More from the Kids

Here are some photos of the kids. Above is Benjamin eating orange slices.

Spring is coming! Pres. Pelagia and the kids took advantage of the nice weather to get outside and play Uno. Of course, the kids have their own set of "rules."

Pres. Pelagia has been busy making wardrobes to fit our bedroom. Here are the kids playing inside one of the new ones, before the doors got put on. Above, Paul and Phoebe are both kissing Benny.

More goofing around in the wardrobe.

Phoebe is quite the fashion diva and dresses herself. Here she is as she heads out to pre-school.

Here we are as we walk down to their pre-school. On the left is an old olive press, which was powered by water coming down the mountain, through the open pipe that crosses above the cobblestone path. Now this press serves as a museum.

Pres. Pelagia and the kids went to Thessaloniki last weekend to visit friends and do some errands. Here they are at the Volos train station.

And here are the kids playing on an old rail cart as we wait for the train.

Our Polyelaioi (Chandeliers)

Back in December, I had a post about Pres. Pelagia cleaning one of the two large chandeliers we have in the center of our main parish church. The one she is cleaning in the photo above probably dates to the 1960s or 70s, while the one to the right dates to about the 1860s or 70s. According to our local expert, it probably came from Rostov, Russia, and constitutes, as far as he knows, the oldest polyelaios (chandelier) in our region.

This is it in the photo above. As you can tell, it needed some work. Obviously, it predates electricity and operated originally with oil lamps (hence the Greek name, polyelaios, which means, literally, something like "much oil"). One of our faithful parishioners, an electrician, remembers being on the crew that retrofitted the chandelier for electricity in 1959. Until then, because it is so difficult and impractical to take it down, it seems that it was regularly cleaned by simply bringing in a hose and spraying it down. The water was then mopped off the church's tile floors.

My friend, Fr. Dn. Riginos, came in late January to take down this old chandelier for cleaning and repair. It took hours to get it down and separated into manageable pieces. Above and below are what the glass pieces looked like before cleaning.

We also found this much smaller chandelier, which has a similar design, in the attached side chapel to St. Anthony. Our idea was to clean and repair this one and put it in the place of the much larger glass one Pres. Pelagia cleaned.

Here is Fr. Riginos and his koumbaros Ioannis taking down the glass one. Fr. Riginos is, fittingly, standing in the raised ambon from which the deacon reads the gospel. It dates from the building of the church in 1791 and is quite small.

Our faithful electrician, who was the one who remembered helping retrofit the chandelier for electricity in 1959, came to finish hooking up the newly cleaned and repaired chandelier, which among many improvements, had the cords running through the inside rather than on the outside.

Here is my friend Nikos, one of our epitropoi (church wardens), putting in the light bulbs.

Here is a photo of both chandeliers from the back of the church. You can see the smaller one in the foreground. The rather unique blue, red, and white strings of glass decorations (strung together by silver wire) were distributed between the two so as to make them match even more.

A closer shot of the large polyelaios. The photos don't do it justice. There is an amazing difference between then and now.

The whole project cost 1250 euros. For a point of reference, the basic monthly salary in Greece is now 500 euros (for those fortunate few who have jobs). Thanks be to God, one parishioner donated nearly 500 euros for the project, and another woman donated 200 euros to get us started. I made an appeal on the first Sunday after the chandelier went for cleaning, and this last Sunday after it returned, and we raised 140 euros that way. So we're well on our way, and we hope to undertake other badly needed projects as well, such as cleaning the smoke residue off the murals on the walls (1000 euros), and replacing the icons of the Holy Unmercenaries above the west and south outside entrances (300 euros each, or 1000 euros each for mosaics).

Although it is a difficult time in Greece, the people still care for the beauty and upkeep of their holy churches.

