Pentecost

Wow! What a strange weekend. This past weekend, my husband and I went to a local Science Fiction Convention up in Baltimore. Although I had been to Sci-Fi Con before, I still didn’t quite know what to expect. This one was quite small and there wasn’t alot going on for me. Husband had many things planned, so I had plenty of time to myself. I was very thankful to discover a nice, little Antiochian Church, just about a mile from our hotel. I arrived for Vespers 30 minutes early because the answering machine message was incorrect. I was able to stay and listen to choir practice until Vespers started. Although small, the choir was very lovely. I had never been to an Antiochian Church before and was entranced by the hunting music. I was struck by how comforting it was just to be inside the church, even though it was a different place with strange people, speaking or singing in a language I didn’t understand. It was like visiting long distant relatives. After Vespers, the reader told me that Father wanted to speak with him. We chatted a bit and welcomed me to receive communion the following day. I was a bit concerned, since I knew that I’d be attending a concert, then party that night, but even after staying up until after 1am, I managed to get myself to Divine Liturgy the following morning. I was surprised to see that the congregation appeared to be about 75% Arab. Who would have thought there was such a large Arab Christian community in rural Maryland (the church was sandwiched between two farms and across the street from a third)? The service was about 50/50 Arabic and English. I noticed some differences, such as Father motioning the congregation to sit a various times and they sat at different points than we do at my home church. I also noticed that there was much less crossing(and at different times than I’m used to) and no metanias. There was also no kissing of the icons up front. In my church, people kiss everything within reach! The homily was very touching. From what I could gather, it appears that he was new to the parish. His homily went into great length about how a parish priest has the responsibility to care for and guide the congregation and how he can’t do that if the priest doesn’t know the congregation members personally. He discussed the nature of the spiritual father/spiritual child relationship. Is it just me, or does wisdom seem even more profound when it is accompanied by a heavy Old World accent It was like walking into a whole different world, when I got back to the hotel. The rest of the weekend was nice and I met new friends and had a great time.