Devshirme

Check out the enthronement (it is not an ordination) of Bishop Savas of Troas as Metropolitan Savas of Pittsburgh here.  His Grace is now His Eminence.  Metropolitan Savas has been a mentor of mine since I first met him at a visit to the seminary.   A tradition we have is to compare whatever books we are reading when we come into contact with each other – if someone that I know is to see him I always give that person a message with the correct information to pass on as well.  Axios indeed!

I came across this interesting article on a new recipe/food book that looks at how Greeks survived during the WWII German occupation.  The book makes a connection between the days of the occupation and the current crisis in Greece (I will refrain from commenting on the reasons for it as well as the behavior of people in Greece) and offers suggestions for getting through tough times.  Just the other day I was having a conversation with someone about the fact that Oxi Day is rightly celebrated as a day where free people stood up to an aggressor but in reality the Italian soldiers did not have their hearts in the fight – they would have their pictures taken with the Greek villagers and were pretty genial.  When the Germans swooped in, well, they were different.  They would pour kerosene on their leftovers so the Greeks wouldn’t eat it and God help you if you were caught hiding food or a chicken or something.

The resourcefulness Greeks showed in feeding themselves during the war is, like their standing up to Mussolini, a reflection of the ancient Greeks.  The ever-popular domades – stuffed grape leaves – were invented when Alexander’s troops destroyed Thebes.  To make the most of the meager amount of meat they had, they rolled it up with other stuff in grape leaves to make it seem more substantial.  Mezedes have never been the same…

Yesterday was the eve of the feast of St. Nicholas and that can mean only one thing in my universe – vespers in Clinton with two of my mentors and favorite people – Fr. Soterios Alexopoulos, Pastor Emeritus of both Nashua and Clinton, and Fr. Gregory Houlakis, a  hieromonk and archimandrite who splits his time between Pawtucket and Crete.  Fr. Gregory and I are in some ways the bookends of the Metropolis clergy – we are pretty much the youngest and the oldest priests and we are the only two named Gregory.  As always we had a wonderful time.  One of the many nice things about being at Sts. Anargyroi is that we are about 12 miles from the Clinton parish – hopefully we will have frequent opportunities for inter-parish ministry.  The picture below is from the reception after vespers – it was taken in the church basement but almost looks like it was taken on a porch in Greece.  I wish!

The Roving Reactor has some great posts on his blog about Cain (of Cain & Abel fame) and God’s rejection of his offering in the Genesis story – he also mentions how it would have been enjoyable talking to Saramago about this, and I totally agree, although unlike RR I would not have been able to hang with the conversation, since I don’t speak Portuguese: ).   So what is the story with Cain and his sacrifice?  The passage comes early in Genesis (read 4:1-16 for the story but it is best to read Genesis 2-5 to get the whole context).

Why does God reject Cain’s offer in the story?  Cain as a tiller of the ground worked the earth but it was not his – he was a steward of it but it belonged to God.  This parallels Adam, who was a steward of the garden and in fact his name drives this point even further home – Adam means man and the female form adamah means ground.  Cain and Abel both bring offerings to God.  In Genesis 1:29-30 God commands that the fruits of the earth are for all.  Cain did not, apparently, divide his offering up correctly (Gen. 4:7) and offer some to his brother, whose flocks are dependent on crops raised by Cain.  In any case, God chose one offering over another for either this reason or his own; it is his prerogative.  Cain did not have to react by killing his brother – it was merely that his offering was rejected.  As did Adam, Cain thought he had power over every other creature and acts as judge, jury and executioner on his brother, where only God is entitled to this power.  Abel was innocent in all of this and takes the fall.  Cain also acts rashly, which is not wise – he is unfit to be a master, even though he act like one.  Abel, whose name means breath, is an ephemeral character.  He never says a line, and then he is gone.  Cain, the killer, remains the focus of the story and ends up cursed by the ground, which is there to give life but has now received blood and death.  Cain wanders away from the garden of life meant for man from which man is banished, yet God, ever merciful, will protect him.

Abel, he of the momentary mention and passing, is also a crucial part of the story for us as Orthodox Christians.  He makes a reappearance in, of all places, the icon of the Resurrection.  Young and beardless, he stands to the side of Christ.  He was the first victim of the consequence of sin and has now been redeemed.

I have posted stuff from Nina Shea before – she writes tirelessly about Christian minorities throughout the world.  Here is a scary round-up of recent events in Pakistan.

It is hard to believe that my first month at Sts. Anargyroi has come and gone!  We began the month with the church’s feast day activities which this year included my installation and ended the month with the very successful Festival of Trees.  In between I have gotten to visit with and meet a lot of parishioners and we had four rather enjoyable Sundays as well as a few weekday services, some meetings, and a few other things.

