Last night, at work, I was looking through my archived emails and came across one from this past week about "Challenge Liturgies," which were geared towards "physically and developmentally challenged Orthodox Christians." I was interested and wanted to go, and realized that the first one was today, so I frantically emailed Becky, who was in charge of the HC/HC aspect of it, and thankfully heard back from her. I got up this morning, and Becky and I were picked up by Mary Lynn, who lives in Brookline, who went this morning. Mary Lynn's daughter Angela has downs syndrome, and Mary Lynn helped organize these Challenge Liturgies.
The Liturgy was at Transfiguration Church in Lowell, about 45 minutes away. There was a small crowd. Two priests served - Fr. Steve, who is the priest at Transfiguration, and Fr. Anastasios, an older priest from a neighboring church, whose grown son Johnny also has downs syndrome and served in the Altar today.
In his sermon, Fr. Steve said that, when planning these Liturgies (scheduled to happen on the third Saturday of every month), some people gave him flack for doing a "separate" Liturgy for special needs people. However, the point was not to do a "separate" Liturgy: the Divine Liturgy is public worship, open for everyone. All they are trying to do is to make families with special needs people feel welcome, and create an environment where they are comfortable coming to church. Hopefully they will get used to coming to church, and will start coming on Sundays. That is the goal. And, glory to God, today I met Niko, an old man from Greece with multiple physical problems. Niko had not been to church in a long time, but his sister is now planning on bringing him to Challenge Liturgies.
I feel that "Challenge Liturgies" are a great idea! They originated in New York (for those interested, contact me and I'll let you know the parts of the history that I remember) and are branching out. I told people today that I would try to take it back to Pittsburgh and get something started there. I intend to mention it to a few priests when I'm home sometime.
Below is a picture of Transfiguration Church in Lowell:
On another note, PLEASE leave me comments on my blog, even if it's just a few words. I feel lonely haha. Also, I'm experimenting with the background. Right now I have a picture of the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City (my monastery <3) If you like it or have other suggestions, let me know. If you don't like it, or think a different layout would be good, let me know :)
I'm coming home on November 10-14, so if anybody in the Pittsburgh area wants to hang out, let me know and we can probably arrange something. :)
Oh, so you ARE coming home for Papou's mnymosyno (sp)! See you then! ^^
ReplyDeletehonestly, that was secondary. it was like, "ooh, long weekend! let's look at air fares! ooh, not to expensive! Mom, is this a good idea? ok, [click, click, click, *ding* confirmation email has arrived]. Oh, by the way, we're doing coffee hour that Sunday and it's Pappou's 25 year memorial." But it WILL be nice to be home for it :)
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