Feast of the Meeting of the Lord
It is no secret that St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in Washington is "my cathedral," and for good reasons.In 1989 I approached Metropolitan THEODOSIUS, my local bishop, about becoming a deacon and he told me that if I wanted to be a deacon, I would have to go to the seminary. That was not what I wanted to hear, but it was what I needed to hear.
I made up my mind that I would do it and I approached Henry Sawchuk of blessed memory and told him my intent. He was the parish president at the time. I asked for financial help from the parish and he told me that they had a policy and he would check into the details. The parish paid $1,000 a semester for my seminary education. I graduated in 1992.
I returned again on Friday 2 February 2018 for the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord. It was like returning home again [and again and again]. At the luncheon after the Liturgy I sat next to the son-in-law of Protodecon Vladimir. He remembered that I did serve at his mother-in-law's funeral. I could not remember whether or not I served at the Protodeacon's funeral. Later I did remember serving then. I got caught up in traffic at the Kennedy Center and my mother came to the funeral. This was the second time that she has been to our church.
One time after a Slavonic service, Andrea, who directed the choir, commented, "Who would had thought that you would be serving a Slavonic service and I would be directing the choir?" If you had made that comment back in 1986 or so, I probably would had told you to wash your mouth out of soap. Today I enjoy serving in Slavonic.
Protodeacon Blagoje and I go back to 1982 when we both sang in the choir of St. Luke Serbian Orthodox Church on 16th Street.
Fr. Dennis and I had similar paths to Orthodoxy.
Andrea is still directing the choir. I sang under her in 1982.
