Devshirme

Friday night is Christmas eve, and we have service at 6:30pm.  I will leave my house around 5:30 or so for the easy minute ride to the church.  Once there, I will unlock the doors, turn on the lights, greet the early birds, and generally fuss around to make sure everything is alright.  At some point I will go play on the computer in the office and check Facebook, my blog, and my email.  By 6:15 I will be ready to rock and looking forward to a joyous night with thousands of parishioners attending the service.  Afterwards, we will have a nativity play on the soleas of the church with Sunday School students, including my lovely older daughter as one of the many little sheep, acting in the roles and doing the readings.  No doubt everyone will afterward go home or to friends’ and relatives’ places for further celebration.

Such is Christmas in Worcester, and indeed America, where life is good, despite whatever the latest problem out of Washington or the media is.  There is a cultural war on Christmas, but it is something in which we as Christians do not need to take part; a town can remove a creche or erect a “holiday” tree, but it has no effect on my faith and indeed probably makes my practice stronger.  This is America, our chosen land which has also chosen to welcome us.  It is not the same in many places for Christians, especially those, like me and my fellow Cathedral members, of the eastern persuasion.  My friend George posts updates everyday on Facebook about the status of Christians in Iraq, a cradle of Christianity where Christians now live under siege.  The following is a message from a bishop about the situation:

Baghdad (AsiaNews) – Midnight Christmas Mass has been cancelled in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk as a consequence of the never-ending assassinations of Christians and the attack against Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral on 31 October, which killed 57 people. For security reasons, churches will not be decorated. Masses will be sombre and held during the day.

A sense of sadness and mourning prevails among Christians. There is much concern for the future of young people. For the past two months, they have been unable to go to university. The same is true for many families that fled north who now must plan a future without any concrete bases.

No one expects anything from the government as far as protecting Christians. Political leaders are too caught up in setting up a new administration.

Security is slightly better in Kirkuk than in the capital, but here too abductions and threats occur. For this reason, we have decided for the first time since the war began not to celebrate Midnight Mass. We shall simply not have any feast, period. Santa Claus will not be coming for the children; there will be no official ceremony with the authorities proffering their best wishes.

For the past six weeks, we have not celebrated Mass because of a lack of security, except late in the morning and Saturday afternoons. For now, we have also stopped teaching the catechism.

We do not have the right to put people’s lives in danger. All our parish churches have security guards, but when worshippers step outside the church and into the street, they become an easy target.

Yet, despite everything, we shall pray for peace this Christmas and help the poor families of Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah. So far, 106 families have arrived from Baghdad and Mosul.

In my homily, I am going to focus on such problems, on the clashes and on people’s fears but also on the fact that Christmas brings a message of hope. Of course, heaven and earth are two different realities. The Massacre of the Innocents followed Christmas. Thus, for us in Iraq, Christmas is a time of hope and joy as well as pain and martyrdom.

Peace is a goal that people of good will should make happen. If we Christians want to be Christian and welcome Christmas and its message, we must be peacemakers, and build harmony among our Iraqi brothers and sisters.

* Chaldean bishop of Kirkuk

This is the sermon Metropolitan Methodios gave at the Cathedral for the feast day vespers (I know I said I would not blog about that weekend again but here I go).  You can also read it on the Metropolis website.  As always, his homily is filled with challenges for all of us who call ourselves Christians:

To the Rev. Clergy and devout laity of the Metropolis of Boston:

Beloved children of the Incarnate Savior,

This Christmas, I will kneel together with you before the manger of Bethlehem to worship the Word of God, “Who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man”.  This Christmas, we will relive the sublime mystery that, “though he was in the form of God…he emptied himself taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2, 6-7).   Jesus comes this Christmas as a radiant light to shine upon “a people who walk in darkness, who dwell in the country of the shadow of death” (Isaiah 9, 1-2).

The light emanating from the manger is the Savior of the world.  Christ the Incarnate Lord breaks through the gloom of despair to dispel the darkness, to enable us to understand the meaning and the value of human life.  In the silence and the darkness of the night, the light emanating from the cradle is the source of hope, of renewal and of salvation.

