Our First Greek Wedding

Well, Thursday evening, I served Vespers for St Athanasios at the saint’s church in downtown Thessaloniki with His Eminence Metropolitan Anthimos, Archbishop of Thessaloniki. Of course, there were many priests and deacons there, including our spiritual father and the two priests of our parish here in Panorama. They introduced me to the bishop after the service and I spoke with him briefly. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos, but you may have seen me on Greek TV, if you get the Church’s TV station on your satellite dish. ( ;

(Yes, seriously, the Church has its own regular TV channel devoted solely to broadcasting services and related programs.)

On Saturday morning, we had liturgy as usual at our parish here in Panorama and then on Saturday evening we were blessed to go to our friends’ wedding downtown. They are Justin, an American, and Kalliopi, a Greek girl. They met while she studied in the States and now they’ve moved back here to start their life together.

I was asked to serve along with our spiritual father and three other priests. They asked me to say all the deacon’s parts in English, as well as the Epistle and the Gospel, for the benefit of Justin’s friends and family. It was a beautiful and joyous wedding.

The reception following the wedding was held at perhaps the most famous hotels in northern Greece, the 5-star Makedonia Palace. All of our friends were invited to the wedding, so it was really fun.

In the last photo, you can see a shot of our table. At left is Herman Middleton grabbing something to eat as he got up from the table. Obscured behind him is Fr Spyridon. Continuing clockwise, we have our neighbor, James Lilly, our Greek friends Efrosini and Christos, Justin’s friend Vincent, Ann Lilly, and Pelagia.

The top photo, naturally, is of Justin and Kalliopi as they entered the church. The second and third photos are from the service.

At the very bottom is a short video of some of the dancing from the reception. Greek dancing is really fun – Pelagia and I are both trying to learn it. It seems relatively simple, but it’s not. At the end, one very kind Greek woman gave us lessons off to the side. She explained that the basic Greek dance is a 12-step count, but that the leader (the first in line) sets the particular step, and everyone else is supposed to follow. Usually, then, they change leaders every few minutes, so the dance changes, too. It’s very fun.

The wedding was great and we were very glad to be invited, so that we could experience a real Greek wedding.

Divine Liturgy and Baptism at a 1500-Year-Old Church

On Saturday, the Forefeast of Theophany, I was blessed to serve at the Divine Liturgy with our spiritual father, Fr Spyridon, at his church in the center of Thessaloniki—Panagia Acheiropoiitos. This church was completed by the year 470 at the latest, and was built in honor of the Mother of God after the Fourth Ecumenical Council declared her to be Theotokos in Ephesus in 431. It is one of the three oldest churches (all 5^th century) in Greece. Unlike St Demetrios (one of the other 5^th century basilicas), Panagia Acheiropoiitos has remained basically intact for the last 1500+ years. The name, incidentally, means “the Mother of God, made without hands.” It refers to an icon which miraculously appeared in the 12^th century and which seems to have been divinely made. The icon, unfortunately, was lost during the period of Ottoman occupation.

First it must be said that this church is absolutely enormous. Unfortunately, therefore, photos of the inside don’t usually come out. It was really a great blessing to serve in such a church, where so many millions of faithful have prayed for so many years. The size of the church is also awe-inspiring. It seemed to take forever to cense!

After the Liturgy and the Blessing of the Waters, there was a short break before the baptism of the youngest child of our friends here in Thessaloniki, another American couple, Mark and Laura Montague. Their newest baby, Sophia, was baptized in the small side chapel. (All the photos are from this service, and were taken by another American friend, Peter Chido. For more photos, click here.)

Since there was such a large American presence at the baptism, I got to read the petitions in English, and Fr Spyridon even read a couple prayers in English, which was cute.

In the top photo, Pelagia is talking with our friend Angela, and English woman who converted to Orthodoxy many years ago and moved to Greece. She is now married to a Greek man and has three children.

The second photo shows a line-up of Americans who are studying here in Greece. From left: me, Mark Montague, John Harper, someone I don’t know, and Joseph (whose last name I can’t remember right now).

The third and fourth photos are, obviously, of the baptism. The priest is Fr Spyridon. In the last photo, you can see the baby’s sponsor, Stavroula, and the baby.

Tomorrow, for the Feast of Theophany, and on Monday for St John the Baptist, we will be at our parish church here in Panorama, St George’s.

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.