Sunday, September 02, 2007

Chant stand

Well, today what I had hoped for happened, and I'm not sure whether I was ready.

None of the chanters showed up at the beginning of Orthros, so Fr. Peter filled in for them as he had before. And filled in... and filled in. Around the Doxology, he lifted his eyebrows and beckoned me up. I picked up the bulletin (with the hymns for the little entrance) and went up.

It was really quite terrifying. The first Sunday of each month is an all-English liturgy. Strange as it may sound, I am not used to singing many of the hymns in English. (I know what they mean, but they're more comfortable in Greek.) And I hadn't heard "my" versions in such a long while I was terrified that I would forget the melodies of what I do know. Fortunately, my husband was able to stay with me for most of the Liturgy, even though he turned over some things to me abruptly.

I received many compliments of which I feel unworthy, and I have been most definitely recruited to sing in the chapel choir. (During the school year, the assistant priest leaves the main church after Orthros, leading the school children to the chapel. They have liturgy there and are dismissed to Sunday school.) From what I understand, the church secretary has been running the chapel choir; when I mentioned that I hoped it was okay that I was putting off people who wanted me in the regular choir, she asked me why. I told her I wanted to be with my husband. She gave a big grin and said, "I thought so!"

And now back to the regularly scheduled Post-Liturgical Nap.

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