the band but the producers felt he would be lost behind the kit due to his diminutive size.  Also, his look inspired the Chekov character on Star Trek.  He added a lot of personality to the group and a distinctive voice.  Several issues ago one of my British music magazines did a feature on Randy Scouse Git (check out Davy on drums!) and had Davy saying something like “I tried to explain what it meant to them endlessly and they never understood it”.