Devshirme

The sun came out for a moment today – unbelievable after all this rain! – and I took advantage of the brief window to visit our composting barrel outside the house.  There was no way I was going out in the yard during the downpours so I could empty our kitchen scraps container.  So, mission accomplished.  If you are a Worcester resident you can buy a composter from the Dept. of Public Works for $35.   The idea is that, by composting, you cut down on trash output and garbage disposal usage and, eventually, you have some nice soil after the conqueror worm and the bugs have a chance to do their thing.  Here is a picture:

One of our Gospel readers for the Agape service this Sunday will be Jody Athanasiou, who will be reading from her grandmother’s Portuguese bible.  In preparation for this she has gone through many of her grandmother’s religious books and stuff and sent me some cool pictures – here is one:

We had a good Palm Sunday at the Cathedral.  As usual for a big holiday, we had a huge turnout.  Between giving communion and handing out palm crosses I did feel like my hand was going to fall off!  The Philoptochos had a bake sale – all those tsourekia and koulourakia that I blogged about last week – and to give you an idea of how quickly things sold, I saw no trace of them by the time I finally left church (admittedly, it took a while to get out).   We went afterwards to the Coral to celebrate Vaia’s name day, and as always on Palm Sunday after church the place was filled with parishioners.   I took a monster nap after going home and was fresh and ready for the Bridegroom service at night.  We had around 100 people at church in the evening – not bad for a traditionally low-attendance service.    One new wrinkle that we have added this year is having myrrh-bearers for all three Bridegroom services and not just for Sunday night.  You can read Fr. Calivas’s write-up on the these services here.

The Saturday of Lazarus (great article from Fr. Calivas here) went well at the Cathedral.  We had liturgy at 9 followed by several things going on at once – food pantry, choir practice, a Hebrew lesson (I am tutoring one of our college students) and the traditional Sunday School palm cross making.  Even Vaia got into the act – she made about ten, with much help from Mr. Constantinou.  It was great preparation for her name day.  I am looking forward to a joyous Palm Sunday at the Cathedral and then the launching of Holy Week in the evening…

The Holy Week schedule is up on the Cathedral website in both languages.  This was also sent out to everyone on the mailing list this week and was email-blasted today, I believe.  Actually, it is more than just the Holy Week schedule because it includes Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, which fall in the time period between Lent and HW, and the Life-Giving Fountain and Thomas Sunday liturgies, which are during the Easter season.   Speaking of Holy Week, our special seminars both went very well – we had a good attendance at both sessions (each seminar was the same but presented twice to give more people a chance to attend).  Now, on to the services!

The Philoptochos women, with a little assistance from the some of the men, continue to bake up a storm in anticipation of Easter.  I blogged last week about the 200 or so tsourekia (Easter sweet bread) that they had made.  Well, orders are up to 288, so they convened last night and are meeting today as well to make about 100 more.  They also made coulourakia last week – Joan told me it was 210 dozen, which comes out to…2520 cookies, minus however many were consumed during the process .  Some photos:

This is courtesy of Robert Irwin and his superfabulous book Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism & Its Discontents.  It is a serious work but there are many fun moments.  On page 30 he talks about the enthusiasm with which translators in Medieval Spain took on the works of Islamic science, including some of the more dubious sciences or pseudosciences:  “They translated works on astrology, alchemy, numerology, omplatoscopy (divination from the cracks on scorched sheep’s bones), geomancy (divination from marks in the sand) haruspication (divination from entrails), and similar recondite practices.”  A great read, and I highly recommend it.

The Orthodox liturgy, when done well, brings to mind heaven on earth.  Part of this is the smell of incense, of course.  Well, one could be forgiven for thinking he had entered heaven on earth if he came into the Cotsidas Auditorium today.  It was tsoureki baking time, and a force of Philoptochos women, along with some men, spent yesterday and today making 218 tsourekia.  The smell was indeed heavenly, even for a gluten-free person like me.  Philoptochos president Eleni G. said they will be convening to make more – such is the demand.  Here is a photo which is pretty similar to the ones I have put up in years past:

This Toyota Prius acceleration business brings to mind one of the (many) strange things that happened in the ’80s – the whole “Audis accelerated by themselves” phenomenon.  There is a good article by Walter Olson here comparing this Toyota episode with the Audi one.

One of the first grade Sunday School classes recently did a “Name Day Train” project.  Each car of the train has a little sign listing major name days for that month.  The poster in the back includes quotes from the students about what they think of God.  Check it out as you enter the Cathedral from the side door (and yes, that is Vaia in one of the pictures checking out the train