Today we had a relaxed morning (I overslept again!). After prayers, quiet time and breakfast, we talked about our upcoming meeting with His Beatitude - what to ask, questions we had, etc. We left around 10:15 to
meet the archbishop at the Archdiocese. We went into his office a little before
11:00 and were there until after 12:30. I'm very fuzzy on remembering what he said but Konstantinos recorded it all, so I hope to listen to it again... a lot of good stuff! :)
We bought berek (Albanian pites - mine
had cheese) and headed to the Children’s Home of Hope which is on the same property as the Shen Vlash monastery and seminary that we had visited previously...
...for a day at the beach.
The kids were so happy to meet us...
...and to play at the beach with us – twice in
the water...
...interspersed by an intense game of beach soccer with the boys while
the girls played in the sand.
We left the complex a little after 6:00 and
arrived at the Tabor Center around 7:00 where we ate dinner and had a quiet
evening
We had an easy morning, starting at
9am. Somehow I still managed to oversleep, took a quick shower and ran
downstairs at 9:15. I greeted Fr. Luke who was eating breakfast, and apologized
for being late, thinking I had missed prayers. He teased me and said since they
knew I was trying to skip prayers they were punishing me by eating first. I was
relieved. We did prayers and quiet time right after breakfast. After quiet time
we all gathered in our prayer room and talked about Albania, our impressions,
our thoughts, etc. We left around 11:00 and got to downtown Tirana around
11:30.
Today is Alphabet Day in Albania
and all the schools have celebrations. We got to the Archdiocese-run
Protagonistët School (pronounced Protagonist) around 11:30, just after their
celebration had finished. We were all disappointed that we didn’t get to see
the kids’ performance. The Protagonistët School is a private school, but in
Albania no schools are allowed to teach religion as part of the curriculum.
They have kids of all backgrounds that attend the school. Once a week they have an after-school program that is dedicated to
learning about the Faith. They make it fun, and they get parents’ permission to
have the kids go to that. Even some Muslim kids come to that because they see
that their classmates are having fun. There they teach about Christ.
The school started in 2002, I
believe, and has grown by one grade level each year. Last year they were not
able to get a license to open a high school so the graduating 9th
graders had nowhere to go. This year they got a license and are opening two
more years in order to have a high school (10th-12th grade) in the same building as the
elementary school (4th-9th grade. Grades 1-3 are at
another location). All the people were so amazing, so warm and had such big
smiles. It was a wonderful day for them and for us, and they were all very
happy to see us.
10:17 pm
After seeing the Protagonistët
School we were shown the women’s ministry which is on the same property as the
school and the Cathedral. Raymonda (sp?) who leads the ministry had us in her office
and gave us pear juice and delicious Albanian apple strudel.She showed us a
powerpoint with pictures of all the ministries that they do: work at a nursing
home; visits to a home of Mother Teresa’s sisters where a lot of Orthodox are
who want a priest to visit; prison ministry; and some other things. We also met
Violeta who works in the office.
While we were at the women’s
ministry the professors were somewhere else (?). When they came back we got in the
van and drove over to the Engale radio station which is on the tenth floor of a
building. The professors again went somewhere else, while Nathan Hoppe joined
us and was our tour guide around the next few places. Konstantinos and I
sprinted up the stairs while everyone else took the elevator. They got there
first :P At the radio station the staff wanted us to sing something. We decided
to do O Pure Virgin. I didn’t sing because I still have a cold and it would
have sounded bad. They recorded us and will probably play us in the future.
In Albania there is no such thing
as a religious radio station. The license for Engale radio is just as a regular
radio station. They do a limited number of Orthodox programs. They mainly play
classical music and also play some Byzantine music. From what Nathan said that
he has been told, quite a few people listen to the radio station for the
classical music because they are the only station that plays it.
