Strange Sunday

Sundays should never seem strange, but today did. It was the first real day celebrating the Eucharist without our Raleigh church family and our precious Pelikan family.

Papa had prepared the small Roman Catholic chapel the night before by setting up a small icon box and a prothesis table (Karis and Misha ... have Mommy and Daddy explain this to you and what it means), arranging things so that the Orthodox Divine Liturgy could be celebrated. The little chapel seats about 20 people - plenty since I was the only one in the congregation this morning. It's in the big chapel building, in a smaller room next to the main chapel hall, where all the other church services on the military base take place. Papa left earlier than me to prepare and then I arrived a little before 8:00 for the Divine Liturgy.

It's a bit problematic when there is no one else to sing or chant, no Deacon and a limited amount of time, and the fact that a different service will be starting soon in the next big room. We are working through these challenges and are very grateful to have a beautiful little space like this at all. Little by little, we will be able to set up the space to look more like what we're used to for Orthodox worship, but for now we know that this will take time.

Next week I will try to take some pictures for you to see what it's like.

For now I say . . .

Ciao, Bella ~ Mimi