Dear Friends,
I promised to post regarding the Enthronement of Archbishop Cyril as Bishop of the Eparchy of Newton of the Melkite Greek-Catholics in the United States. So, here goes.
Unfortunately, I have no photos to offer
, since the demands on my time (which included being pressed into last-minute service as the unofficial �Master of Protocol�) precluded my ever whipping a camera from my jacket pocket. (I�m still hopeful that I�ll be able to obtain some photos from someone and post those.) The ceremony was video-taped by Tele-Luminarie (?sp) and as soon as I can get info on its proposed distribution/ broadcast I will pass it on.
Firstly, let me thank our own Charles Bransom, who was kind enough to provide last minute e-mail consultation for us on a couple of points of protocol.
In addition to the Nuncio, most the Latin hierarchs in the Boston and Hartford Metropolitan Provinces (which together constitute all of New England), including the Archbishops of Boston and Hartford, were present. In addition to the US, Brazilian, and Canadian Melkite hierarchs, the Eastern representation included the Syriac and both Maronite Eparchs, the Armenian Exarch, the Ukrainian Arch-Eparch together with an Emeritus Auxiliary, the Ruthenian Metropolitan Arch-Eparch and two other Ruthenian Eparchs. All in all, I'd say hierarchical attendance was good.
Attendance by both active and retired Melkite clergy, including a number of our deacons, was excellent. There was a pall cast by the repose, a week earlier, by our Deacon Nicholas Rosov, memory eternal, from Holy Transfiguration in McLean, VA, and, early in the same week, of Father Archimandrite Simon Hage, memory eternal, a retired Salvatorian priest who served St. Ann's in New London/Waterford until a few years ago. Father Simon was very popular and, despite his age (93) had been active until recently.
No hierarchs of Sister Churches were present (Metropolitan Methodios of the GOA, who had planned to attend, had to cancel at the last minute), but lesser prelates represented the Greek, Antiochian, and Syrian Orthodox Churches.
Our own comedy of errors began with Archbishop Cyril's luggage failing to arrive on his Monday flight and not finally catching up with him until 11:00pm the night prior to the enthronement, which was also the Patriarch's arrival time, since he missed a scheduled flight that would have brought him from the West Coast several hours earlier. During the ensuing ride from the airport, the Patriarch and Bishop John had a conversation in Arabic, which I deduced to be an inquiry as to who would be in attendance. I whipped out a copy of the Order of Procession, which satisfied those (of course, Bishop John then volunteered the names of a few expected attendees of whom the Father Eugene Mitchell, the Cathedral Rector, and I had been unaware until then). His Beatitude then asked about the planned sequence of events, with most of which I dealt. The Patriarch then announced a meeting for 9:30am to go over the entire event, rattling off several variations of the attendee lists that he'd like to have for his reference. That established the agenda for the remainder of my night, since Father Eugene was sleeping (probably fitfully), but at least blissfully unaware of the coming meeting.
I was leaning on the rectory doorbell at 7:00am, sheaves of paper and diskette in hand, demanding into the intercom that he have coffee ready. The two of us and Bashir (a former seminarian and presently parish "secretary" for lack of a better title), spent the next two hours poring over the Service Book printed for the occasion, consulting Antiochian, Greek, and Russian service books, typing and revising lists, and drawing layouts of the hierarchical seating. At 9:30, Father Eugene and I headed next door to the Chancery (it had been decided the night before that I should attend the meeting to support Father Eugene, though it meant one less person available for airport runs, already stretched thin.)
The meeting went very well. The Patriarch and Archbishop Cyril were impressed with our rationale as to how precedence was to be accorded to the various hierarchs expected to attend and how we applied it to the Order of Procession and seating. (We measured success in the latter regard by the fact that His Beatitude decided against doing a walk-through of the Cathedral � something we wanted to avoid at all costs, principally because of time � but also because we were concerned that it would open the door to any number of additional, last minute modifications). Finally, we went through the Service Book, page-by-page, explaining, clarifying, and answering questions. An hour after we arrived, we were dismissed with blessings, kudos, and only extremely minor modifications to the entire process.
A light catered brunch for the hierarchy was held in a small function room off the main hall at 11:00am; most of the hierarchy who were going to be at the Liturgy were able to be there and spent a pleasant couple of hours together. About 1:20pm, we began collecting clergy and hierarchs from various locales and sending them to classrooms in the old hall, beneath the Cathedral. The rooms were labeled and desks and tables available for vesting (the invites had specified that those concelebrating should bring their vestments and that others should bring choir dress). At about 1:30pm, Father Tom Steinmetz (selected for the role because of his former vocation as a police officer in Manchester, NH J) began organizing the procession.
