Palm Sunday

We made it to church in Emmaus this morning after going to bed not knowing how much sleep we'd get. Luke is sleeping better since we took him to the ER Thursday evening. Hannah will probably sleep through the Apocalypse if we let her.
The service was nice today. After communion there was a procession around the outer walls of the nave. At St. Paul's, the tradition is for the kids to process behind the altar boys with palms and pussywillows. So I was standing next to Fr. Ted at the front of the church watching the kiddos pick up their palms and branches, when Luke and Anastasia reached the front of the line (Hannah was snuggled up in a sling that Stasia was wearing). Upon seeing me, Luke proclaims in no hushed voice, "Hiiii PAPA!" Then immediately, "Hiii Ted."
I started cracking up. It was hilarious. Fr. Ted had a big smile on his face too. That was the first time Luke had called him by his name to his face. What's impressive is that we never stood in front of Fr. Ted with Luke saying his name. So Luke just picked it up on his own.
In order to be more respectful to the good priest, I decided to teach Luke how to say "Father Ted." After saying that slowly a few times, Luke repeated it as "adder dead". I concluded that a different tactic was necessary. "Luke, can you say 'Padre'?" Luke's answer: "paaaday."
Close enough, right? So no he says, "paaaday dead". We'll see how soon that comes closer to "Father Ted", but either way, I can't be blamed for not trying to teach my kid that a priest isn't called by his first name only.


The other highlight of my day came when we met with Metropolitan JONAH of the OCA. We got home from church at 1:15, walked in the door, the neighbors knocked on our door and told us that Met. Jonah was meeting with all married students at 2, so we promptly got back in the car and headed to the seminary. It was a very nice 90 minute open forum meeting with him. What is so nice is that he is extremely open and honest. I have never met a hierarch so candid about the problems that he is dealing with. Of course, I've never met a hierarch who has inherited a situation as bad as he did. So that must be taken into account. Everyone seemed to walk away from the meeting in good spirits and with hope for a bright future in the OCA, at St. Tikhon's Seminary and Monastery, and especially for the Church in America. Couple of great quotes from him:
"If I hear the word, 'Orthodoxy' used again I think I'll puke. Isn't it about bringing people to Christ, not just adding them to the census of the church?"
"It's time to just flush and move on."
"When you go into a parish, it takes humility to make a transition smooth. Both the new priest and the leaving priest need to put their egos aside."
"The salary for some priests in upstate New York is $15,000-$20,000. That's despicable, and is flat out wrong."

He also mentioned that 3 Anglican Dioceses want to become Orthodox, and that there is a bishop in Guatemala who has 50,000 people in his churches who want to become Orthodox, specifically under the OCA. Currently, they are "non-canonical, immitation Orthodox". Yes, I said 50,000 Guatemalans (apparently, they are Mayan Indians) want to become Orthodox and are imitating Orthodoxy right now. Sound familiar?

Have a good Holy Week. May we strive to be more like Christ than the donkey on this blessed Palm Sunday.

--Matthew