After the visit to the radio
station we visited the Logos University. The director – a missionary from
Greece, a sweet old lady in black – spoke to us in Greek while Konstantinos
translated, and then one of the professors spoke to us in Albanian while Nathan
translated. The director offered us soda and apologized for not offering a
snack but said it was a fast day. I liked her :)
We saw their Three
Hierarchs chapel on a lower floor...
...and a couple offices and one classroom
briefly on the way down the stairs. We found out that their tuition is about
1000 euro per year. They have 350 students from all backgrounds. Students take
six classes per semester, each worth five credits, and they complete University
in three years (one team member said he is a product of this – the Balogna Method, which tries to compress 4 years into 3 without losing anything – and
it doesn’t work: it’s baloney). Higher level classes are taught in English.
They have partnerships with some Greek universities.
After the university Nathan took us
to the Nazareth workshop where we saw the candle-making workshop...
...and the
printing press.
A new church is outside the main building. It is almost
finished and will have its first service on All Saints’ Sunday.
We took the
service elevator up to the wood-carving workshop because it was locked so we
went the back way :)
We saw a magnificent hand-carved iconostasis that is
going to be put in the small chapel outside the new cathedral. It took four
people six or seven months to do it!
We didn’t get to see the icon workshop
because it was locked :(
After the Nazareth workshop Nathan
went with us to the center of Tirana where he got off the bus and went home. We
met up with the professors again and came back to the Tabor Center to eat a
delicious lunch – at 4:00! They eat late here. Yesterday Ana and Gabriela told
me that most Albanians don’t typically eat breakfast. They may have coffee or a
snack in the late morning, but their first meal is a lunch around 2:00. Dinner
is late – 8:00, 9:00, 10:00-ish. Fr. Luke told us the first day that they often
nap after lunch (typical of many cultures) and wake up to enjoy the evening
before eating dinner.
Around 5:40 we left for Tirana again
where we went to the youth center which is on the same property as the
Cathedral, the Protagonistët School and the women’s ministry, and down the
street from the Archdiocese headquarters. We got there a few minutes after 6:00
(it was a pleasant surprise to see Bishop Asti when we got there – he was
outside talking to some people. I only got to get his blessing – didn’t get to
talk with him. He left soon after we got there but it was a pleasant surprise
to at least see him and get his blessing). Friday evenings at 6:00 is when they
hold their weekly Paraklesis in the youth center (not in the cathedral) with
the university students. We joined them today. Fr. Luke served and all the
university students chanted. We followed along in Albanian prayer books – mine
had Byzantine music so it was actually easier to follow. I learned but
subsequently forgot how to say “Most-holy Theotokos save us” and “Glory to the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto ages of
ages. Amen.”
After Paraklesis one of the professors gave a
talk while Ana B. translated. Afterwards they gave us some kind of cake and
peach soda. Then we went down the street to the Archdiocese and visited the
office of Fr. Justinos who is a priest-monk from Greece (Parakletos Monastery
in Attica, outside of Athens) who is serving as a missionary. It is his nameday
today (St. Justin Martyr) so we all went to wish him Xronia polla – all of us:
university students, Americans, staff, etc., in his small office. He also
offered us sweets, and two paper icons – Christ Pantocrator from Mt. Sinai and
St. Neilos the Myrrh-gusher about whom I know nothing but look forward to
learning. Outside Fr. Justinos’s office we met Bishop Nathaniel, another of the
auxiliary bishops of Albania, who is from Greece. I saw Niko whom I had
talked with the other night at the Tabor Center. I think he’s a receptionist or
something there at the Archdiocese.
The plan was to spend the next few
hours walking around Tirana with Albanian university students. Our group headed
back to the Cathedral/youth center with Ana and her sister and some girls from the universities.We waited there for the rest of our group and finally we got impatient
so everyone went on ahead to go to the lake and get coffee. It was mostly
Americans who went with Ana. I figured I’d stay behind and wait for the others, since I had talked to Ana for a long
time yesterday, and the others were Americans. I didn’t know the other girls who stayed behind, and figured I should get to know them a bit.
