209 Greek Festival - Friday

I'm not ready to die yet and therefore I make sure that I show up for the Greek Festival. If I did not, some yiayia will remember. I'm speaking from experience when I did not make it to one function and I heard about it several times.

We joke about the grandmothers [yiayia is Greek for grandmother and in Russian it is babushka] all the time, but most of us also realize how vitally important they are. Without them, we would not have our churches today and we truly appreciate that.

When I was considering leaving my former parish, one of the yiayias at Annunciation told me, 'You should come here. Fr. Constantine will be retiring soon and Fr. Dean will need an assistant."

In Biloxi MS after Liturgy, the priest was talking with a young blonde, blue-eyed Navy woman and a yiayia grabbed my sleeve and said to them, "Here is a young Greek boy." What a complement!

But the real reason that I attend the Greek Festivals is to support the Church as much as I can. The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation has been very supportive to me and I try to reciprocate.

Probably the highlight of the evening for me on Friday 6 November 2009 was my conversation with Fr. Constantine Monios' widow. She is a really fantastic woman. I really did not get to know her until recently. Last year somebody, I think it was one of her daughters, pointed out to me that Fr. Constantine's name is on the dome of the temple. I used the 7-300mm lens on my Nikon D50 dSLR to see it and photograph it and sent a copy to them.

At the Festival this year I pointed this out to a few people. One man was standing in the front and said that he can see it with his naked eyes. I did not believe him at first until I looked for myself and also saw it. You have to be standing at the right spot.

There was a very interesting silent auction. I'm glad that I am not the only one who thought that a silent auction was a live auction with an auctioneer but no words were spoken. I just could not imagine how that would occur.

The tour of the Cathedral follows:

Fr. Dean:

The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation was founded 18 March 1906. You will find the most Greeks in major port cities.

The building was built in 1889, right after the Civil War ended. It was built by Charles E. Cassell, a famous architect in the East Coast."

The first place of worship for the community was in a union hall. The priest came every other weekend to celebrate the Liturgy. The community purchased a small church at Homewood and Chase Street.

The cathedral has 1,200 families who are actual physical stewards of the community. This is one of the largest congregations in the City of Baltimore.

The cathedral seats 800 people comfortably and on Sunday they have about 600 people at the Liturgy. We are grateful when people arrive, no matter when.

The services are predominantly in English.

When people light candles, it is for offering a prayer. Christ is the Light of the world.

In most churches in the Orthodox world men are on one side and athe women on the other side. Typically one stands for the duration of the service.

The chandelier weights a ton. They lower it twice a year, Christmas and Easter. The candles are changed and polished. It is operated by electrical motor. The motor is under lock and key. It was manufactured in California.

This church does not have a dome because it is an adopted church. The icon of Christ is usually there because he is the ruler of the world.

Every 25 years they take out the pews and tighten them and redo the floor. This is the original floor.

There are three Tiffany windows on the side. There is also a collection of Tiffany windows at the Baltimore Museum of Art. These are original. The large round window in the front is also a Tiffany window. The balcony seats are not original.

The Royal Doors are closed. If you go through the Royal Doors, then you have to become a priest. Fr. Dean apparently went through them once when he was a kid and serving on the Altar.

The Altar Table in the cathedral is the original altar from the Congregational church and it weights five tons.

On the icon of the Resurrection on the left side of the temple, you have the Prophet David, Prophet Samuel, and John the Baptist. On the other side are you and I. Under the icon are fathers of the Church and the guardian angel.

The vestments of the priest dates back to the third century.

The bread that we use for the Liturgy does not have eggs in it because it is a bloodless sacrifice. We receive from a common Cup and a common spoon. We put warm water into the Chalice to bring it up to the temperature of blood.

On Monday through Saturday on the Gospel book the crucifixion side is up and on Sunday the Resurrection side is up.

The chalice was manufactured in Baltimore. It is silver and gold. The ancient paten was just a plate. Later a stand was put under it. The veils were for practical reasons. The aer [the larger veil] is put on the priest’s back as a symbol of Christ’s carrying the cross. [This is a Greek practice. In the Russian practice it is put on the deacon’s shoulder.] The incense goes back to Jerusalem.

Services are done antiphonally. In order for a Liturgy to take place, art least one person must be in the congregation.

The water from the baptismal font here goes directly into the ground. The Church is the foundation for the child and his water of baptism becomes a part of the foundation of the church. For adult baptism, if Fr. Dean uses a trough, he insists on a private ceremony.

On Good Friday the priest can’t offer Communion to the sick.

The parish has a very strong missionary effort. There is only one Orthodox Church in Guatemala.

This building was a Congregational church. The front was made from granite from Port Deposit MD. The walls are 17 inches thick. It costs $10,000 a month for air and heat. The building itself was $35,000. The icon screen is hand carved. The parish brought the building in 1937.

Steve Sfekas:

The people on the right side of the icon of the Resurrection are Old Testament people. Somebody asked whose relics are in the Altar. We do not know.

The stained glass windows on the bottom were done in the 1940s by a Catholic artist. The Tiffany windows are in a Protestant style. This was originally a Congregational church built in 1889. In the early 1930s the congregation boarded up the church. Amoco brought the building and was going to tear it down and put a gas station here.

Steve’s brother’s godfather was driving around and saw the vacant building. The community had to rescue the building from becoming a gas station. They went to the mayor and pointed out that there are 1,000 Greek Orthodox Democrats in the City.

In 1889 it cost $90,000 to build the building. It cost us $40,000 to buy it. The pillars, arches, balcony, and pews are original. The first window is clearly Italy. It is the one of Jesus Christ and the children. There is not that much green in Greece.

In icons the figure is always looking at you. There is no perspective in icons. Landscape is to frame the picture.

The Congregationists were the New England Puritans and they merged and now they are the United Church of Christ.

This is the fifth largest Greek Orthodox church in the country.

Black Madonna of Częstochowa survived the destruction of a church which was burned down. It was found among myrtle. They gilded the icon and left the face alone. The original is at a church of Częstochowa in Poland. It is also called the Madonna of the Myrtle.