The Mystery of the Wooden Box

A few days ago, my friend, Fr. Dn. Riginos, brought back our newly cleaned chandelier (this will be the subject of an upcoming post). While he was here at the church, he noticed something inside the altar, on the backside of our wooden iconostasis, which dates to about 1800. He asked me: Have you ever noticed this wooden box over here? I hadn't. In fact, although it's large, it's quite inconspicuous. In the photo above, it's located above the far deacon's door.

Here it is again, from closer up. (The small niche you see off to the left, by the way, is a door to an attached side chapel, dedicated to St. Athanasios and St. Tryphon.)



Closer up still. Anyway, when I came over to examine it, he asked me if I had any idea what it might be for. I didn't, so he explained. During the period of Turkish occupation (this area wasn't liberated until 1881), the Greeks would hide weapons (rifles, swords, etc.) in these boxes. Indeed, the box is the perfect size for rifles from that period, swords, etc. My curiosity was piqued. He promised to bring a crowbar when he came back a few days later to continue work reinstalling the chandeliers. Was it possible no one else had noticed it and that it still contained something from that time period?

Meanwhile, just to be sure, I got permission at the Metropolis to open the box. I also asked around the parish and people who have been in the church their whole lives had never noticed it. When Fr. Riginos came back a few days later, we climbed up there, but alas, someone had beat us to it. We took it down and you can see it above.

The others wanted to throw it away, but I insisted we put it back right where it was as an important reminder of this area's history.

Orthodox Mission in the Far East - in Volos

On Sunday evening, our Metropolis hosted a fascinating presentation about Orthodox missionary work in the Far East, featuring the Metropolitans of Hong Kong and Singapore (Ecumenical Patriarchate), who also happen to be brothers according to the flesh (pictured above).

Metropolitan Nektarios of Hong Kong spoke with the aid of a PowerPoint presentation full of photos and videos. It was an excellent presentation, no doubt given many times around the world in an effort to raise funds. In both metropolises, which cover about 3 billion people, including China and India, there are a total of 47 Orthodox communities, with 25 Orthodox temples for worship. I found that there were actually many similarities to the missions in the US - many of the worship spaces are converted spaces, and many are temporary, having to be set up every week. The "Metropolitan Cathedral" itself in Hong Kong occupies a single floor of a skyscraper, with half the space devoted to the temple and half to the offices of the metropolis.

Unlike the US, though, the surrounding cultures are not already Christian, and thus explanations of Christianity start from a much more basic point.

As you can see from the photo above, there was a quite a crowd to hear the presentation, and I would say that everyone was fascinated by the presentation. When they heard of people in Taiwan (where there is only one church serving 23 million people) traveling 5 hours each way by train just to attend Liturgy on Sunday morning, many were moved.

From the official press release:

The event, which was organized by the Volos Academy for Theological Studies, in collaboration with the Orthodox Missionary Association “The Three Hierarchs,” took place on Sunday evening, February 24, in the large hall of the Spiritual Center of the Metropolis of Demetrias. In addition to the invited speaker, Metropolitan Nektarios of Hong Kong, the event was also attended by Metropolitan Constantine of Singapore and Metropolitan Ignatius of Demetrias, as well as a large crowd of clergy and laity. The Director of the Volos Academy, Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis, opened the event with introductory remarks about the central importance of mission in the very constitution and life of the Church, as well as the inherently dialogical nature of theology. The philologist Ioannis Patrikos, President of the Missionary Association “The Three Hierarchs,” which co-sponsored the event, then spoke about the association’s history and missionary endeavors.