Sadly, modern man, too preoccupied with his self perceived importance, will not see that light.  He will not have room in his life for Christ to be born, because he needs his space for his own interests.   He has no time for God or for his neighbor….the poor, the suffering, the hungry, the homeless.    This is especially true of those who are rich in material things.  Their space is filled with their selves—there’s no room for others.  Indeed, “He came to his own and his own did not receive him” (John 1, 11).  The Word of God enters into the world, but He is not noticed.  He is not received.  He is ignored.  Indeed, many of us live as if Christ the Savior was never born.

Let us ask ourselves this Christmas: Do we have room in our hearts for the Son of God or for our neighbor?  Do we have room in our lives for those who suffer, or is all our space cramped with our narcissistic interests, our sinful thoughts and desires?

My brothers and sisters,

“To all who received him he gave the power to become children of God” (John 1, 12).   I join you in praying that the Divine Infant finds space in our hearts and in those of brethren throughout the world, so that every human being may come to know the power of His saving Grace.  He alone can transform evil into good and darkness into light.

May the light of Bethlehem radiate wherever the horizons are bleak with despair — in Iraq and Iran, in Afghanistan, in Korea, in Darfur.  May it shine in America’s cities and neighborhoods. May the light of Christ shine wherever human rights and dignity are trampled upon.  May it shine wherever suffering seems to be interminable.  May it shine wherever the selfishness of individuals prevails over the common good.  May it shine where the exploitation of man by his fellow man is taken for granted.  May the light from the cradle shine wherever terrorism continues to strike, and the basic needs of day to day survival are insufficient.  May it shine especially in the hearts of those who live only to satisfy their selfish interests.

This Christmas, let us be drawn to the light which dispels sadness and fear.  Let us approach the manger in humility, that our hearts and souls may be filled with hope, peace and salvation.   May the Incarnate Lord choose our hearts to be born this Christmas.  May He embrace us in His cradle, and may His divine light radiate in our hearts every day of the New Year.

Metropolitan Methodios

Tomorrow is the Sunday before Christmas, and on the Eastern Orthodox calendar this means the reading is Matthew 1:1-25.  This pericope is extraordinary for many reasons, but part of its charm is that the long list of names and the repetition lures people into not paying attention, and yet therein lies the key – there is a reason all the names are rattled off.  More tomorrow on this.

I spent some time this morning getting the church ready for liturgy tomorrow.  I have had several conversations, and I think I have even blogged about this, regarding the fact that in our society we start the Christmas season during Advent, whereas Lent leading to Easter legitimately feels like Lent.  We celebrate Christmas after having basically celebrated it for a month.  But I have to say that liturgically at least it does feel like Advent.  We have, as we do in Lent, a lead-up to the holiday\holy day, but it is not as intense as Lent and Holy Week services.  Church is in this sense a refuge from the holiday madness that everyone seems to get caught up in.  I am looking forward to tomorrow and my favorite gospel pericope – see you then…

Yesterday afternoon was the annual Greek School Advent party.  The PTA provided the food – the picture below shows some of the dozens of pizza that were donated – as well as the decorations and help for the event.  We had an opening prayer – with the students thunderously reciting the Lord’s Prayer in Greek – and then, after the food, a special presentation of icons to the students in the senior class.  And Santa, or rather Agios Vasilios (St. Basil, the Greek Santa) himself made an appearance to distribute gifts to the students.  The children and their hard-working teachers have been diligently practicing for this Sunday’s Greek School Christmas program, so the party was a nice break.  The program this year will be held in the church at 4pm rather than in the under-construction auditorium.  This is very appropriate, for the poems, songs, and skits that the students perform are all solemnly religious, as is appropriate for the Advent season.  Please come by if you can to support our students.

Saturday was a typical busy Saturday at the Cathedral, with an added wrinkle – we had our festal vespers that night with the Metropolitan coming, so there was even more activity than usual.  As promised, here are some pictures from the day.

