Categories: people, parish-life
Date: 29 July 2007 06:14:22
A particularly blessed Divine Liturgy today: we knew we had Archimandrite Themi from the St Clement of Alexandria Mission in Kenya visiting us; we also had Father Deacon Raphael from St George's Antiochian Church in Phoenix, Arizona.
Archimandrite Themi gave us a heart-wrenching, though also up-lifting, presentation on the state of the poor and those with HIV AIDS in the slums of Nairobi. See the link above for information on the wonderful work Archimandrite Themi and his team are doing: bringing love, compassion, education, and Christ, to those in desperate need there. And, most importantly, empowering those there through education to be able to help themselves and those around them. Please remember Archimandrite Themi, his team, those they minister to, and in fact all in need all over the world, in your prayers. One thing that particularly hit me was the joy of the people there, as seen on the DVD presentation: even amid the abject poverty they find themselves in, when at school, or church, the joy radiates from them. It was a blessing to have Archimandrite Themi with us and reminding us of our Christian duty to look after the poor: he truly has a great love both for Orthodoxy and for Mission Work, and his love is indeed contagious. May the Lord have mercy on them, and may the Lord have mercy on us, and me in particular, for neglecting those in need many times.
Father Deacon Raphael, his wife, and his two girls [I believe the son, who came out here last year, is back in Phoenix] are here in Sydney for a relative's wedding. It was wonderful to have his family worship with us. Fr Deacon Raphael acted as deacon and also gave an encouraging and challenging sermon on prayer. Before he started, he seemed to be holding back tears: a few came and he explained how he is known as the crying Deacon as he cried at both his ordination to the subdiaconate and his ordination to the diaconate. His reason?: the great joy he has in being able to serve in the Church. The great honour and privilege of worshipping God. A good lesson to me in particular, as I know I can often lose the sense of awe in worship -- he brought the recollection of it back to me.
He also made a comment which is a source of disagreement, albeit friendly, in our parish between the "cradle" and "convert" Orthodox: he said, as I have said, what a joy it must be to have this faith from the start. Over lunch, the cradle Orthodox said to him, No -- the joy must be better for you as you have found this faith. As one cradle parishioner put it, "We Orthodox have our faith in a box and we sit on it. You converts come and open the box." I can see both sides, and, as always, perhaps the grass seems greener on the other side. Regarding "sitting on the box", while it often frustrates me that the Orthodox seem to keep their faith quiet, it must be remembered that often they have come from lands where it was dangerous, deadly, to openly proclaim your faith: after years, generations even, of this, it is hard to change.
Our choirmaster, my sponsor/Godfather, asked me to stand with the choir during Matins, and I got to chant, poorly I'll admit, a few Psalms and hymn verses. I'm looking at going to a community college for some vocal training to see if I have what it takes to at least begin to chant with our choir. Despite the lack of ability, I do enjoy singing: we shall see if it is a ministry I can participate in.
A blessed day indeed. Thanks be to God.