A Big Weekend!

Wow! Both of our "big events" went really well! I'll stick with the first for this post, then post again about our Clergy Couples Retreat.

Last weekend was our Centennial Weekend at our church. It was incredibly busy, incredibly fun, and it all went so incredibly smoothly. Thanks to the hard work of many, many people!

We started off the weekend with a Glendi on Friday night, and the halls at church were dressed up like a cafenia (little coffee place/restaurant in Greece). It was a lot of fun, and the food was so good! Archbishop Demetrios did a door-opening for our new Hellenic Cultural Center, which was amazing in itself. If you're in the area and are at all interested in the history of Greeks in Portland, stop by and see it sometime! It's pretty cool. And along those lines, they also put out a beautiful book illustrating the history of our parish and the people who started it way back when, the present and the future.

Next day was an Ecumenical Doxology. The choir sang for this, and we got so many compliments on the doxology we sang, which was a Russian-style arrangement. We all really enjoyed singing it! All kinds of leaders from lots of different churches were there. I wondered if this was the first time that a female priest was within the walls of our church? And was hoping that it won't be the last.

After that was a delicious breakfast for the leaders (which I was priveleged to be invited to) and many of them spoke, including our own Metropolitan Gerasimos and Archbishop Demetrios. I was disappointed, though, that the speeches went on for so long and didn't give time for much dialogue, which had been scheduled. What little there was I had to miss, because I had to get on to the next event!

Which was a youth ralley out at Camp Angelos. It was a nice day, not really sunny, which would have been ideal, but warm and not raining. Both of the bishops came out and answered questions from the kids. One story that the Archbishop told later on was one little boy, about three years old, giving him the card he'd been provided with to write a question on, that simply said "Will." Oh, you want to ask a question about will? Free will? What do you want to know about will? the Archbishop asked. "I am Will!" said the little boy. :-) Both bishops fielded questions ranging from topics like DaVinci Code to what will happen to us when we die. My own little feminist asked about altar girls. The Archbishop told her that perhaps she would be a deacon someday.

That night was the big banquet at the Hilton. It was fun and long. I don't have a lot to report about it, except these: I got to meet Earl Blumenhaur, my hero and US Representative. And the mens' choir from our church that performed that night *rocked!* They were really good. It was about 30 men, and as I was watching them I was counting how many are in our regular choir. Two. Including the director. Hey, guys, we need you on a Sunday-to-Sunday basis!

Then came the big event: Sunday morning. Fantastic! I am a little biased, I know. I am in the adult choir, and I lead the youth choir. And that's about all I could focus on, the singing! But we all did a fantastic job with the service, I thought! Everyone commented on the youth choir--our Metropolitan was beside himself with joy from hearing the angelic voices. He told me that they had better Greek pronunciation than the adult choir! I informed him that I am also in the adult choir, and he said "sorry!" without really being sorry. ;-)

Ah, but we weren't finished yet. The afternoon and evening were packed with: a house blessing for the Huzagh household (Elenie Huzagh is a former president of the National Counsel of Churches) and a farewell dinner for the organizers and the Archbishop. I won't go into all those details. However, the Huzagh home is across the street from Powells. Paul got the bright idea: he asked Archbishop Demetrios if he'd like to go inside. So, Paul, the Archbishop, me, and Archdeacon Nathaniel went into Powells. Now, those of you who have been to Powells, City of Books (one whole city block of bookstore) stop and imagine for a moment Archbishop Demetrios in that context. For those who don't know what he looks like, imagine him in his full regalia like this:

And yes, I enjoyed watching people's reactions! One man just stopped and stared for about three minutes. He then came up to me and said, "Greek Orthodox?" Hey, he's pretty good! The guy was Episcopalian himself. The Archbishop wanted to first look at the religion section, Christianity specifically (surprise) and then he wanted to look at the Atheism section. He stood there and talked with us about people writing all these books dissing the idea of God. I have to say I agree with him--we all have pet peeves, but why does religion get whole books dissing them? If someone doesn't like, say, boy scouts or whatever, they don't write a whole book about it.

Anyway. He bought a book from the atheist section, which I was going to remember the title of just so I could share it with all of you, but I was so tired by that point that my mind did not retain it.

He also bought us the two books I'd picked up to buy myself--a DK Alaska travel book and the new Barbara Kingsolver book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I am highly enjoying both.