Ashes to ashes...

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. I go to a Lutheran college, so it wasn't a surprise when a group of us were interested in finding a church to go to. But how easy do you think it is to find a Protestant church in the middle of a Greek Orthodox country?

We ended up finding a church that was within walking distance from our hotel. Crazy lucky, eh? So there are 14 of us who are going to the service. It is this really old Anglican church. The service is in English (thank goodness!) and the pastor is from England. It wasn't exactly a Lutheran service, but it was incredibly interesting. We sang one hymn, and the hymnal didn't have any music written in it! It was funny though-- I go to a very musical college, and by the second verse we had all picked up on the melody, and by the third and fourth verse, I definitely heard people harmonizing!

We read some liturgies and responses, and scripture was read. They marked us with ashes on our foreheads and then we took communion. Overall it was a very nice service.

As I mentioned, there were 14 people in our group. If you don't count us, I would estimate that there were about 10-15 people attending the service. At first I thought that was kind of sad that there were so few people in attendance. Then I thought about a few things. First of all, how many protestant Christians do you think there are in Athens, Greece? Probably not many to begin with. Secondly, how many of them are able to go to a church service at 10:00 AM on a Wednesday? Probably not many, either.

It also made me realize that these people (and now I am generalizing-- "these people" refers to the Protestant Christians in a primarily Greek Orthodox society) must be very strong in their faith. To live in a city with 4,000,000 people within the city lines and attend a church with an attendance fewer than 30 has got to create a tight bond between the 30 people. The feeling of having such a strong belief in God that you will still go to an Ash Wednesday service was inspirational to me.

That's it. I'm really getting to orient myself to this area of the city which is nice because I know how places are connected and can find my way back to stores and cafes that I have been to before.
Tomorrow we are going to the Theater of Dionysis where we actually get to perform! One of my classes is a theater class and we have been working on monologues and scenes for it. Our final performance isn't until next Friday, but tomorrow we get to go and practice on the real stage! Think of all the real actors who haven't been able to do this... and here I am, a measly college kid with no intention of using my theatrical ability for stage performance, and I get this opportunity! Needless to say, I'm pretty excited.