The servers, with candles, ripidia (liturgical fans), cross, and thurible led, followed by the Knights and Ladies of Jerusalem and of the Holy Sepulchre. After them came members of religious congregations not in holy orders (novices, nuns, religious brothers, and brother monks), followed by seminarians, non-celebrating readers, cantors, sub-deacons, and deacons, all of them paired.
Next were the 8 serving deacons, proto-deacons and arch-deacons. Orthodox clergy (other than those formally representing hierarchs) followed, immediately before Latin priests and Eastern hiero-monks and presbyters with no title of minor prelature (we generally didn�t try to order the latter group, since we only had information readily available as to our own). Next were minor prelates formally representing Orthodox hierarchs, followed by Catholic minor prelates - Latin (monsignori) and Eastern (monsignori, archimandrites, archpriests, periodeuts, chorepiscopi, and non-Melkite proto-presbyters). We ordered our own and did what we could to order the others.
Non-hierarchical concelebrants, consisting of a priest-classmate of Archbishop Cyril, the Cathedral Rector, the Melkite Proto-Presbyters, a Maronite Chorbishop, and a Melkite Patriarchal Exarch were next, vested. These were followed by Hegumens and Abbots; then by Bishops of the Latin and Eastern Churches, ordered by episcopal precedence. The Eastern hierarchs were vested, the Latin bishops were principally in choir vesture. The Metropolitan Archbishops of the Latin and Eastern Churches were next, followed by the Eparch-Elect, accompanied by the Eparch-Emeritus. The Nuncio, followed by the Patriarch, brought up the rear.
The procession advanced from the hall, around the building and to the front entrance of the Cathedral. As it entered (about 2:00pm), the Cathedral choir (supplemented by choir members from other parishes who were in attendance, and a few clergy noted for the quality of their voices) began to chant. Those processing went to their assigned places: in the pews; in the sanctuary (concelebrating clergy and hierarchs, non-concelebrating hierarchs); on the solea (Patriarch, Apostolic Nuncio, Latin Metropolitans, minor prelates representative of the Orthodox Churches, serving deacons). Archbishop Cyril assumed the throne, set on a platform in the middle of the center aisle.
The Liturgy proceeded. The Nuncio read the bulla, after which the Patriarch presented him the episcopal staff and gave over care of the Eparchy, its Cathedral, churches, clergy, and faithful to him. The deacons vested him and he made the Little Entrance. The Liturgy was primarily served in English, with what was described afterwards by a non-Melkite hierarch as a nice balance of Arabic and Greek. The Patriarch, in his homily, charged Archbishop Cyril with expanding the eparchy further and fostering vocations to the priesthood, promising that the Patriarchate would continue to assist in providing priests for the Eparchy in the interim. He specifically voiced his expectation that the Archbishop re-vitalize both St. Gregory�s (Eparchial) and Saint Basil�s (Salvatorian) Seminaries. Archbishop Cyril spoke briefly, thanking everyone for their warm welcomes and assuring them that he would do his best to meet their expectations. At the conclusion of the Liturgy, around 4:30pm, the Melkite clergy came forward to offer their obeisance.
Starting at 5:00pm, a reception with hors d�oeurves and cocktails was held in the hall, with dinner beginning at 6:00pm. There were approximately 300 attendees. The head table consisted of the Patriarch, Archbishop Cyril, Bishop John, the other two Melkite Eparchs, the two Maronite Eparchs, Vladyka William (Skurla) of Van Nuys, and the Melkite Exarch, who served as MC. The Patriarch, Archbishop Cyril, and Bishop John each spoke briefly (well, at least the latter two were brief � His Beatitude, for him, was restrained in duration, if not brief J) and the banquet ended about 10:00pm.
My impressions of the hierarchy:
Archbishop Cyril is very personable, speaks well and understandably in English, is friendly and down-to-earth with a quick smile and a sense of humor, very likeable, patient, a quick study, anxious to learn who�s who. His first purchases in America were sneakers and a pair of sweats J (to replace those in his misplaced luggage, from what I gathered). In answer to the Immigration Officer�s question as to the purpose of his visit, he said �I am an Archbishop, that�s my job. And I have come here to do it.� Someone else described him as looking �like a man who knows how to pray� � a description with which I would concur, although I can�t put my finger on the specific characteristic that suggests it to me.
