Greetings from Athens,
We are here on a business related reason, and found ourselves at the Archdiocesan Metropolis (Cathedral) for Divine Liturgy today...
Since Sundays are still Sundays here, and stores and supermarkets are not opened, and since the Metropolis is located within the historic tourist area of Plaka, (the old city) at the base of the Acropolis, there were many tourists walking in to check out the Byzantine liturgy. I noticed that some of them were Roman Catholics who would reverendly cross themselves at various times, including a quick kneel and/or bow towards the altar at leaving.
After the Divine Liturgy, the priests proceeded to the other side of the square infront of the Church, where a bronze statue of the last Emperor Constantine Paleologos (#?), stands.
At this place, a 'mnymosyno'/'memorial service' was chanted for the last Emperor of Byzantium, who fought alongside his countrymen against the invading Ottomans.
A band played, and the moving hymn, 'Champion General/Invinciple Champion' (Tin Ipermaho) was sung from the famous Akathist to the Theotokos. The Priest also remembered those Greek and Roman citizens of Byzantium who fought together valiantly on that sad and fateful day in the history of Christianity.
After five hundred and some years, it was moving to pray for the soul of the last leader of the Christian Byzantine Empire. May his memory, and the memory of all who perished that horrible day, be eternal in the Kingdom of our God!
May Christianity one day flourish again on the shores of the Bosporus..in God's time and in God's way--
(to make clear that I am not making any political expansionist gestures for the nation of Greece
).
Alice