This is the new Founders Court looking all nice for the evening reception.  Again, the Philoptochos ladies did an awesome job:

Here are Soula and Chrisoula from the Greek School PTA getting things ready for the upcoming Greek School Christmas program:

Prez spearheaded a showing of The Nativity Story, and we had a good turnout of about 30 people of all ages:

Since it was a Saturday morning, that meant the Orthodox Food Pantry was in full operation.  Here is a shot of the grocery preparation.  One of my favorite parts of our remodeling plan is the new dedicated space for the Pantry.  Right now, like every other ministry, we are doing the best we can in a makeshift space:

Our patron saint St. Spyridon truly has a wry sense of humor.  Two years ago we had the cataclysmic ice storm here in Worcester and other parts of New England, including my urheimat, the Merrimack Valley.  And today the feast…this morning, I left the house around 8am for orthros and liturgy.  I was driving the Jetta rather than the 4-wheel drive CRV.  I had received a few tweets from Fr. Peter but wasn’t too worried.  I drove to the end of our street (a steep hill) and was soon floundering, along with 8 other cars.  I got out, barely avoided falling down, and figured out pretty quickly that I was going nowhere slowly.  I called Fr. Dean to let him know I would probably miss orthros.  Eventually, a heroic neighbor came out with two salt dispensers and walked up and down the road spraying out calcium chloride.  I got purchase, inched up the hill in reverse, and made my way very slowly – turning a usual 10 minute Sunday morning ride into 30 minutes – to the Cathedral.  A crazy morning…there were sirens all over town like it was the apocalypse.  The black ice fooled everyone – it looked like it was merely raining but once you hit the road forget it.  Once at church I posted about the conditions on Facebook.  We still had a great turnout, and with Fr. Ephraim joining us we had four chalices for communion, which was awesome.  He also talked about the Glastonbury Thorn in the opening story to his sermon.   We had a forty-day blessing followed by the Senior Group’s lunch – and there is no group more fun than the seniors – and later in the day a Metropolis gathering.  And now I am once again ultimate toast.  The pictures I promised yesterday will be fired up tomorrow.

What a wonderful night!  I just came home from the festal vespers for the feast of Saint Spyridon, the patron saint of our Cathedral.  We had a busy day at the church – I will post pictures and blog about it tomorrow.  His Eminence traditionally comes to this service as well as Agape Sunday, and we welcomed him this evening.  We gave him a quick tour of the new and refurbished areas of the campus, and then we had the service.  There was a choir from the seminary who augmented His Eminence’s chanting as well as that of our chanters.  The Metropolitan preached in both Greek and English, and then we had a nice reception in the Founders Court.  The Philoptochos ladies as usual outdid themselves.  Tomorrow we have the usual Sunday liturgy but of course it is extra-special because it is the feast of the Cathedral.  Fr. Ephraim will be joining us so we may have as many as five priests serving, which will be awesome.
That is about all I have in me tonight.  Check out the Orthodoxwiki article here about St. Spyridon – it is always good to refresh our knowledge of his story on this day – and pay special attention to the picture of the relics which was taken by my koumbaros Fr. Andrew at our Cathedral several years ago.

This is always an exciting time in the Cathedral, and also Orthodox, universe – the feasts of Sts. Nicholas and Spyridon, always falling within a week of each other, and then two weeks later Christmas.  Last Sunday night I rolled to Clinton to celebrate the vespers service for the parish saint St. Nicholas.  They had a long day there – liturgy in the morning with the Metropolitan followed by a dinner.  That night seemingly half the people there were Spyridonistas, which was nice.  The venerable Fr. Soterios Alexopoulos, who was Prez’s priest growing up, was the host, and archimandrite Fr. Gregory Houlakis was the main celebrant.  Fr. Gregory gave the invocation and we paused, waiting for the chanter to read the psalm.  Nothing happened, so Fr. Soteri looked up at me and I launched into it.  As it turned out, there was no chanter at all so the three of us handled everything.  It was a challenge and very fulfilling.