Finally the others came and we were
off! Up and down both narrow and wide streets, around corners, finally into the
park and over the hill (we stopped by the church of St. Prokopi to peer
inside), and to the outdoor restaurant. I was really lost – had no idea where
we were. It didn’t matter, though, because we were there and the Albanians knew
where they were going. By the time we arrived we couldn’t find the others and
Marina tried calling but to no avail. We finally found them – none of us had
ordered coffee but it was time to go. It was ok – we had had fun just walking
around. We walked back over the hill, to the entrance of the park where our
van/ bus was waiting for us. We got back to the Tabor Center around 9:45, ate
dinner and talked a bit about the next few days. Then I came upstairs and
started blogging, interrupted by various conversations about jurisdictions, the
election of bishops, the reality of vacant sees (OCA Dioceses of the South and
Alaska), etc. Typical seminarian conversations! :)
What a day! We were supposed to eat
breakfast at 6:30, leave at 7:00 and do morning prayers on the bus. I have my
travel alarm with me so there is no snooze button. I woke up at 6:00, turned
off the alarm, and went back to sleep. Thankfully Jason knocked on my door at
6:50. I jumped in the shower and hurried downstairs after replying quickly to
two emails. There was extra time so the group decided to do morning prayers,
which I arrived in the middle of. I tried singing the Alleluias before the
Gospel and the short responses before and after, but literally could not sing.
I’ve been coming down with a cold for several weeks, fighting it off, etc., but
it has finally set in full force. Right now just a deep voice and sore throat,
and a little bit of a runny nose – not too bad. But I physically could not sing
for half the day, and when my voice finally
warmed up a bit I could only sing low and badly.
On the three hour bus ride we
practiced the songs that we were going to sing at times when the Albanians
asked us to sing. That way we wouldn’t embarrass ourselves by two people
singing off-key. We practiced O Pure Virgin, Lord of the Powers, Seek Ye First,
Swing Low Sweet Chariot, and the Apolytikion of St. Herman of Alaska in Russian
chant. I felt that I was throwing everybody off by my gravelly voice that
wasn’t truly singing – more like a rumble. I was irritable and tired and kept
thinking that the Albanians need to pave their roads – typical American
(*slap*)! Last night I was up late blogging and doing my proposal for my
independent study next fall. I had eaten a quick breakfast on the run after
morning prayers and so I was really thirsty and had a limited supply of bottled
water on the bus.
Before leaving Tirana we picked up
Ana Baba and Gabriela (last name?), two native Albanian missionaries who are
both wonderful, wonderful people and are fluent in Greek. I was sitting near
them on the bus so after the others finished singing and I finished gravelling
(:P) I talked to them for a long time – all the while complaining how bad my
voice was. When we got to Berat we went to the Cathedral of St. Demetrios. We
saw Metropolitan Ignati briefly. Fr. Luke and Fr. Emmanuel went inside to talk
to the gathering of Presvyteres.
Gabriela and others led the rest of us on a
walk across the river, down a long street and up a steep hill to the only other
regularly-functioning church, St. Spyridon. It is very old and does not look
Greek like the other, newer churches in Albania. Old, whitewashed,
partially-renovated frescoes; old iconostasis with old icons; etc. It was nice.
Three of our team members talked
to the youth of the Metropolis about facebook (most of them had facebook and
one young man had 1800 friends) – through Gabriela who translated. It was a
nice session and the kids asked some questions. One had converted from Islam and
asked about how to deal with his Islamic friends at school who don’t understand
Orthodoxy. One of our guys said to just ask them questions. Let them talk as
much as they want and be confused by the incoherence of their own answers
(maybe not the best answer to his problem).
When we had twenty minutes left we
sang some of the songs we had practiced and they also sang some of their songs.
Stelio and I stayed behind for a few minutes while he took pictures.
