Pelagia's Entryway Redesign

Pelagia has been working for the last month or two on redesigning the entryway to our apartment. Originally, it was my “office” space, but there was so little to recommend it (no windows, no natural light, constant interruption from the door), that we moved it into the extra room (the guest room). This left Pelagia with a space to redesign.

A practical problem which needed a solution was this: The dog, Argos, is still a puppy, and he hasn’t quite gotten over the fact that there’s also a cat here, Mo, so the dog constantly torments the cat. Pelagia decided, therefore, to build a cat refuge. So she built these benches (complete with drawers underneath for storage) and the overhead cat refuge from an old wardrobe (which was too big to get rid of) and an old wooden ladder she found. Total cost: $0!

(You notice the lattice on the ladder, which allows the cat to scurry up there.)

Pelagia is the master at finding old things on the street and seeing a new use for them. She also found the mirror (with lights) that you see in the second photo. She fixed it all up, made the lights and wired them in, and voila! The area right around the door had been very dark, but this mirror/light combination brightened the whole area.

She also borrowed a friend’s sewing machine and made the cushions for the bench. And all this in her free time, when she wasn’t painting and doing other jobs for people.

That’s about it for the news here, so there hasn’t been much excitement to post on the blog. Pelagia keeps getting job offers and I’m still translating and trying to read for my dissertation. That’ll be pretty much it until we leave for Serbia in about two weeks.

Byzantine Chant

Last Sunday, we went to the western edge of Thessaloniki to the old Byzantine church of the 12 Apostles, which was founded around 1320 by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Niphon. Our Byzantine chant teacher, Manoulis Yiannopoulos, is the Protopsaltis (head chanter) there, and he has been asking us to come visit him there every since we started out lessons about 2 months ago. The church is located just inside the western edge of the old walls of the city (see the third photo). Of course, today, the city is much bigger.

The church is amazing – including some of the original, beautiful mosaics inside. Our plan is to go back next Sunday – if I do my homework, I’m supposed to help sing the Great Doxology in the Plagal of Fourth mode.

Besides that, there’s not much exciting happening. We’ve both been very busy working. The academic year has finally started, and I managed to get all my paperwork done for enrollment, forming a dissertation committee, etc.

I’ve been blessed to work on translating a new book about Elder Paisios. Elder Paisios is EXTREMELY popular here in Northern Greece. Even Greeks who have little or no association with the Church know and revere him. They’ll say things like, “A couple of my friends knew him and they’re sure he’s a saint.” The book, “The Life of Elder Paisios the Athonite,” is a big one – about 700 pages long. I’m doing about 50 pages. I’ve heard that it’s the definitive Elder Paisios biography, and I’m sure it will be very popular in the US once it’s published. Several of the Americans here are working on it – there’s a real push to get it to the printers ASAP. To whet your appetite, I just translated this quote, which I thought was good, and which I will leave you with for the moment:

He [Elder Paisios] dealt with each soul with discernment, avoiding extremes and partiality, and handed out the appropriate medicine. For the same problem in different people, he gave different solutions. He was not a steam-roller. He said to someone: “Whatever I say to you, I say it for you. And if you say it to someone else, it won’t help; in fact, it will hurt. Watch out for this.” This was the main reason he did not like to be tape-recorded. He knew the disposition, the receptivity, and the resistance of each person, and he spoke to them accordingly.

Volos

On Friday, we drove down to the city of Volos, which is approximately 2.5 hours south of Thessaloniki, on the Aegean Sea. See the map here.

View Larger Map

I’ve been doing some translating work for the Diocese’s Academy of Theological Studies, and we went to meet with the people there. We were also fortunate to have a meeting with the bishop of the diocese, Metropolitan Ignatios.

We arrived at the Metropolis around 11 and got a tour of the facilities, which are very impressive. The Metropolis (which houses the Academy) has a state-of-the-art conference center and nice library.

The first photo is of the outside of the Metropolis, which is located outside the city, up on the hill. The second and third photos were taken from outside there, looking down on the city of Volos. (Unfortunately, it was rainy, overcast day.)

After meeting with the bishop at 12, we were then taken downtown for lunch on the waterfront with people I’ve been working with at the Academy. The last photo was taken as we walked along the waterfront to the restaurant. In the photo are Pelagia and Anastasia, who works at the Academy and is also the daughter of my PhD advisor, Petros Vassiliadis. In the background is a church dedicated to Sts Constantine and Helen.

After a leisurely lunch and then coffee, we headed back to Thessaloniki around 5:00. The trip was very successful and, we hope, there will be a lot more work out of this connection. Thank God!