Sayednah Fares (Maakaroun), Eparchy of Nossa Senhora do Para�so em S�o Paulo of the Melkites, is very short in stature, something he makes up for in presence. I�ve had the pleasure of meeting Sayednah Fares previously and it is always a pleasure to do so. The man is hilarious; there is absolutely no pretense about him. He is friendly, unabashed, and can only be described as �a character�. At the Chancery, when Archbishop Cyril arrived and folks were milling around greeting (and, in some cases, fawning), Sayednah felt certain that people (including the Archbishop) must be hungry; so, he started removing saran wrap from the food, moving it from the sideboard to the table and, when that didn�t achieve the effect of getting folks to sit and eat, began circulating around the room with plates of hors d�oeurves, serving everyone in sight
Archbishop Stefan (Soroka), Philadelphia of the Ukrainians, was pleasant, talkative, and friendly. I complimented him on the new websites that went on-line for his Cathedral and the Archeparchy in the last six months. He was obviously pleased that I was aware of them and told me a bit about the person who created the Archeparchy site, the 17 year old son of a priest � of whom he was obviously very proud. He asked about the Ukrainian parishes in Boston and we spoke about the ethnic diversity in Boston and about Major-Archbishop Husar�s planned visit to Boston on the day after the enthronement.
Vladyka Wolodymyr (Paska), Auxiliary Emeritus, Philadelphia of the Ukrainians, traveled with Archbishop Stefan. He was pleasant but didn�t say a lot, a bit more of the old-school, reserved hierarch.
Sayednah Gregory (Mansour), Brooklyn of the Maronites, was pleasant from what little I saw (he drove up from NYC, so I didn�t have much opportunity to interact with him), as was Sayednah Robert (Shaheen), LA of the Maronites, (who I didn�t realize received part of his seminary education under our Salvatorians at St. Basil�s in Methuen). Bishop Manuel (Batakian), Armenian Exarchate, was very quiet and kept principally to himself. I can�t offer any observations at all regarding him. Vladyka John (Kudrick), Parma of the Ruthenians, was pleasant, but somewhat reserved.
Sayednah Joseph (Younan), Syriac of Newark, who has been a regular visitor to the Cathedral, celebrating the Holy Qurbono here at least once a year, going back to before his episcopal ordination, was his usual friendly self.
Metropolitan Basil (Schott), Pittsburgh of the Ruthenians, was friendly and very down-to-earth. I didn�t get an opportunity to speak with him (not even to ask about his plans regarding married clergy), except very briefly, since I didn�t do his pick-up or drop-off due to last-minute demands on my time. He was very apologetic about the need to leave prior to the banquet, due to another commitment.
Vladyka William (Skurla), Van Nuys of the Ruthenians, was an absolute pleasure to meet and serve. What a gentleman! He was friendly, talkative, very down-to-earth, yet very prayerful. I had the occasion to drive him on almost every occasion that he needed transport. He lived in Boston for a year, so knew his way around and was very interested in changes that had occurred in the years since. We discussed his Italo-Greek parish; he was obviously surprised and pleased that I was familiar with it. It was he who described the Liturgy as being a nice balance of English, Arabic, and Greek. On arrival, despite a long time in the air (and 3 hours time difference), he asked if he could stop at the Chancery to pay his respects to Bishop John, the Archbishop, and His Beatitude, before going on to the hotel. He was insistent on carrying the heaviest of his bags and very humble, cordial, gracious, and grateful for everything done for him. He spoke a bit about his upcoming ad limina visit and appeared surprised and pleased when I said that he was well spoken of, on-line, by his faithful.
All in all, the day (and week) went well. I had the opportunity to see, hug and be hugged by many old friends whom one doesn�t often get to see often, Fathers Joe Francavilla, Charlie Aboody, Alexei Smith, George Gallaro, Jimmy King, John Azar, Basil Samra, Eddie Kakaty, Frank Mileniewicz, Joe Haggar, and many others. I�m glad it�s over, though. I averaged 3-4 hours sleep per night beginning Sunday night and until I hit the sack on Thursday.
I have several copies of the Service Book, as well as the commemorative card for the occasion, and will happily send them to anyone who wants to pm me with a mailing address. Alternatively, you can e-mail me at Irish_Melkite@verizon.net , if you find that my pm box is full; it still has some room, but hasn�t been pruned in a while.
If anyone has questions, feel free to ask. The big question, �did Incognitus attend?� If he did, he did not reveal himself to me.
Many years,
Neil
got them into the mail last evening. Anyone else who still would like a copy, please pm or e-mail a mailing address to me at