It was wonderful to serve with two long-suffering priests to whom I look up and cherish as mentors.  When I was a seminarian I would occasionally see Fr. Soteri and he would always heartily exclaim “Come to Clinton!!!”, meaning come visit on a Sunday when he is there.  He has been a tremendous example to me – if there are multiple priests he often likes to play the role of altar boy – he is a man without ego.  Fr. Gregory and I are the only priests with this name in the Metropolis, and we kind of represent two ends of the spectrum.  He was ordained in 1953 and I in 2005, and we are each among the oldest and youngest priests respectively in the Metropolis.  It is an honor to serve with both of these men, and may God continue to bless them and their ministry.  Here they are in the altar as we milled around before the service:

The entryway into the auditorium is being redone, and, as you can see from the frames, the design on the wall will, sadly, be covered up.  I am always surprised by how rarely people pick up on the Star of David pattern.  I have no idea if this was intentional in the original design or if it was merely meant to be a pattern of triangles which, when arranged this way, would of course result in a six-pointed star.  I don’t have much pull in the building project, but I will definitely work on our architect to somehow recreate this design elsewhere in the plans.  Here is what will probably be the last photo of the pattern for many, many years:

I spoke yesterday at our clergy meeting on the theme of The Absent Parishioner.  There were two other speakers as well, and we all talked for around 5-10 minutes.  There was a short story read about a priest visiting someone who had stopped going to church, and then we all kind of riffed off of that.  I began by mentioning that I was speaking at a hospice memorial program that night and I hoped I did not have an Ovaltine moment, which got some laughs.  I also said that much of what I was going to say was Worcester-specific, but hopefully everyone could glean something from it.

Who is an absent parishioner?  By definition it is someone associated with the church who is not around.  I identified some different groups:

-People who are mad at the priest or the church for some reason.  Since I was addressing a room of seasoned clergy, I didn’t feel the need to go into this one – they know how to handle it.

-Young, unmarried people in their 20s and 30s – the “disappear when they go to college crowd”.  We wrongly assume that they automatically return when they get married and start having kids.  So, how to bring them back into the fold?  As with all other categories, the personal touch is key.  The priest needs to reach out.  Relatives and friends need to invite them to church.  I stressed the importance of social media like Facebook.  It is personal enough – you can contact anyone who is on and accepts your friend request – and impersonal enough – people are comfortable sending a message when they would not be comfortable calling the church to ask a question – to be very effective.  It is also the main means of communication, along with texting, of this age group.  I also invoked the Archbishop Christodoulos method – “I come to your place, you come to mine.”  I talked about how I go to the Greek Nights at local restaurants sometimes and how I play ball with the guys on Monday night.  I urged them to start coming once Sunday a month with their friends and then have brunch together afterward, and then we build from there.

-Immigrants who have not been baptized but have family members who have.  We have many people from Albania – Albanian and Greek mostly – who were not baptized but have been to the Cathedral for events and understand their family background is Orthodox.  This group differs from the others because they are often eager to become part of the faith and will often come to us.  I talked about the importance of at least having a reading knowledge of another Orthodox language to throw in during sacraments – people really appreciate the effort.

-The final group I mentioned is the outermost concentric circle of people involved in the church.  This ranges from those who would come twice a year and have since stopped to people baptized at the Cathedral who stopped coming ages ago and have nothing to do with the church.  These are the people we meet at mercy meals and sacrament reception.  I emphasized the importance (for many reasons) of attending these events – some priests don’t go to any on the idea that if you go to one you must attend all and people wouldn’t understand if you couldn’t go, but that is not at all true – and how this is where we meet such people.  This is where you start building the relationship, find the person on Facebook, identify talents they may have, and reach out to them.

I finished with three case studies where people have come back to the church to various degrees.  Not everyone is going to end up an every-Sunday attendee but we are all works in progress, and the most important thing is reaching out and letting people know the church is always there for them.