Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware)

Well, in my first week as a deacon, I got to serve with Bishop Atanasije (Jevtic). In the second week, I served with Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware)—in short, two of the most influential living theologians. What’s up for next week? ( :

As I’ve mentioned before, our beloved neighbors, the Lillies, moved here from England about 35 years ago. The priest who brought them into Orthodoxy at Oxford was (then) Archimandrite Kallistos (Ware). They’ve been friends ever since.

On Saturday, His Eminence came to visit Greece again, and because we have a car (thanks to you all!), I had the opportunity to offer him a service and pick him up at the airport. He then wanted to stop at a small exhibit in Thessaloniki featuring artists who have painted the Holy Mountain. The exhibit was deserted on Saturday afternoon, but there were some very nice pieces, including some by Kontoglou and Pentzikis.

Afterwards, we came back to Panorama. He stayed at a friend’s place here in Panorama, just about a block from our apartment. He had dinner with the Lillies, and then Pelagia and I joined them for coffee and desert. It was a delightful time—he was full of humorous stories about his early days as an Orthodox convert in Greece and the island of Patmos.

On Sunday morning, I drove His Eminence downtown to St Haralambos, which is a dependency (metohi) of the Holy Monastery of Simonas Petras on the Holy Mountain. This is a very popular church, especially among the international community. I was privileged to serve at the Liturgy there with him (see photo). I even did one litany in English.

After the Liturgy, he headed off to visit the women’s monastery of Ormylia and, after that, to Simonas Petras and the Holy Mountain.

On another note, here are some more photos from the ordination in Belgrade, taken by our friend Brendan who went with us. Most of the photos are from the ordination. A few are from the celebration that followed, and the last couple are from visiting with our friends around Belgrade the next day.

Christmas Day in Panorama

The first short video clip is from the Divine Liturgy on Christmas morning, at our local parish here in Panorama, St George’s. Pelagia took this video from the balcony of me doing a litany.

The bottom photo and video are from the Christmas party we hosted at our house on the evening of Christmas Day. We had friends—about 12 or 15 Americans and Greeks—over to our house for drinks, desserts, and a White Elephant gift exchange. One of our friends, Herman Middleton, organized a sing-along of Christmas songs. After we sang some American songs, we asked our Greek friends to sing some Greek Christmas carols. In the bottom video, our friend Nektarios, the son of a Byzantine music professor at the university here, sings one of these beautiful songs.

I have to comment here just briefly on how profound communal singing can be. We’ve noticed that it is an integral part of the culture both in Serbia and here. It has quite a unifying effect on the community. It’s a shame our American culture doesn’t do more of it!

Christmas Caroling

On Christmas Eve day, a Greek family (including brothers, sisters and cousins) goes around Panorama, to anyone who asks them, and sings Christmas carols. Our neighbors, the Lillies, always have them to their house, and we went next door to share in the festivity. I took this short video of one of their songs.

From Herzegovina Back to Belgrade

Back at the monastery, we stopped in the bookstore and picked up a few gifts, including as much wine and rakia as we thought we could get away with carrying on the plane.

Bishops Gregorije and Atanasije and most of the monks of the monastery were standing outside with Bishop Maxim as he prepared to leave. When we pulled in, Deacon Zoran’s wife commented that it looked like they might go play soccer!

I said, “Who?! The monks?” She said, smiling, “Oh yes. And guess who always has to win? Bishop Atanasije. They give him the ball and let him kick it into the goal.” The whole place was filled with this kind of simple joy. It was amazing.

Finally, we went to take the bishops’ blessings as we left, and they let me get a photograph with them (see top). In that photo, Bishop Atanasije had just given me a “beating”—he jokes that he’s infamous for beating deacons.

Then we were off. Again, we drove out of Bosnia & Herzegovina, and into Croatia. This time, we stopped at a lookout over the famous seaside city of Dubrovnik (see the second and third photos of Bishop Maxim and Pelagia taking in the beautiful view.)

Then it was back across the border into Montenegro, and the short ferry ride over to the airport in Tivat (see the last photo of Yulia as we waited for the ferry).

The plane was supposed to leave at 4:10 and we arrived at 4:05. By God’s grace, we made it! The plane from Belgrade was about 30 minutes late, so we actually were right on time.

