that is just WAY too long of a hiatus
So, last week I was at Holy Trinity Church in Vineland, NJ for their 60th anniversary, serving with Metropolitan Laurus. It was nice & peaceful, and a good opportunity to practice serving as a subdeacon. And Vladyka took the opportunity to ask how I was... am I married yet? Are there plans to get married? Do I want to get married? When will I get married? I had better get married... or else just become a monk already. He did this twice the whole weekend. So thats been burning a nice little hole in my brain all week. ::sigh::
And where was I? Ah yes- Ive been home from my trip to Russia for well over a month now. Since then, Ive:
- travelled with the miraculous icon of St. Anna to Holy Cross Hermitage in West Virginia for their patronal feast; (pictures here)
- hitched a ride to Cleveland, worked on an enormous icon of Christ during the week, visited an otherwise uknown OCA monastery in Ohio, then sang/served the weekend of St. Sergius Day; (pictures here & here)
-caught a 2 AM train from Cleveland to Washington, DC... one of the most beautiful & scenic train rides I've ever been on;
-hung out for a few days in the DC area, walked all over the Mall, attended an akathist at a mission parish, and met one of ROCOR's few African American priests. (pictures here)
What else? Oh- and the children's book I illustrated is at the presses right now, and will be out next month.
In a nutshell, I think that about covers it. Wait- how was Russia, you may ask? In a word, fantastic. :) In the process, I did end up missing the Sretensky Choir tour & the visit of the "Reigning" Icon of the Mohter of God, but I dont regret going for one instant. I saw just a ton of stuff, and got to meet so many people... really it was a true "behind the scenes" tour. Basically, I lived as a Russian for 10 days, not as a tourist. It confirmed a few ideas of mine but mostly challenged the rest of my ideas. Hopefully, I'll give a detailed report, day by day. For now, you'll all just have to be content with the pictures... Enjoy.
EDIT: Also got some new spec's (finally!), as can be seen in the pic.