I had originally thought of reproducing the whole list of accomplishments in this space but it is just too long.  I couldn’t resist this one, though:

In cooperation with the late Nicholas Andromidas, who wrote an “Easter Miracle Play”, Fr. George participated in presenting the first Orthodox Easter program on CBS-TV over a national hook-up in 1957. The starring role was played by William Shatner of “Star Trek” fame. This program introduced our Church to Miss Pamela Llott, then Director who would later become VP of Religious Programming of CBS-TV. 

I have to say that the first thing that entered my mind, after the initial feeling of surprise and delight, was “I wonder if he will give up the location or the story of the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum stolen art???”.   Wouldn’t that be something?  Of course, this is assuming he was involved.  I recently read (on the NookColor) a very exciting mystery novel about the theft called Among Thieves by David Hosp.  Bulger is a big character in this book and his portrayal, I imagine, is pretty close to real life.  One detail that sticks out is he wanted to be called Jimmy rather than Whitey (and he seemed to get what he wanted).  The book has him, the IRA, and a bunch of others connected to the theft.  I then read a non-fiction account of the theft called The Gardner Heist – although it is non-fiction it too is a page-turner.  I highly recommend both of these books, and if you do read both I suggest you read them in the same order I did – fiction first followed by non-fiction.  The second book only mentions Bulger once, but of course until the crime is solved we will not know all of the details (and even then we may never get the whole story).

We all have a set of events where we remember exactly where we were when we heard about them.  I don’t know if today will make the grade, but it is indeed huge news and very good news – Bulger was/is by all accounts a horrible man.  As for the events in my lifetime where the memory of finding out is indelibly stamped upon me, they include President Reagan being shot, the Challenger explosion, Magic Johnson announcing he was HIV+, Kurt Cobain’s suicide, and 911.  Maybe the Osama Bin Laden capture will also join the ranks – we will see.

-Most importantly, it is All Saints Day.  The Eastern churches celebrate this on the Sunday after Pentecost and the Western churches celebrate on Nov. 1 (I went to Catholic schools and we always had this day off – nice!).

-Fr. Andrew Damick, a good friend as well as koumbaros, will be joining us along with his family.  After service he will do a book-signing of his latest book, the excellent Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy.  This is, I believe, Fr. Andrew’s fourth time serving at the Cathedral, so he is certainly no stranger.

-As always on Fathers Day we will honor high school and college graduates.  It is also Sunday School graduation.

-Summer hours officially start – orthros at 8:15, liturgy at 9:30.

-GOYA will be selling 3 liter tins of Agros olive oil after church.   This stuff is incredible – first cold press olive oil from Greece.  It is of the highest quality and, at $23 a tin, cheaper and better than what you would get at the grocery store.

Each culture also has its own particular gestures, while others seem to be universal.  The small clusters of people who speak ancient Greek in southern Italy actually have hand gestures different than their Italian-speaking neighbors – these gestures are closer to those used in Greece.  What a wonderful, interesting world in which we live!

Much of the later action takes place around Lake Issyk Kul (the term is a redundancy – kul or kol means lake in Kyrgyz and other Turkic languages).  The book mentions the remains of a Church Of The East (commonly called Nestorian, though that is a pejorative) monastery on the shores, and the Wiki article talks about an Armenian monastery.  The lake is close to the political border of China but it is really in the heart of the Turkic lands.  The Church Of The East missionaries back in the day were fired up for Christ, and spread the faith well into China and Mongolia – the Mongolian alphabet is very clearly an adaptation of the Assyrian, which is the language of the Church Of The East.  Christianity fell out of practice in those areas after the 14th century and today, sadly, the Church Of The East lives, as so many traditional eastern churches do, as a captive in its ancestral homeland, although there is a diaspora.

Another cool thing in the book is the passages that involve and talk about the Lee-Enfield rifle.  The Lee-Enfield is like the MiG-25 – super-cool, classic and still in limited use in some places.  Peter Hopkirk’s books on The Great Game (the struggle between Britain and Russia for supremacy in Central Asia during the colonial days) are must-reads for anyone who is into history, and his main tome on the matter has a classic Great Game image on the cover: a soldier using his Lee-Enfield as a stand for his telescope as he looks across the Kara Kol.

