Holy Cross Parish Picnic and Dormition Vigil Service
Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church, my parish, owns 65 acres of beautiful land in Howard County. On the south end of the property is a beautiful picnic area and we have invited the other Orthodox Churches in the area to use it when we are not using it. Also, some of our own people, especially the Russians and Georgians, frequently use it.
On Sunday 27 August 2006 Holy Cross Orthodox Church had its annual picnic at our property. Later in the afternoon a group of Georgians arrived to have their picnic. Holy Cross permitted them to use a portion of the property. Dr. Charles Snipes took care of coordinating this and he did a great job.
During the picnic I met Kim Shaw. She is coordinating the bus trip to St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary for Education Day this year and I sent her an e-mail message but it bounced. So I had a chance to discuss the trip with her and I am really looking forward to it.
At the end of the picnic we had the Vigil Service for the old calendar feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, known in the West as the feast of the Assumption. It is traditional in the East to bless flowers and herbs on this day.
We were fortunate to have Fr. Gregory and Deacon Mark also serve with us. I became the liaison between the Russians and the Antiochians for this service. I have served many times at Holy Cross and so I am somewhat familiar with their practices and I also know the Russian practices. For example, in the Russian practice the deacon vests before the beginning of the service. Apparently this is not the practice in the Antiochian custom.
As I think about this service, I remember when I first came to Baltimore. The priest whom I had then would never allow me to even suggest anything to either the deacon or the other priest. His attitude was that it was embarrassing for a deacon to take orders from a subdeacon. Archbishop Lazar once told me that he was serving with a bunch of bishops and really did not know what to do and one bishop told him "Just obey your subdeacons and you will be okay."
The incense that we used was given to us by a wonderful Lebanese woman. I don't remember her name. She gave incense to everybody at the picnic and one man immediately gave me his since his wife is highly allergic to it.
The surprise of the evening was the arrival of Reader Joseph. He is the only one who was not wearing blue vestments. The off-white that he wore was my traveling set. Mrs. Olga Polivanov of St. Nicholas Cathedral, Washington DC, made it for me back in 1986 when I was going to be away for six weeks on military duty. Adele mended the trim that was worn. Mrs. Maria Misijuk of Poland made my blue set. She is the mother of a classmate of mine.
The next day we had Liturgy at the chapel and it was really nice. Adele was the main person in the choir and she did a wonderful job. Her brother also sang and so did most of the people there. To my surprise, the Liturgy was mainly in English. But I noticed that the Russian speaking people sang more in English than they did in Slavonic. On some occasions, the only ones singing in Slavonic were Fr. John and I. After the Liturgy we had a social hour. Then Swentana and I had a wonderful talk and several issues were resolved or are now on their way to be resolved.
Please enjoy the photographs.
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You are visitor # since Monday 28 August 2006.