When we got back in Belgrade, we had parked our car in the airport garage. Bishop Maxim was late for a meeting, so we offered to take him wherever he needed to go. He wanted to drive, though—wow, that was an adventure! ( :

We told him that if he hadn’t become a bishop, he would have made an excellent taxi driver! ( ;

Finally, we were back at Lepa and Nebojsa’s house, where we met up with Brendan and had a lovely dinner and conversation.

Early the next morning, Thursday, we headed back to Greece, all of us convinced that we must come back very soon. The drive was about 9 or 10 hours because of the holiday traffic once we hit Thessaloniki (normally it’s about 8 hours). After dropping Brendan off, we arrived home around 9 PM, exhausted. Our neighbors, the Lillies, had very kindly prepared us dinner to welcome us home.

The Whirlwind Tour of Trebinje

After the Liturgy and the meal, we had a few hours before we had to begin the trip back to Belgrade. Deacon Zoran and his wife, a Serbian-American, kindly took us on a whirlwind tour of the area.

Even though Belgrade was very cold and snowy, the temperature in Herzegovina, near the cost, was completely different. It was sunny and (relatively) warm by comparison, and the landscape was beautiful.

Before we headed out from the monastery to visit the city of Trebinje, we first took a peak at the monastery’s winery operation, which was surprisingly extensive. (See the top photo.) They have modern top-of-the-line equipment from Italy and have a capacity of 350,000 bottles. They also make rakia (the standard Serbian hard alcohol).

Trebinje lies in a river valley with a small hill overlooking the town. A pious benefactor bought the hill and dedicated a church on top of it, with a beautiful view out across the city of Trebinje and the whole valley. The second photo is of the church and the third and fourth photos are of the view.

After that brief but pleasant excursion, we headed back to the monastery to get ready to go.

Monastery Tvrdos

We finally arrived at Tvrdos Monastery around 6 PM, where Bishop Maxim was received by Bishop Atanasije (Jevtic), the retired bishop of Herzegovina, Bishop Gregorije, the current bishop of Herzegovina, and all the monastics of the area. Tvrdos, the men’s monastery, has about 10 monks. The foundations of the church are from the original 4^th century church. Even today in the church, there are glass panels on some parts of the floor so that you can look down and see the remains of the original church. There are also two associated women’s monastery nearby, with nuns from all over the world. Most of them came there to be near Bishop Atanasije, who was a spiritual child of the Blessed Elder Justin Popovic and one of the greatest theologians today.

Almost immediately, we went in to celebrate the Vespers for St Nicholas of Myra. St Nicholas is an extremely popular saint in the Serbian tradition, and many Serbs have him as their slava (the patron saint of their family, which his passed down from generation to generation). St Nicholas is Bishop Atanasije’s slava, so it was a particularly big celebration at the monastery.

I was thrust right into service. Fortunately, the deacon who picked us up, Deacon Zoran, was very experienced and helpful, and Bishop Atanasije seemed to enjoy hearing the litanies in English. (He insisted on singing “Lord, have mercy” himself.)

Afterward, there was a big meal. In the Serbian tradition, the host—Bishop Atanasije—refused to sit and eat, and instead served all his guests. People ate, drank and sang songs—it was a very joyful atmosphere. One particularly memorable moment was when a little four-year-old girl gave Bishop Atanasije one of her blankets as a present for his celebration. He was SO excited about it. He kept holding it up to show everyone—and it had a big pink bunny on it. Here is one of the greatest theological minds of our time, but—at the same time—he always exhibited a child-like simplicity and joy. It was very refreshing and inspiring.

That night, Pelagia and Yulia went to the nearby women’s monastery of Sts Peter and Paul, and I had one of the monks’ cells, located next to Bishop Atanasije’s office. (The second photo is of his office, taken from the door of my room.)

The next morning, Wednesday, Dec 19 (Dec 6 OS), I served at my first full liturgy. See photos from Bishop Gregorije’s website here. It was an adventure, especially with three bishops! Bishop Atanasije kept taking my book from me, saying that I didn’t need it. Not that it helped that much with the Serbian anyway! ( :

After the service, we again had an even bigger, more wonderful and joyous meal together. Again, everyone sang songs—even the bishops.

The first and third photos were, again, taken from near my room. The first is of the landscape around the monastery, the third of the main church.

The final photo is of Yulia and a man named Milos, standing outside the front of the church.