We then followed everyone back
across the river while I conversed with Gabriela in Greek and an older guy who
only spoke Albanian. Gabriela translated. We had to go to the top of the
mountain to see the enormous, mountain-encompassing castle. There
are 42 churches inside the castle that is built on the hill, and none of them
are used more than once or twice a year anymore :(
. The hill is very steep – a little steeper than the
hill going up to Holy Cross in Boston, much
longer, and made out of a special kind of cobblestone. It was hot and sunny,
too. As tiring as it was I enjoyed it. The majority of the group got a ride up
the other side of the hill from the Cathedral to the top. I wouldn’t have
traded places with anyone even if I could have! I loved the walk!
We walked along the unfenced edge
of the castle a bit and took pictures, then went inside.
The main thing we went
to do was to see the biggest church of the 42, which has a lot of old icons and
is used as a museum now (pretty sad – the Altar table is bare and they took our
group inside the Altar, as if it was merely a replica and not a consecrated
church), although Liturgy is served once or twice a year. The church is named
after the Dormition of the Theotokos. The icons of Christ, the Theotokos and
St. John the Forerunner on the iconostasis are by the hand of Onufry, a famous
Albanian iconographer. The others are by someone else. All the icons are
gorgeous! In some rooms right outside the nave (sort of like an exo-narthex)
they have other icons, Gospels, etc, set up as a museum, and one of my
favorites was an epitracheilion (priest’s stole) that had six or eight icons on
it (I don’t remember). We weren’t allowed to take pictures of anything but some
people snuck photos without flashes and I will get them and upload them later.
I found out towards the end of our
visit in the church that a few members of our group who had lagged behind had
gotten lost but taken full advantage of the opportunity, exploring, finding
four different churches (all of which were locked), a statue of St. Constantine’s
head, and a man on a horse which they got to sit on. I was really jealous.
We left the castle and went to a
mountaintop restaurant to eat along with all the priests and presvyteres and
all the young people that the various members of our group had been with
earlier. We sat down and waited until Metropolitan Ignati came to say the
prayer and start eating. I was honored to be sitting across the table from His
Eminence, two chairs down. I was able to talk to him some in Greek. He is an
Arvaniti. Arvanites are Albanians who have lived in Greece for 400 years. He is
Greek-born but of Albanian descent, and knows both languages fluently. He used
to be the abbot of two different monasteries in Greece – Hosios Loukas (the famous
one) and Hosios Seraphim. He looks like a “typical,” old, kind Greek bishop or
abbot. Short, a little heavy-set, a little hunched over, soft-spoken, hard of
hearing, long and thin pure white beard and long white hair in a thin ponytail.
Fr. Emmanuel said that when he asked His Eminence what he misses most after
becoming a bishop, His Eminence said he misses hearing confessions the most. I
was really drawn to him – his kindness and love. His Eminence’s spiritual
father was Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos. His Eminence also knows Gheronda Ephraim
in Arizona from having visited Mt. Athos. He visited all twenty monasteries, I
believe, but only lived there for six months I think. He was a monk on the
mainland. He reminds me a bit of Metropolitan Maximos – the kindness, love,
white hair and softspokenness.
Sitting at the other end of the
table were four priests, a deacon, and some of our guys. The priests kept
toasting every two minutes (Gezuar!). It seems to be a very Albanian thing to
do. We couldn’t get
over how much they were toasting!
The wine went well with the delicious meat (beef?) and
diced/roasted/oily potatoes. His Eminence, however, is a monk. He ate fish,
like the kind we all ate last night.
At the end of the meal two priests
and the metropolitan spoke, and a lot of us sang songs. We sang some of our
songs and the Albanians sang some of their songs – both hymns and folk songs.
My favorite was the concluding one: “Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God.” They
know it in Albanian from their camps. We did a verse in English and they
repeated it in Albanian, then we did the second, etc. It was really beautiful!
