Vespers with the Orthodox

Last night I rode ol' Sweet and Smooth 15 min into downtown, past the Hard Rock Cafe, the Hilton, a giant cruise ship that came into port yesterday, and over to the little Greek Orthodox church for their vespers service. I was one of the first to arrive (and I was on time). A few men were standing off to the left in big black robes singing Byzantine melodies while several old women sat in the pews. Over the next thirty minutes the tiny church slowly filled up with middle aged couples and a family with teenagers. Toward the end of the service, an elderly gentleman in a black robe got up and said, "It is my pleasure to introduce to you your new priest as of January 2nd! This is Fr. Theo." Everyone looked at the young man standing next to him. He looked very young...maybe in his mid twenties...the youngest priest I had ever seen. Fr. Theo then said some words to his soon to be new parish, "I'm excited to meet each and every one of you."

I invited myself to the reception afterward, which turned out to be quite a feast: dozens of bowls of delicious homemade food (my favorite was a cinnamon tasting lasagna from the "home country" in Greece). I was befriended by a thin man in his late sixties who energetically came up to me and said, "Hi my name is Contantino, but you can call me Tino. It's Greek you know." He was wearing a T-Shirt that said, "NYPD" and had a shaved head. He had a way of firing off a million questions all at once, and moving on to the next subject as fast as he got on to one. He was a very nice guy though and literally introduced me to half the church.

It was the first church where there weren't any black Bahamians...just white Bahamians, mostly from Greek decent. Apparently there were quite a few Greek immigrants who came to Nassau in the early 1900s and were in the sponge export business.

I had some great conversations during the course of the long evening. I met a British woman who taught 2nd grade at one of the other schools on the Island, and she told me her interesting conversion story to Orthodoxy. I met Tino's twin brother Paul (who was also thin and had a shaved head) who was a history teacher in the public schools here for 30 years. I met a visiting priest of Holy Cross Seminary in Boston who tried to convince me to move to Boston, become Orthodox, go to the seminary, marry a nice little Orthodox girl, and become an Orthodox priest. And I met a banker, a headmaster, and stay-at-home mothers. It was a great evening!