Visiting Kato Scholari

On Friday evening, we drove out to the village of Kato Scholari to visit the Kralli’s. Kato Scholari is a little village about 25 km east of us. Fr Luke Hartung and his family lived there for the last couple years of their stay in Greece. We went to visit the family of Gerontissa Efpraxia, the abbess of the Monastery of St John the Honorable Forerunner in Goldendale, WA. We first met her brother and sister-in-law, Athanasios and Sophia, when Gerontissa took us when we first arrived in Greece just over a year ago.

Since then, we’ve tried to keep in touch, but pretty unsuccessfully – until, that is, we got the car. It’s good for us to visit them for many reasons – not least of which is the opportunity to work on our Greek.

Last night, we took these photos, primarily for Gerontissa and Fr. Luke & family to see. ( :

In the top photo, we have the Kralli’s (with their daughter) and me. Gerontissa’s photo, hanging on the wall, is also in the picture.

The bottom photo is, obviously, of me, Pelagia, Athanasios, and Sophia.

St Demetrios

Sorry for the lack of activity. It’s just work, work, work lately.

Tonight, however, we finally did something “blogworthy” – we went down to St Demetrios’ for the Vespers of his feast. (This church is built on the site where St Demetrios was martyred for Christ around 300 AD. He has been the unquestioned patron and protector of Thessaloniki for the last 1700 years.)

Last year, we went to the Liturgy on the feast day itself, and it was absolutely crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it. There must have been tens of thousands of people. Bus loads were coming from Russia, Romania, Serbia, dropping off hundreds of pilgrims at a time. You couldn’t move inside the church. As our friend Philip put it: “There were times when my feet weren’t on the ground.”

In an effort to avoid some of that excess (it’s like that every year, apparently), we decided to go to his church for Vespers rather than the Liturgy. There were still a lot of people, but nothing like it will be for the Liturgy. I counted at least 8 bishops. At the entrance, the procession included about 15-20 deacons and 40 priests.

During the service, we stood in line for about an hour to venerate his relics at the front of the church. I took some video, which you can see at the bottom here. From the video vantage points, the camera focuses on St Demetrios’ relics, and most of the visiting bishops are sitting opposite. At one point, I pan up to a mosaic on the wall. I can’t remember exactly, but I believe it dates from somewhere around the 5^th century.

When I say we stood “in line” to venerate his relics, I should explain. “Lines” must be a Western invention, because they’re poorly understood here. A line here is more like a cattle herd. Personal space? Forget it. Again, as our friend Philip says, “Greeks abhor a vacuum.” If you leave an American-sized respectful distance between you and someone else, you can be sure that someone (or two, or three) will squeeze in front of you. To quote Philip yet again: “St John Chrysostom talks in one of his homilies about 5 people being trampled to death at a church service. After coming here, you can understand how that happened.”

In any event, going to the church and venerating St Demetrios on his feast day is an ascetical feat – it must be good for our souls!

The two photos were taken from outside the church as we approached it. It may not look it from those photos, but the church is enormous – the largest in all of Greece.

Chronia polla!

St Sava's and the Long Trip Home

When we finally reached St Sava’s, it was still raining, so I couldn’t get one of those picturesque shots from the outside. The top photo was taken through the car window.

Inside, I could see progress from when I visited a year ago. It will be absolutely amazing when it’s done. It is the largest active Orthodox temple in the world (in other words, besides Hagia Sophia in Constantinople).

After that, we headed back to the apartment in New Belgrade. The main meal of the day in Serbia is around 3:30 or 4 (right after work), so we went back to join Nebojsa and Lepa for lunch.

After lunch, we went to visit Lepa’s older sister and her family for a little bit. Then, Nebojsa drove us downtown to meet with Bishop Maxim one last time before we left.

It was another wonderful meeting – we felt so blessed to get to know Bishop Maxim.

On Thursday morning, our car packed full of Lepa’s food, we headed back to Thessaloniki. Now that we knew the way, we did it all in one day – it’s about 8 hours.

The second photo is from a quick stop we made somewhere in southern Serbia. The last two photos are from another quick stop we made in FYROM.

The border crossings again were quick and easy, except for Greece. When we hit Greece, there was hardly anyone working, a long line, and total chaos. It was nice to be back in Greece! ( ;

Thank God, we arrived home around 7:00, safe and sound. The car performed magnificently!

The big news from the trip is that we will return to Belgrade in December. If God wills, Bishop Maxim will ordain me to the Holy Diaconate on Sunday morning, December 16 (December 3 OS), at St John’s Church in the Theology School. Please pray for us!

Now I am searching for the best deal for vestments. If anyone has any advice, please let me know. Also (and this is hard for me to say coming on the heels of our request for help with the car), but if anyone feels moved to donate something toward the cost of the vestments (about $900), it would be most appreciated!

Meanwhile, it’s back to work. Thank God, I keep getting translation work. Now I am working on a project for the Greek diocese in Volos. They have an Orthodox theological press (see here) and they are working on translating a good bit in to English. With the car, Pelagia has plenty of work also, thank God!