I like to mix up my reading, and these thrillers are fun end-of-the-day things to read before going to bed.  The problem is that they are page-turners, and the next thing I know I am up until 2am!  I have a busy week coming up (they all are, actually) but I will definitely make room for another Gibbins novel soon – good stuff.

Obviously, the situation is different these days – the average person’s biblical literacy is, from what I have seen, somewhere between vague and appalling.  My interest here is to focus on Orthodox Christians because, and let’s face it, many of us, especially those of us who grew up in the Church, are not very well versed in biblical matters.  This is pretty sad because a) the Bible is foundational to our faith, and Orthodoxy is a scriptural religion, b) the Bible is incredibly edifying, and c) we lose credibility when talking with evangelical protestants or whomever if we don’t know our scripture.  A quick story, with names changed to protect the not-so-innocent : When Rapheala was born and we told people her name, we got a great reaction and many questions on its origins.  This was a nice opportunity to talk about the Archangel Raphael and the Book of Tobit.  A friend expressed interest in reading the story – nice – so I handed her the good book.  She told me I would have to find the reference for her and I responded ” No way.  You are an Orthodox Christian.  I expect you to know the Bible inside and out.”  And she did indeed find the story and read it.  The good news – so to speak – here is that curing biblical illiteracy is easy.  Pick up the book and read.  Carve out an extra ten minutes a day – believe me, it is possible, and read it prayerfully.  Jump around  and just familiarize yourself with characters and stories.  As you become familiar with things you can start making connections.  The Bible is ultimately easy to understand but it is nice to have some guidance, whether from a church Bible study or helpful texts like Fr. Tarazi’s works.

At morn–at noon–at twilight dim-
Maria! thou hast heard my hymn!
In joy and woe–in good and ill-
Mother of God, be with me still!
When the hours flew brightly by,
And not a cloud obscured the sky,
My soul, lest it should truant be,
Thy grace did guide to thine and thee;
Now, when storms of Fate o’ercast
Darkly my Present and my Past,
Let my Future radiant shine
With sweet hopes of thee and thine!

I first had the idea to finally read the stories when we got a membership at BJs and I rolled the cart by the book section.  Everything was so cheap that I was like “I want this one!  I’ll buy that one!”.  You can imagine.  Well, I did see The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which contained 12 short stories.  I bought it, read it, and was hooked.  I was pleased to find these two complete volumes on Amazon for $6.95 each, ordered them, and began devouring the stories in between all my other readings.

The mysteries are very entertaining but not really the kind where you can anticipate the villain or the solution, which is often bizarre.  They are set in Victorian England but seem very fresh except for the ones involving mistaken identity such as A Case Of Identity, which strikes me as being ridiculous.  Then again, at one point I guess things like this did happen – I remember reading the true story of The Return of Martin Guerre in college.

The dialogue is outstanding and frequently more entertaining than the story itself.  Some examples of the Holmes wit:

“Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”

“To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”

“The dog did nothing in the night-time.”

“That was the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes.

(from Silver Blaze)

“It was all very confused.  Sir Charles had evidently stood there for five or ten minutes.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because the ash had twice dropped from his cigar”

“Excellent!  This is a colleague, Watson, after our own heart.”

(from The Hound of the Baskervilles)

“How do you know that?”

“I followed you.”

“I saw no one.”

“That is what you may expect to see when I follow you.”

(from The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot)

Holmes is also a man (as is Watson).  He smokes a pipe, has a drink socially, is a true gentleman yet capable of great feats of physical activity and courage.  He is comfortable with firearms and knows how to use them (and always with strong judgment).  He is heroic yet shuns fame and publicity and is modest about his gifts.  Holmes is equally at home in the bustling metropolis of London as well as the deepest countryside.  He is not after fortune but making his world (and the whole world, for some of his adventures involve foreign sovereigns) a better and safer place.

Great stuff.  The stories are the perfect length to read one here and another another night.  Again, it is bittersweet that I have finished them.  Perhaps on to Solar Pons?