Baptism, Pt. 2

When I left off, I had just discovered that Lance was the guy I had seen as a prospective student and that I was not blind. I had originally thought he was Joel Nowlin (a colleague of ours) and was not nearly as cute as I remembered. Not that Joel Nowlin isn't great, but he is not Lance.

Anyhow, I did the only sensible thing a Catehuman in love could do and that was get baptized. I was Baptized on January 15, 2001 by Father Dmitri Weber at St. Juliana's. It was the feast of St. Juliana and Bishop Gabriel was there.

My new Godmother, Celeste Ryder, is so sweet -- the most humble and kind person ever and would never admit to this. She is really patient and helped me so much -- whether it was advice or letting me stay with her and her husband, now Deacon Anthony Ryder, during summer break. She had trained as an artist and had received the Bishop's blessing to train as an iconographer. She studied at Jordanville though the harsh winters and spent much time away from home. Now she writes icons. I miss her very much and there is so much I wish I could share with her on a more frequent basis.

Baptism is a gift. My parents and I gave the gift of Faith and tradition that spoke truth to us. What I chose to do with those three gifts was, and is, up to me. It is said that third time is a charm. Let's hope this time my Baptism sticks!

As for why we are at St. Katherine's, that is another story altogether.

For me, St. Juliana's in Santa Fe will be where I "grew up". Lance eventually became a Catehuman and was baptized. I sang in the choir, he served in the altar, and we made a point of going to the Akathist services on Friday (three canons + Akathist being the prayer rule to prepare for Communion) and Vigils on Saturday (complete with three cannons and first hour).

Lance proposed after we both graduated (me a year later than he). We were married in May of 2003 at St. Juliana's. Lance had begun work as a purchaser and technical support at a local solar energy company and I had continued to teach. I was diagnosed with breast cancer six months after we were married. The experience changed our prospective and we decided that staying in Santa Fe was amazing, but we had to move onto other things.

Lance is from Seattle and he wanted to go back to the University of Washington to get an engineering degree. I have always loved Seattle since I first visited in sixth grade. I remember seeing a girl with a shaved head and thought "this place is totally where I want to live." It would be an adventure and I was ready for it.

We had attended St. Nicholas cathedral when we would come up to Seattle for Christmas, but being a parishioner was very different. We had known some Slavonic at St. Juliana's as approximately 40% of the service was in Slavonic. The quaintness of a foreign language soon faded away and then became confusion. Lance took up the duty of reading the Epistle in English and I sang as best I could in the choir. Vigils were the most difficult because we could no longer understand the canons in English nor say the hymns well. The Saturday morning English Liturgy consisted of the priest, the two of us, and our friend Helena.

I was at my wits end by Bright Monday of that year for reasons that still don't make sense to me. I guess I didn't get feel at home like I did at St. Juliana's. I felt as if I had been staying too long with distant relatives who didn't understand why I had joined the family.

I didn't become Orthodox to become Russian. I do greatly appreciate cultural traditions that further illumine the Faith. However, to keep a tradition simply because it is Russian, or Greek, or Serbian, or whatever other culture one could throw in there, smacks of Nationalism that St. Paul addressed in his letters. He didn't approve of it and neither do I.

Lance and I ended up at the Monastery on Vashon a year after we moved to Seattle. It was ROCOR and services were in English. Lance was still in school and so the ferry rides were a nice break from studying. I sang in the choir and eventually directed only because I had a some knowledge about rubrics. The one draw back to the monastery was it was impossible to make it for Vigils and we really missed that element of church life.

Once ROCOR reunited with Moscow, we saw a way to broaden our church options. Lance occasionally needed to stay in town and would go to St. Spiridon's in Seattle. We didn't really like it there; it seemed too big and we like being a part of small communities. That and I am pretty sure this Romanian family thought I was Romanian. Even with a few years distance from the Russian social club that was St. Nicholas, I was uncomfortable being mistaken for any ethnicity other than Mexican (which I am).

A family, the Hunts, at the monastery had gone to St. Katherine's and spoke of it as a great community that they missed. Lance went to scout a Vigil. He came back a bit confused because the service wasn't the same. So I went with him next time and he was right -- parts were missing and some elements just plain odd, but it was pretty close.

We made a break for it sometime in 2007 or 2008. Father John and a few others took notice of us even though I tried to blend into the background. Father John blessed our home and met with us to find out how we could be involved in parish life. Lance was willing to help in the altar, which was welcome as Steve Stchur was looking to retire when Anna was born. I accidently left a tuning fork out so he knew I could sing. I told Father I wanted to lay low for awhile and I would rather not have information about my abilities widely known. I did offer to help with church school and did for a year.

Not a week later did Chris Hunt out me as a former choir director to Dan Homiak at the Kallistos Ware lecture and the gig was up. I didn't join the choir right away and eased myself into it. Singing helps me focus during the service. Now chasing after Nina does - sort of.

I most recently volunteered as Hospitality Shepherdess (baa) and am trying to take the role seriously but not too seriously. Lance and I both had parents who were active in their churches and we don't know any other way to belong to a church but to be involved in Parish life.

In short, I and my family are at St. Katherine's because it is the only English speaking, Liturgically conservative* parish around that is fairly small. Also, there are some really cool people that go there -- folks that think, contemplate, pray, and who are kind and generous.

If St. Katherine's undergoes some dramatic changes, we might contemplate another switch. For now, oddities in Liturgics aside, we love our church family and it is home.

*By the way, that is the only time I would ever see being conservative as a positive. Ever.