My Weekend

I went back to St. Nicholas Ranch--where we used to live--for the weekend. We had a Presvyteres Retreat--presvytera is my title as priest's wife. I went down with the other presvytera from our parish and the diakonissa (deacon's wife), and we met up with other presvyteres in Sacramento, and drove down with them, and we had a rollicking good time! Our Metropolitan Gerasimos (our bishop) was our speaker. Which I wouldn't have normally chosen, but he was really great. One thing I loved about his presentation was that when he'd ask us a question about ourselves, and women would begin to answer "well, as a priest's wife" or "I have to be there for my husband" he'd say "no, I asked about YOU, not about your husband." He wanted to relate to us as women, as human beings, not just as priests' wives, which is the kind of speaker I've been wanting for ages for this retreat--though I wanted it to be a woman. ;-)

As we've just started in this parish, and haven't had a parish before, I've been thinking about how I am to relate to people, what people expect of me, how they'd like me to be with them. And I really didn't know, until I thought back to when I was a child. I can remember it being a big deal to us kids if the pastor's wife gave one of us a hug or a kiss--we kind of bragged on it, because the fact is, my pastor's wife didn't really pay much attention to the kids. I decided when I remembered that that I want to be someone who notices kids and other people. And I won't always have time to stop and have a conversation, but a smile and a kind word is enough.

At the retreat we talked about the fact that our call to minister to other people really isn't any different from any other Christian person's, but the fact that our husbands' are priests provides more opportunity for ministry.

While I was gone, the kids and dad had a great time. I think they were really ripe for some time together, just as kids and dad. No one was sad to see me go. :-) Oh, they were happy I was back, but they really enjoyed some time together without me, which was great.