Festival Preparation/Sisterhood Meeting

Needless to say, many hours of hard work go into preparing for a Festival. But we are fortunate at Holy Trinity to have a bunch of dedicated women who always arise to the occasion. What really makes this special is that we have women from across the globe working together. They might speak different languages and use different alphabet, but we are all brothers and sisters in Christ and we are working for His Church, not our church.

We also have a nice range of age. Some of the women are here almost every week and some I just see occasionally. I do not know the names of some of them, although I probably should.

While making tea balls, Selina conducted a Sisterhood meeting. I normally attend them, but I was sitting at another table with some of them, but I was paying attention. When Selina asked me if I had anything, I raised one problem. During the Liturgy today somehow I got charcoal over my robe. Nina took care of it during the week.

In a previous parish, we needed vestments for the altar servers and one woman said that she has no problem buying them for the boys, but she felt that the adults should buy their own. I disagree. Mary at St. Nicholas Cathedral contributed to the cost of my vestments and said to me, "I think that it is obscene that you have to buy your own vestments." Because I was one of the three "Roving Subdeacons" of Metropolitan THEODOSIUS, I needed good vestments and at the suggestion of one of the other "Roving Subdeacons" I took on the expense and I never regretted it.

After I turned the vestment over to Nina, I started wondering if this was right for the Sisterhood to pay to have my vestments cleaned since they belong to me and not to the church. Then it occurred to me that not only do I wear them, but other altar servers also wear them. The Sisterhood is making it possible for me to serve the Church even better.

I am very fortunate to be able to serve at Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox and I am grateful to the wonderful support from the Sisterhood and other members of the parish.