I appreciate your patience with the lack of posting. Between the unexpected passing of Mother M and attending our Diocesan Conference outside of Chicago, it was a busy week. I rode up with our priest and deacon, and it was interesting doing sixth hour at noon while on the highway. I do have to wonder what the other drivers thought when they saw us chanting and crossing ourselves in unison on a frequent basis as we traveled the interstate. On the way home we did the post-Eucharist prayers. Does help make the trip seem faster.
The picture above is from one of the services during the convention. The rest of the conference wasn’t terribly photogenic as it was focused on the business-side of our real job: sharing and spreading Orthodoxy. I learned a small bit about how things work; and, more importantly, met more of the people who do that work. When my church hosted the event two or three years ago, I was in the kitchen all weekend helping prepare the meals and didn’t really get to attend any of the meeting or really meet people.
I made up for that this weekend. I met a number of truly wonderful people, and enjoyed my time at our host church. Our diocese covers the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Sadly, it is rare that anyone from Australia attends, but we do get to see some of our Canadian brothers and sisters. I also found out this weekend that we now have a Bulgarian monastery here in the U.S. I need to go visit it one day soon.
There is no earth-shaking personal news to share. My priest and I did talk with our Metropolitan briefly, and he shared some things he wants me to do as part of my first steps on this new journey. Therefore I plan to do my best to go get them done.
I’m going to embed two short videos below, that I shot trying to capture some of the Byzantine chanting at the Matins service before Liturgy Sunday morning. The scratch choir, which was mostly priests and a couple of monks, was amazingly good and these clips don’t really do them justice. I’m a bit in awe of two of the priests who had magnificent deep bass voices and knew how to get the most out of them.
More soon!
Please check out my Summer Bleg.
Getting hit by lightning is not fun! It is thanks to your gifts and prayers that I am still going. If you would like to help me with seminary courses, pilgrimages, and more, feel free to hit the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo, use the options in the Tip Jar in the upper right, or drop me a line to discuss other methods. There is also the Amazon Wish List in the Bard’s Jar. Thank you.