The Thessaloniki Waterfront

I'm catching up now on my backlog of photos. These are from one day in late April. Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) was visiting our neighbors, the Lillies, and we came by to visit with him. Above, Paul gave him a hug.

In the afternoon, we took the kids down to the waterfront in Thessaloniki, which features a broad pedestrian way and several parks. It was a lovely, clear day, and in the photos you can see the famous snow-peaked Mt. Olympus in the background.

Above and below, you can see part of Thessaloniki in the background.

For a few more photos, click here.

Pella, Loutra (Pozar), and Edessa

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We've had two young women from Pres. Pelagia's parish in Yakima, WA staying with us this summer. On July 5, we all went on an outing to points west of Thessaloniki.

The first stop was at the ruins of the ancient Macedonian city of Pella, founded as the Macedonian capital around 400 BC by King Archelaus. It replaced Aigai (modern Vergina), which remained the place of royal burials.

The great Athenian playwright Euripedes spent his final days here, and his famous play The Bacchae debuted here. The city was the birthplace of both King Philip II and his son, Alexander the Great. This is also where Aristotle tutored the young Alexander.

Conquered by the Romans around 168 BC, Pella was a significant point on the Via Egnatia, between Dyrrachium and Thessaloniki. Cicero stayed here in 58 BC, but by then the provincial seat had already been transferred to Thessaloniki.

In the photo above, you can see Phoebe and Benjamin with part of the city's agora in the background.

One of the city's famous mosaic floors.

Pella was our waypoint on route to Loutra (Pozar), just a couple miles from the border with the FYROM. It is famous throughout Greece and the FYROM for its natural hot water springs which bubble up next to the river from the nearby mountains.

You can barely make out the girls sitting in one of the hot springs on the side of the river in this photo.

Here are Paul and Maggie sitting in a large hot spring pool. The locals find the hot springs each season and use rocks to roughly fence off little pools. One can jump back and forth from the warm to the cool water.

Below, you can see a pool fed simultaneously by both the hot and cold springs. The water is so clear and clean, and has no need of chlorine since it is constantly replaced. Above, you can see the water coming out of the pool and back into the river, while Rebecca sits under the fountain.

After Loutra (Pozar), we headed to Edessa for lunch at the top of its famous waterfalls. After a nice lunch of traditional local foods, including lamb and wild boar, we walked down to get a better view of the waterfalls.

The kids really enjoyed a small cave behind the waterfalls.

On the way out, we stopped at the ruins of the ancient city of Edessa, just below the modern city, which comprised the acropolis in ancient times.

"The walls and the agora have been unearthed so far. A colonnade with inscription in Greek dates from Roman times. The city achieved certain prominence in the first centuries AD, being located on the Via Egnatia. From 27 BC to 268 AD it had its own mint. St. Vassa and her three children were put to death here in the 3rd Century AD.

Very little is known about the fate of the city after 500 AD. Its bishop Issidoros participated in the Ecumenical Council of 692. After the Slavic settling in the 6th-7th century, the name of "Edessa" disappears and what remains of the city (a fortress in the acropolis of the ancient city) is named "Vodena" (from Slavic 'Voda', "water"), recalled by 11th century Byzantine historian John Skylitzes. It is mentioned as both Edessa and Vodena by Emperor and historian John VI Kantakouzenos who came to the city with intention of conquering it in 1350 after it was conquered by the Serb Emperor Dushan the Mighty earlier in 1341, 1342 or 1343. In the memoirs of Kantakouzenos, Edessa had a Serbian army of 500+ garrisoned when he approached the city.^[4] It fell to the Ottomans along with the rest of Macedonia around 1390.

During the Ottoman rule, the Turkish component of the town steadily increased. From the 1860s onwards, the town was a flashpoint for clashes between Greeks and Bulgarians.

After more than 500 years of Ottoman rule, Edessa passed to Greek rule during the Balkan Wars on 18 October 1912."

Here's Paul, in his knight costume, climbing the walls.

Pres. Pelagia and Phoebe walking down the old main road.

For more photos from the day, click here.

Doctoral Graduation Ceremony at the Theological School

Tuesday morning, the Theological School held a graduation ceremony in which its doctoral candidates were officially proclaimed doctors by the assembled faculty of the Theological School.

There were 11 of us, and afterward we shook hands with all the professors.

