This past week was another busy week.
Monday: After updating the website and publishing the podcast, I headed to New Britain for Ihumen Gregory’s memorial service (Panakhida). We carried his casket from the hearse, up the stairs, then into the narthex of his parish of St. Mary’s. After Fr. Stephen (the dean of our New England Diocese) read from the Gospel, we brought the casket into the nave, right up to the amvon steps. In accordance with his wishes/tradition (but against the practice in our archdiocese), we made sure that he was facing to the East towards the altar (the usual practice in our archdiocese is to have priests face toward the people). Then we opened up the casket and continued to read the Gospels. The Gospel reading would continue for the next three hours until the start of the actual service. During this time his friends and spiritual children came up to venerate his body and “pay their respects”.
I am sure that what they found shocked them a bit. All Orthodox memorial services are conducted with open caskets (at least when this is at all possible), so no one was surprised by the open casket. Nor could they be surprised by Father’s gray skin and illness-hallowed cheekbones. We saw these when we prepared his body for burial, but that was the last time anyone would see his face until the General Resurrection. You see, Father Gregory was a monk, and monks are completely wrapped and tied within their black outer garment for burial, then their faces are covered by the veil that usually runs down their back. As a result, the people looking into the coffin that evening saw nothing but the stark black cloth that covered Fr. Gregory’s body. This is so different that the make-upped corpses at most funerals. Rather than giving Fr. Gregory a farewell kiss on the cheeks, hand, or monastic cross, everyone kissed the icon of Christ-Incarnate laying on his chest. Nothing else was visible.
The church was mostly full by the time the Panakhida began. Some had to leave before we finished some 2.5 hours later, but most were able to stay for this incredibly solemn Funeral Matins service. Fr. Andrew, a monastic priest from Italy and a long-time friend of Fr Gregory, directed the kliros while another school chum of theirs, Fr. Bazyl Z. served at the altar (assisted by Fr. Gregory’s deacon, Fr. Tony). We took our time and prayed hard. Everyone was moved. We all love and miss him so much.
Tuesday & Wednesday: I was originally planning to attend the Liturgy and Collation on Tuesday at St. Mary’s, then the Funeral and Burial Service at S. Bound Brook on Wednesday; but instead stayed home with the children so that Pani Tina could go down to Atlanta for her grandmother’s funeral. It is too bad thatwe could not have attended as well, but the cost was prohibitive. Reba Catherine Rogers was a dear Southern charmer. She and her husband, Warren, were always so kind to Pani Tina and I. Warren (who had been an MI officer during the Korean War, among other things) fell asleep in the Lord several years ago, and Reba’s health had gradually declined since then. While Pani was down there, she was able to visit with lots of folks, to include her brother Seth’s family and my sister Holly’s family. I hate to admit it, but she came home late Wednesday evening to a dirty kitchen (it was all I could do to keep the kids fed etc.!). I don’t know how she manages to keep everything running so well when I am gone (or even when I’m there!), but I am very thankful she does. Our services and class on Wednesday went well.
Thursday: Thursday morning I published the bulletin, wrapped up my prep-work for the class I am teaching, then headed down to Newport to teach. I have eleven top-notch students. They are from a mix of services (mostly Navy/Marine), specialties, and backgrounds, but all are incredibly bright, motivated, and charitable enough to support my efforts in the classroom. I set up the class to take advantage of their strengths: I manage the discussions, but they present most of the readings. I am a much better discussion leader than I am a lecturer; especially for a three hour class! The session went well. The seminar is on insurgencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, so we spent most of the day talking about the attacks in Mumbai and the the Soviet-Afghan War. Afterwards, I found yet another way to get home from Newport. This one involved going down almost to Connecticut before hopping onto I-95 North. I don’t recommend it. I picked up Chipotle and groceries at the new Trader Joe’s on the way home. Good stuff.
Friday & Saturday: On Friday I drove down to Northampton, PA to visit with Fr. Bazyl and Pani Anna Z.. Traffic moved pretty well until I hit 287, then it pretty much stopped. Which is just as well given the huge metal plates adorning parts of the highway there. Fathers Bazyl and Andrew had spent the week in New Britain settling Fr. Gregory’s affairs (which seems to have consisted largely of figuring out what to do with all his books!), and I managed to beat them to Fr. Bazyl’s house by a couple of hours. Fr. Andrew was obviously knackered from the past week’s service’s and work, but he was kind enough to stay up into the wee hours of the night chatting with me. He is a very dear man.
Saturday morning, Fr. Andrew and I walked to downtown Bethlehem to see the Christmas lights and the like. I love walking and talking (I spent a good portion of my youth doing this with the rest of the “B Team”), and Fr. Andrew is about as good as it gets when it comes to an agreeable conversation partner. Like Fr. Gregory, he is that rare combination of serious scholar, pious monk, and pastor/priest. We talked about papers he had presented recently on Science and Genesis (his point: you have to understand the intent of the God-inspired author) and the Orthodox-Oriental Dialogue (we are a long way from reunion, but not for theological reasons), among other things. We ended up meeting Fr. Bazyl (who had spent the morning in the office) at the Bethlehem Hotel for drinks and an incredible buffet lunch. Afterwards, we headed to Fr. Bazyl’s parish where Fr. Andrew and I gave a three hour lecture on Orthodoxy and Islam. Again, he was the perfect lecture partner, using his vast linguistic and theological knowledge and experience to elucidate points I had only skimmed over. Once the Q&A was over, they headed up for Vespers and I headed back home. The traffic was light: I avoided the temptation to wander in search of “short-cuts” and made it home in about five hours.
Sunday: I followed my usual routine, getting up at 4 AM to turn on the heat in the Church, boil water for the service (we add boiled water to the wine just before Communion), and wrap-up / print my sermon (the only downside to doing it this way is the huge number of grammatical/spelling errors – I really could use an editor!). At about 7:30 AM I headed over to Church to pray and begin the Proskomedia Service (this is when the priest vests and prepares the bread and wine for the Divine Liturgy). When people started arriving for the 8:30 AM “Service of Repentance”, I was surprised to see that it was snowing! Given our steep granite stairs, this could have been a problem, but Mike (a board officer/warden) and Subdeacon John (my altar captain) took care of it. The snow did end up keeping some folks away, but it was still a beautiful service. Afterwards, we had our semi-annual parish meeting. Given how contentious these are in some places, I am happy to say that ours was happy and uneventful. The only sad part was how tight our budget is. Being lean (around 100k/yr) works in normal times, but hurts us when we need to do things like fix the roof.
Next came rest time and dinner out for Pani and I as the guests of the priest and staff of St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church just across the border in Blackstone, MA. It was a very relaxing end to another blessed week.
