Axios! Axios! Axios!

The reason we were in Chicago in the first place was for our friend Musil's Ordination:

Yes, Brandon and I attended our first Greek Orthodox service. The church was ornately decorated with lots of golden artwork of Saints. The service was long and most of it was in Arabic, with some Greek and a bit of English thrown in. Musil's family is from Sryia and most of the attendees were dark haired with big noses - I fit right in!

When I could catch some of the parts in English, I recognized similar elements to the Episcopal Church service - bible readings, prayers of the people, Nicene creed and Brandon's favorite - the peace! We even took communion. The priest dipped the (real) bread in wine and placed it in our mouths. This website told me we shouldn't have actually taken communion...oops. This website has a pretty similar description of the ordination ceremony that we experienced.

Musil is now a deacon and will be a priest next year. He is studying divinity at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary in Pittsburgh, PA. We're so proud of our Musil!