Here I am with Prof. Chrysostomos Stamoulis, the chairman of the Theological School.

Here I am talking with Prof. Dimitrios Tselingidis, who also happens to attend our parish in Panorama.

And here I am with my professor, Petros Vassiliadis, who is now retiring.

Finally, here is a shot of the family in the Theological School.

Vidovdan at Hilandar with Bp. Maxim

On Tuesday of this week, I went with Bishop Maxim of Western America (Serbian Patriarchate) to the women's monastery in Ormylia, where we got to have some nice discussions with Gerontissa Nikodimi and the sisters, as well as Fr. Serapion, the hieromonk from Simonopetra who serves the monastery. On Wednesday morning, we celebrated Liturgy and then headed quickly to Ouranopoulis to catch the boat to Mt. Athos. We were joined there by Prof. Bosko Bojovic, a Serb teaching in Paris.

When we arrived at Hilandar, the abbot, Fr. Methodije, was waiting to welcome the bishop. He then gave us a tour of the ongoing reconstruction project at Hilandar, following in the wake of the devastating 2004 fire that destroyed half the monastery. In the photo above, Abbot Methodije and Bishop Maxim are talking in front of the monastery's refectory.

The abbot and bishop looking at some feature of the south side of the katholikon. The famous vine of St. Simeon can be seen off to the right, miraculously growing out of the church. See the photo below for another shot of it.

Here, you can see Prof. Boskovic also listening to the abbot. In the background, you can see the newly constructed part of the monastery, just finished in the last year. According to the abbot, a very elderly monk recently visited the monastery and, upon seeing this part, exclaimed, "How was this part not burned during the fire?" When the abbot explained that it had been, he said, "But it looks exactly the same as it was!" As you can see from the scaffolding, they are now moving the reconstruction down the south of this western wall of the monastery.

Walking out of church after Small Vespers at 5:00 PM.

The view from my room in the newly reconstructed part you saw above. You can see a father with his 7-year old son down in the courtyard. There were quite a few young kids there for the feast of Vidovdan, which celebrates the martyric death of St. Prince Lazar at the Battle of Kosovo.

Around 7, Elder Vasilios (Gontikakis), the great theologian and former abbot of Stavronikita and Iviron, came to see Bishop Maxim and to join us for the Vigil, which went from 9:00 PM until 3:00 AM. It then finished with Liturgy the next morning from 7:00-9:30 AM. There was then a big feast of fish in the refectory, with a short talk at the end by Elder Vasilios, who spoke, among other things, about the idea that "No one is my enemy."

For those not aware, Elder Vasilios is one of the three or four primary renovators of Mt. Athos. Before 1950, Mt. Athos was in such decline (parallel with the decline of Orthodox theology) that most thought it would soon be a museum. It was only with the work of Elder Joseph the Heyschast and his disciples, and then slightly later through the work of Elder Vasilios and Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra, that Mt. Athos was revived and indeed has flourished. You can read about Elder Paisios' great respect for Elder Vasilios in the new English translation of his definitive biography.

For more photos from the trip, click here.

The Triplet's Third Birthday

Monday was the triplet's third birthday, so we had a small birthday party for them in the evening, where we grilled some shrimp kebabs, salmon, and tuna. We currently have two girls from Yakima staying with us, and they helped prepare for the festivities. Maggie was in charge of the decorations (above) and Rebecca decorated the cakes (below).

Here are the kids opening presents.

One of the presents was a copy of "Where the Wild Things Are," which James read to his godson, Benjamin.

Here the kids got tossed up in the air on their parachute.

And here they are blowing out the candles on their birthday cake.

For more photos, click here.

Completed my PhD!

It has been awhile since I posted, but I have a good excuse. I was finishing my doctorate, which finally concluded with the defense on Tuesday. In the photos, you can see me being examined by professors of the School of Theology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

I was fortunate to have quite a few friends in attendance for support, including Pelagia and the kids.

It must be a slow ecclesiastical news week, because this made the front page of the website of the Serbian Orthodox Church in North and South America, as well as our home diocese of Western America.

Afterwards, to celebrate, we had a great lunch at a nearby restaurant with the professors and our friends.

Now I will try to catch up on some of the happenings over the last couple months and resume normal life activities in general!

Click here and here for a few more photos on Facebook.