The Metropolis paid for everyone’s
meal, and His Eminence gave us all gifts before we left – a beautiful
8½x11 icon (or the European equivalent size), laminated, a detail of
12-year-old Christ teaching in the Temple. (Definitely a keeper!!) Also the
life of St. Luke the Surgeon in Albanian – another reason to learn the
language!
We all thanked His Eminence
profusely and got multiple blessings from him. I also briefly met Fr. Elias. Fr.
Elias is the son of Fr. Kosma, a priest who used to do Liturgies and Baptisms
in his home secretly during communism. At one point Fr. Kosma was dragged into
the middle of town to have his robes taken off him and his beard shaved. Fr.
Kosma secretly baptized Metropolitan John of Korca. Later on the Church wanted
Albanian-born hierarchs. There were no celibate Albanian priests in the world.
They asked Fr. Kosma to separate from his wife and become a bishop, which he did.
Metropolitan John was one of Bishop Kosma’s ordaining bishops. Today I also saw
Fr. Elias’ mother who seems like a pious old Albanian lady. I didn’t get to
talk to her. She and Fr. Elias were sitting a bit out of earshot at the same
table as us.
We drove a few hours from Berat and
arrived at the monastery of Ardenitsa. It is all-but abandoned. Two monks live
there most of the time (these were the two I’ve been told about) but don’t have
a regular monastic life. Divine Liturgy is served in the church by one of the
village priests on Sundays. The church is kind of dark and some of the frescoes
are in need of restoration (if that’s even possible) but it’s still really
beautiful. The top levels of the walls are icons of each stanza of the Akathist
Hymn to the Theotokos. It’s pretty awesome! I’ve seen pictures and heard of
icons like that, of the Akathist Hymn. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in
person, though.
I walked around the monastery a
little bit but couldn’t go inside anywhere. Both monks were gone and there was
a guard or two (just a regular guy with a key) and we could only see so much. I
walked around outside a little. I really found myself wishing there were monks
or nuns populating the place!
We ran into three evangelical
missionaries from England who were on a walking trip across Europe, on their way
back home after visiting 19 countries. They had a life-size cross with a wheel
on it which they carried with them. Fr. Luke told them about the historicity of
Christianity in Albania and after they finished one of them asked if he could
pray. It was kind of funny and awkward because I don’t see that a lot. One guy
kept saying “Amen,” “Oh, Jesus,” “yes,” and other things while the other one
was praying. Our group said he even spoke in tongues a bit but I didn’t hear
it.
We walked inside the church and Fr.
Luke and some of our guys were explaining things to the evangelical guys. I
snuck out into the narthex and up some stairs with Gabriela and Stelio to see
the icon of the Last Judgment on the back wall of the church. Gabriela and Ana
have been there many times and know all about it – they are very familiar with
the place. Fr. Luke got an Albanian service book from inside the Altar and did
the Great Litany and the Completion Litany. Then one of the evangelical guys
asked if he could pray a prayer to the Holy Spirit and asked Him to come and
empower us or something. I think we were all kind of perplexed as to what to do
about these guys. We all agreed afterwards, though, that we think Fr. Luke
handled it really well from a pastoral point of view, maintaining a balance in
everything.
All these places that we visit – I want
to go back. I want to get familiar with all 42 churches in the castle, with the
Ardenitsa monastery, etc. I want to make them my own like so many churches and
monasteries in America. I really hope I develop a relationship with at least
some of these places. Also, if I am ordained I want to liturgize in random,
unused chapels like St. Nicholas Planas did :) (http://www.serfes.org/lives/stnicholas.htm).
On the way back on the bus I
literally lost my voice because I was talking so much with Gabriela and Ana.
It is such a good opportunity to
practice my Greek and they are such wonderful people with amazing smiles and
really big hearts. We shared a lot of laughs and talked about many things, all
the while hoping to improve my Greek :)
We got back to the Tabor Center at 9:00 (a 14
hour day!) after having dropped off Ana and Gabriela in Tirana. We ate
delicious homemade pizza from the wonderful staff here. Then I came upstairs to
blog :)
