Tag: Russian Orthodoxy

Good Friday

I think today will be really busy, so I am going to do a quick post now, before we are rolling too quickly through the day.  Today is Good Friday.  Which means we will have a service at 2 PM and one at 6 PM.  The church should be pretty full today at 2, as there is no school today.  I will be making some bread and baked salmon to take over to my mother’s for dinner.  I also need to check to see if the store has any baby’s breath to fill out the flower arrangements at the church.

Rolling back into our old routine, SP came over for breakfast.  He chose to eat one of those cereals he hardly ever gets because they are so disgusting…Lucky Charms. 

Breakfast as usual.
Breakfast as usual.

And guess who is not letting him far from her sight?  You guessed it – Teva. 

Teva.
Teva.

Now we just need it to be a teensy bit warmer outside for the Easter egg hunt on Sunday!

Othodox Easter, plus SP and Alena coming home!

We are fast approaching, by the Julian calendar, the day we proclaim Christ is Risen.  The mysteries of the Julian calendar never fail to confuse me.  But I love using it for our orthodox services.  Alaska is actually the only diocese in the US who continues to use the Julian calendar.  The calendar was introduced by Julius Ceasar, in 46 BC, and revised, most recently, in 1923.  Probably more than you wanted to know.

We have been celebrating presanctified lenten services this week, and this morning we had our last lenten service.  Father Jonah announced it with such joy, that I felt like leading the parishoners in a cheer.  AJ Bereskin, our choir leader, laughingly noted that now that she finally has the lenten tones down pat, we are done with them.

Choir leader AJ Bereskin during one of her few moments of relaxation.
Choir leader AJ Bereskin during one of her few moments of relaxation.

Choir leaders and readers in our church have to be extremely dedicated to their jobs.  As an example, this week we have had services at 9 AM each morning and at 6 PM each evening.  Heaven help the rest of us if the choir leader and readers don’t show up!  I am in total awe of the amount of work that is required.

And WOO HOO.  SP and Alena are due home tomorrow.  SP had his final checkup with the doc, and the doc says everything is healing up great from his surgery.  Everybody do a dance for good flying weather.  They are due on the 5 PM flight.