With all but one final behind me, I begin the last six days of my time in Greece. I went to church at St. Paul's Anglican Church for the last time today, and it was hard. I have never seen people try to smile but be crying with regards to me, other than my mom. These are people I met 4 months ago. Due to important guests at the service (a couple of bishops for England and the secretary of the Archbishop of Canterbury), nothing happened to say goodbye during the service. Apparently I was also spared this by not saying something about me leaving to one of the women at the church before the service started. Afterwards, I went and started saying goodbye to people. Linda, the woman I was working with on the children's programming, was the first person for me to say goodbye to. It just avalanched from there. When I went to say goodbye to Father Malcolm, he had everybody fellowshiping be quiet as he said goodbye and announced that I was leaving. I turned red and couldn't help grinning to know that apparently I made some sort of a difference here. Amid tears, hugs, double cheek kisses, a person to look up on Facebook, and promises to keep in touch, I said my last goodbyes and left St. Paul's for the last time. That was one of the hardest goodbyes I have ever had to do. These people acted as a church home away from home. They took me in and made me part of them. And, now, I am leaving them and likely never coming back. If I ever do come back, few of the people I knew would still be there. It is the most final goodbye that I have had to make in a long time. If this is anything like what it is to leave a church as a pastor, I do not envy those who are already doing it. This, will have to be one of the hardest things I will do in my life: saying goodbye to the church that has brought me into their home. At least in future churches, there is a possibility that I will still see some of the people. That consolation doesn't exist here. Even though I have made friends here at school, it is nothing compared to some of the connections I made at that church. I worshiped with them, prayed with them, taught children with them, and now I am leaving them. I have the mixed emotions of wanting to see all these people and work with these people and wanting to go home. I just hope someday that I can thank them for all they have done for me, but I wish that I had not needed to have this taste of leaving a church so soon.
Tuesday is my last final, in Orthodox Church, followed by a short trip to Meteora. On Thursday night we have the farewell dinner, and I will be singing the Hokey Pokey in Greek with my Modern Greek class. Friday I head to the airport hotel, and Saturday I get on the plane and arrive home. Time is almost up. I have many goodbyes left, and soon I will get to be home. I can understand why people kiss the tarmac, but I think I will skip that one.
See you all soon!!!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Wrapping up
1 week and 6 days left. The semester is wrapping up, and I will be back in less than two weeks. Not much exciting has happened recently, but it has been rather eventful.
Two Wednesdays ago, for my Orthodox Church class, we went to my prof's church for the vespers service for the Feast of St. George. His church is named after St. George, so this was quite a big celebration. One of the bishops of Athens was there and there were, by my count, at least 11 priests. Some of them, some of the time, wore black hats with a trail half-way down their backs. Asking later, we found out that these were the celibate priests. The bishop made an impression on us. He has a white beard and quite a jolly smile. I leaned over to one of my friends, Tom, and said, "He looks like Santa Clause!!". Tom laughed and informed me he was thinking the same thing. He looked like such a nice jolly man who might easily laugh with a ho ho ho. After the service, there was a procession of the icon of St. George around the block, with all of us following. There was a marching band and everything. After the service, when our prof let us ask questions, we met the bishop who came over and his first reaction was "Christ is Risen", which some of us responded to in English and some in Greek. That was fun. We had snacks (they don't have donuts, but little finger foods which were very Greek and very good). We were given a tour of the church, and had the opportunity to look into the altar area and see all the priest's vestments piece by piece put on our prof. I cannot imagine having that many vestments. Some of the pieces are for a reason that they do not know and they keep simply because of tradition. I like the simplicity of our one stole, but their vestments are so beautiful. They have to be crazy hot, though, and his movement is restricted. He has prayers that he says with each piece, and when he was ordained, the bishop said the word "worthy" with each piece and dressed him.
Last week was a busy week with 2 papers and two tests. This week will have 3 tests and one presentation, and next week is my final test. One of my paper's last week was on the comparison of the service of ordination for elders in the Orthodox and United Methodist Churches. We have many of the same elements, just done in different ways. The major difference is that we have traditions from John Wesley and they invoke specific saints.
The reason for so many tests is that in Ancient Greek, he decided that instead of one final we would have three small tests. two are over translation and one is scanning for rhythm. The scanning was easy, and I suppose that the first translation one was fine, but I will be glad when tomorrow's test is over and done. Wednesday my presentation is for Modern Greek and has to be 5 minutes. We are doing a skit, and the hardest part will be memorizing it. It should be a lot of fun, though.
Well, I should get back to studying, and I will send out another update before I head home.
See you all soon!!!!
Two Wednesdays ago, for my Orthodox Church class, we went to my prof's church for the vespers service for the Feast of St. George. His church is named after St. George, so this was quite a big celebration. One of the bishops of Athens was there and there were, by my count, at least 11 priests. Some of them, some of the time, wore black hats with a trail half-way down their backs. Asking later, we found out that these were the celibate priests. The bishop made an impression on us. He has a white beard and quite a jolly smile. I leaned over to one of my friends, Tom, and said, "He looks like Santa Clause!!". Tom laughed and informed me he was thinking the same thing. He looked like such a nice jolly man who might easily laugh with a ho ho ho. After the service, there was a procession of the icon of St. George around the block, with all of us following. There was a marching band and everything. After the service, when our prof let us ask questions, we met the bishop who came over and his first reaction was "Christ is Risen", which some of us responded to in English and some in Greek. That was fun. We had snacks (they don't have donuts, but little finger foods which were very Greek and very good). We were given a tour of the church, and had the opportunity to look into the altar area and see all the priest's vestments piece by piece put on our prof. I cannot imagine having that many vestments. Some of the pieces are for a reason that they do not know and they keep simply because of tradition. I like the simplicity of our one stole, but their vestments are so beautiful. They have to be crazy hot, though, and his movement is restricted. He has prayers that he says with each piece, and when he was ordained, the bishop said the word "worthy" with each piece and dressed him.
Last week was a busy week with 2 papers and two tests. This week will have 3 tests and one presentation, and next week is my final test. One of my paper's last week was on the comparison of the service of ordination for elders in the Orthodox and United Methodist Churches. We have many of the same elements, just done in different ways. The major difference is that we have traditions from John Wesley and they invoke specific saints.
The reason for so many tests is that in Ancient Greek, he decided that instead of one final we would have three small tests. two are over translation and one is scanning for rhythm. The scanning was easy, and I suppose that the first translation one was fine, but I will be glad when tomorrow's test is over and done. Wednesday my presentation is for Modern Greek and has to be 5 minutes. We are doing a skit, and the hardest part will be memorizing it. It should be a lot of fun, though.
Well, I should get back to studying, and I will send out another update before I head home.
See you all soon!!!!
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