Call Me Matushka :)

Today my husband was ordained a deacon in the Orthodox church at St. Sergius of Radonezh chapel in Syosset, NY. There were no major catastrophes to getting there, no potty training accidents or injuries among my children, and the baby slept for almost an hour of the service. That makes for a good liturgy in my book!

There was a slight hiccup in my plan to record the ordination via photos and videos, because our memory card was too full, but others took photos, so hopefully we'll get those soon.

In the Russian tradition, deacons' and priests' wives are referred to as "matushka," which means, "mother." Since the entirety of my husband's deaconal ministry is very likely to take place here at seminary, I had decided I wasn't going to take up that title. I'm not anyone's "matushka," in the spiritual sense, until we have a parish to speak of. Besides, here at seminary, you can't throw a rock without hitting some matushka or another, so it seemed silly to put on such a title.

What's funny about this is that Metropolitan Jonah called me up to the front at the end of the liturgy by calling out, "Matushka!" So there I went running. He then went on to tell me that I was now a matushka and, even though my husband was the one to walk around the altar, I had been given a ministry by God as well. He said that the name of matushka signifies what that ministry means. So, I guess I'm a matushka! :)

Trot, Trot to Boston Town and Other News

We just spent the weekend in Boston (well, Brookline/Jamaica Plains) for the ordination of hubby's "godson" (D. was his sponsor when he was chrismated 5 years ago) to the diaconate. He's a soon-to-be graduate at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. It was a joy to be present for this event, as well as to see the beautiful campus and tight-knit community at Holy Cross. Many years and axios to Deacon Michael and his family.

Speaking of ordinations, there had been a hold on them around here with our bishop (Metropolitan +JONAH) on leave, so we were experiencing a bit of "hurry up and wait." We rushed to get all the paperwork submitted, etc. in January and then just had to wait until at least after Pascha to see what would happen. Just today we were told that D.'s ordination to the diaconate will not happen until the fall semester. We still don't know anything about possible placement after graduation, but we're taking one step at a time.

The next things we have going on are graduation and bidding farewell to so many close friends here immediately followed by a long car trip to (eventually) Texas. We haven't been back to our homeland ( :) ) since January of 2010 and we're starting to worry that they might forget about us! We're looking forward to seeing family and many dear friends we've missed terribly. We should be in the Fort Worth area June 1-7, so if you're one of our Texas friends, be sure to call us and come see us.

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!