On Friday I went to the funeral of Metropolitan Nicholas in Johnstown, PA. He reposed in the Lord last Sunday afternoon. I decided to come home for spring break, in order to go to his funeral, and to spend some time at home and see old friends. I have a ride back to Boston at the end of this week, to be there by Friday night for the CrossRoad alumni retreat that weekend.
The funeral was glorious! I left my house at 6:30, arrived at All Saints Church in Canonsburg at 7:20-ish, and Fr. Livanos and Fr. Touloumes and I left the church around 7:40. We got to Johnstown (after a detour caused by not paying attention to the GPS ;) ) at around 10:02, just as they were opening the royal doors and the deacons were censing.
The church was packed. Clergy filled more than half of the right side, and there were people standing in the side aisles and in the back. Fr. George and Fr. John stood in the right aisle, near the other clergy, and I stood in the very back. His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios was the main celebrant, serving with seven other bishops: Archbishop Antony and Bishop Daniel of the Ukrainian Orthodox Archdiocese, Bishop Mitrofan of the Serbian Orthodox Archdiocese, Bishop Melchisedek of the Orthodox Church in America, Bishop Thomas of the Antiochian Archdiocese, Bishop Ilia of the Albanian Orthodox Diocese, and another bishop with an accent who I didn’t recognize. There were seven Epistles (each read by a priest), seven Gospels, and seven prayers (each read by the bishops). Bishop Ilia, who was standing in the last bishop’s spot, read the verses of the Beatitudes right after the readings and prayers. Church was out around 12:15. Afterwards, I saw tons of people I knew, including Fr. Joachim from school…fancy seeing him there! He was a spiritual son of Metropolitan Nicholas.
Lunch consisted of fried fish (we always eat fish at funerals, no matter what time of the year it is, because funerals are celebrations of the Resurrection, and Christ ate fish with the Apostles after the Resurrection), cole slaw, mashed potatoes, and green beans.
Fr. Frank (the chancellor of the Diocese) got up and said that Metropolitan Nicholas used to go to Eat ‘n park and buy smiley cookies, and distribute them to the children of the cathedral. Fr. Frank handed Archbishop Demetrios a basket of smiley cookies, asking if he would distribute them to the children one last time…it was SOOOO cute to watch!
We got to Canonsburg a little after 4:00, and I got home around 5:00, and went to church for Compline/Akathist, and the Oratorical Festival at 7:00. Long day!!
An article about the funeral, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is here: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11078/1133202-455.stm
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