Devshirme

Vacation Church School ended today and was a smashing success.  Here is the lowdown: Greg Abdalah, the youth director at St. George Cathedral, started the program last year as a St. George program and with an eye to expanding it to be a Council of Eastern Orthodox Churches program this year.  We had 29 kids from St. George, St. Mary and our Cathedral and they all can’t stop talking about it.  The theme was Champions And Defenders.  From Wednesday up until Saturday the kids came from 9-12 at St. George and learned about various saints and martyrs of the church.  Each day began with a service in a “catacomb church” – basically, St. George’s meeting room decked out in black and darkened to resemble a cave.  They then had sessions where they did activities and lessons.  Snacks were provided by the Men’s Club.  Today – Saturday – we had the morning sessions.  The campers returned for vespers at 5, and then everyone rolled to Fitton Field for a picnic at the Worcester Tornadoes game.  Most of the campers wore their new VCS shirts (as did I over my priest shirt) and everyone had a great time.  Two of our group even got to take part in the pie eating contest.  I had the girls and brought them both to their first ever ballgame.  This meant a lot to me since I am a huge sports fan and have fond memories of going to games with my ‘rents.  Vaia enjoyed her hot dog and the game but was utterly terrified by the sight of Twister (just as she is by Wally the Green Monster).  Raphaela, meanwhile, managed to do something I have not been able to do in my 37 years on this mortal coil- get a foul ball.  During warmups we were in the picnic area down the left field line and a ball came in and bounced and landed right under her stroller.  (I think everyone gets a foul ball at this place – the stands are right on top of the diamond and the setup makes Fenway seem like Riverfront Stadium).

The program was a great success.  We may do one-day ones during school vacation – we will see.  We will definitely do another camp next August so stay tuned.  Here is a picture of Raphaela’s souvenir.  If she follows in Daddy’s footsteps and collects baseball cards and memorabilia then this will be the first item in her collection:

Last week, on one of those super hot summer days here in Worcester, I had a crazy and unpleasant adventure.  It was one of those days where I was zipping around to the different hospitals to visit parishioners.  On the way back from Memorial Hospital my coolant light dinged and lit.  I was near Elm Street and thus not too far from the Cathedral, as well as not too far from Takis & Sons, my go-to foreign auto mechanics.  I looked at the temperature gauge and it rocketed to the red zone.  Oh no!  My mission focus kicked in, and I drove straight to the church, since I had some stuff to take care of there.  I parked in a shady spot (like that would help), turned off the engine, and opened the hood.  I called Takis and he told me let the engine cool off for 20 minutes or so, turn it back on and see where the guage was.  If it was not in the red zone, drive it (the 3/4 of a mile/mile) to his shop.  If it hit the red zone en route, pull over and wait again.  So I had a nerve-wracking, knuckle-clenched, hunched-over-the-steering-wheel ride to Takis’s place, but the needle stayed midway and never reached the red zone.  The weird engine sounds which had begun on Elm Street, before I reached the church, kicked in and got louder.  But thankfully I reached his shop without the engine blowing up or anything else I feared might happen.  The damage from what was probably a busted thermostat on such a hot day?  The water pump, serpentine belt and belt tensioner all were toast, and the antifreeze tank was blown to smithereens.  Thankfully Takis took care of things that evening and the Jetta (and I) were back on the road the next morning.

Last night I set up an account on Twitter for the Cathedral.  You can keep track of our goings-on by following @StSpyridon.  I have a personal Twitter account – @FrXtakos – which I use for my own silly musings and ramblings, but the idea behind the Cathedral handle is that it will be used for announcing upcoming events, cancellations, maybe a weekly name day roundup, that sort of thing.  It is important for us as a Cathedral to embrace New Media stuff in all its forms, and Twitter is right up there with blogs, texting, podcasts, and Facebook.  Everything helps us get the word out.  So if you are on Twitter, please follow @StSpyridon.  If you are not, please at least check out the site and consider signing up.