            His Eminence Metropolitan Nektarios of Hong Kong then took the podium and delivered a multi-media presentation on the missionary work being carried out under the aegis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the countries of the Far East, and particularly Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, and the Philippines. He described the organization and structure of those Orthodox communities, the number of members/faithful, as well as the problems and challenges they face, especially the lack of missionaries and clergy, the immense geographical area covered by just two Orthodox metropolises of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the urgent need to translate liturgical texts into the dozens or even hundreds of local languages and dialects, the economic pressures and poverty, ethnophyletism, religious fanaticism and fundamentalism, and more. The Metropolitan also presented the missionary activities of the two Orthodox metropolises of the region (Hong Kong and Singapore), which include, among other things, translations of liturgical and theological books, seminars for clergy, classes for catechism and iconography, an online Theological Seminary (www.theology.cn), missionary visits to different regions for the celebration of the sacred services, scholarships for potential future clergy, talks on Orthodox theology at schools and universities, presentations of Orthodox books, exhibits of Byzantine iconography, the publication of the quarterly journal “The Censer,” and catechetical materials in different local dialects. His Eminence also emphasized the importance of humanitarian and medical aid to peoples who often live in abject poverty and destitution, in those countries of the Far East with widely disparate economic and social inequalities.

            The event ended with concluding remarks by Metropolitan Ignatius of Demetrias, who, after recalling the deep spiritual bonds which unite him with the Metropolitans of Hong Kong and Singapore, who are also brothers according to the flesh, warmly thanked the missionary hierarch for coming to Volos and assured him of the full support of the Metropolis of Demetrias for the important work being done in the Far East.

Fr. Pavlos from St. Katherine's on Sinai

On Sunday, Feb. 17, Fr. Pavlos, a noted spiritual father from St. Catherine's on Sinai, gave a talk at one of the hotels here in Portaria. It was arranged by the presbytera from the adjoining village of Katohori, who is one of his spiritual children.

His theme was "Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged." It was followed by questions and answers.

And because this would otherwise be a very short post, here are some more photos of the kids. Pres. Pelagia recently finished their reading loft, which is actually a transformed sort of attic space.



And here, Benny is a super-hero and Phoebe is a bride in a bubble-wrap wedding dress.

Parish Trip to Elassona, Part 2

After visiting Panagia Olympiotissa, we headed down the hill into Elassona, where we had arranged lunch for all 50 of us at a restaurant owned by a relative of a nun at the next monastery we were to visit.

The restaurant was great. While they were preparing the food, some of my parishioners handed out homemade snacks they had brought -- namely, tyropitas (cheesepies) and tsipouro, which I can attest was very, very strong! They claim it has medicinal properties.

The restaurant was located directly across the street from the Metropolis of Elassona's headquarters. Here we are getting back on the bus after lunch.

Our next stop was about 25 minutes away in Sykia, and Benny took the opportunity to have a little power nap on the way.

Here we are at the entrance to the Monastery of the Ascension of Christ. This monastery was founded in 1650 as a men's monastery and remained active until 1932. It was re-founded as a women's monastery in 1988.



Above and below are views from the entrance into the inner courtyard. The monastery is squared with the central church in the middle.

The sisters' elder was away for medical treatment in Thessaloniki, so we were honored to do Vespers with them. The frescoes inside the church are wonderful and date to the monastery's founding in 1650, although some elements (such as the icons on the iconostasis) are from recent renovation. 

After Vespers, the nuns invited us into their arhontariki for coffee. The kids had fun playing under the tables and entertaining everyone else.

Here's a great photo of Phoebe giving a hug to our friend Ezzat, my faithful helper in the altar. He is Egyptian but has been in Greece, married to a local Greek woman in Portaria, for the last 40 years.

On the side of the church, there is an ancient spring of holy water, from which many of us took bottles home. In the photo above, you can make out, underneath the talanton, the legs of a nun and visitor at the spring. I found the nuns here, and especially the abbess, very simple, unpretentious, warm, and open. Apparently, their elder is well-known and well-regarded. We'll have to visit again in order to meet him.

On the way home, we passed through Tirnavos, so we stopped to venerate the relics of St. Gedeon, the patron saint of Tirnavos. St. Gedeon was born in the village Glafyres, a little outside Volos and lived for many years in Velestino. He suffered martyrdom in Tirnavos in 1818, where his memory is honored οn December 30th. A large piece of his relics adorns our sister parish of St. Nicholas here in Portaria.

We arrived back in Portaria shortly before 9:00, tired but full of blessings.

For more photos from the trip, click here.