Along with getting to know a new parish comes getting to know a new city.  I have been to Marlborough many times, of course, but it is different now where I am there most every day.  The church is in the heart of the downtown area and I discover something new seemingly every day.  Last night I took a break from hanging out at the Festival of Trees and walked down to the Christmas tree lighting ceremony on the common.  The event was fun and I met a bunch of people, but the highlight for me was seeing John Brown’s bell.  Read the story of it here.  I had no idea about this being in Marlborough!  I was going to joke here that as a Southerner I had thoughts of reclaiming the bell for the homeland but it seems that the bell, like John Brown himself, is a lightning rod of controversy and last year some people indeed tried to take it and bring it to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia.  In any case, I plan to walk down there another day to read the plaque and take some pictures, but there you go.

I am writing this as I download my newly purchased copy of the Beach Boys Smile LP on iTunes.  I am not a huge audiophile; I realize that mp3s are compressed but I appreciate the instant delivery and availability of the music – given my druthers I would fire up vinyl as often as possible for the truest fidelity.  You can catch up on the history of Smile here.    Some thoughts on Smile…

-Smile has always been considered the greatest lost album of all time, partly due to the fact that Brian destroyed some of the tapes.  However, it has been possible to put together a decent facsimile of what may have been intended as the final release due to the abundance of bonus CD tracks that have been released as well as the fact that many of the songs have been put out in various forms – singles, album tracks with modifications, etc. – through the years.  I actually put together a mix earlier this year based on my calculations for what Smile would have sounded like.

-Brian put out a newly-recorded version of Smile a few years back which was pretty well received.  This has become the model for how Smile would have been structured.

-Brian and the Beatles were, in a friendly fashion, inspired by each other and in friendly competition in the mid-sixties.  Brian’s work has been a huge, huge influence on many indie, Americana and other alternative acts these days; the Beatles of course are in their own category for this sort of thing.

-I am, admittedly, a huge Beatles fan, so take the following with a grain of salt: I give the crown to the Beatles hands down.  Smile is great but it does indeed sound very much a product of its time, as do many moments of Pet Sounds.  The Beatles recordings from that period – Revolver especially and Sgt. Pepper – do not sound dated in the least, whether due to lack of reverb, less daring explorations, whatever.

And whatever.  Smile is worth seeking out as a good listening experience and a huge piece of classic rock history.

Today the Metropolis of Boston celebrated its feast day – St. Andrew is our patron saint.  There was vespers last night and orthros and liturgy this morning at the Metropolis in the Cathedral chapel.  Customarily the Roman Catholic bishop attends and has often preached in years past.  This year Bishop Arthur Kennedy was there representing Cardinal O’Malley.  Rev. Laura Everett was also in attendance – she is the new Executive Director of the Mass. Council of Churches.  This is a picture of them with Metropolitan Methodios at the reception after vespers:

The intrepid Sal Ferriera has hooked me up with some good follow-up links on the issue of what language was spoken when St. Paul landed in Malta – check them out here and here (obrigado, Sal!).

The common wisdom is that Arabic, as spread during the onset of Islam, only displaced other Semitic languages but never really dislodged non-Semitic tongues.  Makes sense, but I would argue it never totally displaced the Semitic languages either.  People in Iraq and Morocco do not, for example, speak Central Arabian Arabic.  They largely speak their original language with a thick Arabic veneer.  When Mel Gibson’s The Passion Of The Christ movie came out some years back I went to see it with a group from the seminary, and I was curious if my Levantine school chums would be able to understand the Aramaic spoken in the movie.  Despite the European pronunciation from the characters, they did indeed understand most of what was spoken.  Levantine Arabic is pretty much Aramaic (more properly Assyrian) with a huge influence of Arabic proper.

Using this model it is quite likely that the original Phoenician tongue on Malta has survived and developed through the years and absorbed vocabulary and influences from other languages.  I imagine Paul would have either spoken Aramaic with his Punic interlocutors and eventually come to an understanding, or he would have had a strained, very formal conversation in biblical Hebrew and hopefully both parties would figure it out.

The latest issue of Sofia – our monthly ‘zine – came out today.  Copies should be arriving in the mail soon, and they are available in the narthex.  The website will have the December issue up at the beginning of the month.  Here is an excerpt from my article (the Santa picture I reference can be found here):

American Christmas largely developed through the popular reception of the writings of Washington Irving and Charles Dickens.  Traditions like Christmas trees, Santa Claus, and yule logs are largely German or Germanic in origin, and were popularized by those writers.  Even before their time, the many German- and Dutch-speaking enclaves in the Colonies and early America celebrated with these traditions.  Santa Claus is a combination of St. Nicholas and Father Christmas, a religious figure with pagan origins going back to the Anglo-Saxon god Woden, the equivalent to the Norse god Odin and the source of the word Wednesday (Woden’s Day).  Santa Claus today appears rather cartoonish, with his red suit and boots and hat, but if you look at depictions of him going back a few centuries you can see the evolution from his religious roots.  The attached illustration of Father Christmas from the late 17th century could almost have been copied from an Orthodox icon of St. Nicholas.  The name Santa Claus itself comes from the saint, and he was known for his generosity and gift-giving.  Forget the elves and North Pole stuff; Santa Claus is a modern depiction of our saint and offers us a teaching tool as we return to the religious roots of Christmas.