Yesterday John L. was taking pictures inside the Cathedral for the planned Holy Trinity calendar (with pictures from all 12 Council churches).  Serena was there along with George Photakis, who was early for a baptism, and we spent some time chatting about the old church on Orange Street.  Both the church and the street are long gone – they were located where the Worcester library is.  I mentioned that I have never seen pictures of the interior of the old church, although there are several exterior shots hung in the Cathedral hallway.  Both George and John’s parents were married there, so we figured out at least wedding photos exist to show what it looked like.  George then started talking about the building of the Cathedral and, while looking at the stained glass windows, I noticed a mistake in one of them.  Can you pick it out?

Yesterday we filmed a segment for Coffee With Konnie at the Cathedral – specifically,  right outside the front doors of the church.  Nick. B, Nick M. and I sat and chatted with Konnie Lukes and had a grand old time.  The subject was the festival and all that goes into it.  It was cool filming outside on what really was a perfect day.  The show will air next week at its usual times – check out the website.  It is hard to believe we are less than two weeks away from the Grecian Festival!  The Office Angels were doing a mailing at the same time as our interview, and the camera man thought it would be nice to get a shot of them showing off some of the products of their baking.  The ladies were reluctant to go on camera at first, out of modesty, but after much hemming and hawing, and nagging from me, they were filmed and all had a splendid time.  Here is a picture that I snapped:

The program book is up on Sarah’s blog – check it out.  All involved did a great job – Sarah spearheaded the effort with four young children, including a newborn, at home – unbelievable!  The original content is fun and the ads are beautifully set out – advertisers definitely got their money’s worth and more.  Printed versions will be out soon as well.  Hard to believe the Grecian Festival will be upon us in just a few weeks.

Fr. Dean and I recently noticed that the corpus from the big cross behind the altar had more than its share of nicks, dings and lipstick stains from people reverencing it, so we contacted the talented Melina Barber, who graciously agreed to do some restoration work on it.  Melina is a gifted artist and decorator (if you have visited the Flying Rhino you will know what I mean) and she can add icon restoration to her list of skills.  This is a picture of Melina doing some restoration on the corpus while it remains down from the cross until we put it back the day before the Ascension.  She will also at some point in the near future take care of the many lipstick stains on the iconostasis.  Vexingly, the chemical content of many kinds of lipstick means that these stains are very difficult to safely remove.  We are blessed to have people like Melina and the many others who selflessly give their time and skills to the Cathedral.

Thursday morning I rolled to Venerini Academy to read to Sister Roberta’s 5th grade class.  They were having some sort of community reading day thing, and I was invited by Pam G., who is one of the school’s parent-volunteers.  A bunch of us (including a Coast Guard Band musician, an attorney, etc.) were matched up with a specific class and had an hour to talk to the students and read something of our own choosing.  I am not really connected with the pop-culture world of 5th graders, but I figured there was some interest in vampire literature.  Surely enough, when I asked the students what they read, they all answered Twilight and Vampire Diaries.  I told them I had the granddaddy of them all – Dracula – and read a few excerpts from the beginning (Harker arrives at the Castle, the shaving incident, and Harker seeing the Count crawl down the castle wall head-first).  We had a great discussion about suspense, the purpose of the author going into detail of the scenery, etc., and good and evil.  The novel remains a model of the stark difference between good and evil, whereas these modern vampire novels have a different agenda.  The students were fabulous and totally into it. 

After reading to the class I was brought to the library and chatted with some of the mothers, who offer their time to the school with enthusiasm and generosity,  as well as the staff.  The whole experience reminded my of my Catholic elementary school experience – volunteers helping the understaffed school, as well as the astonishing demands on elementary school teachers.  One teacher has the same students all day long and has to make science, math, history, English and whatever else interesting and relevant to high-energy students who are inside for much of the day. 

A final note – we have many Cathedral kids at Venerini, and I got to see a bunch of them.  One particular highlight was seeing Lia M. in her Latin class.  Yes, Latin is required at the school.  I floated the idea of Lia reading the gospel in Latin at next year’s Agape service, and have no doubt she would make a great reader.

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: