Bishop in Bother, Marathon Man, Soya Sandwich, Chimney Nation, Right-Brain Orthodoxy, Vergina Video

This morning I went to the suburban church where I know the priest and chief chorister. After the service we went over to the dining hall of the theology academy and sat down at a table where a couple of academics were discussing the case of the Bishop of Attica, who is currently in prison after being convicted of embezzlement. When asked the purpose of his three million Euro private account, he is said to have replied that he needed it for his retirement. All bishops in the Greek Orthodox church are monks.

Thanasis, the chorister, is a keen athlete. He swims and cycles a lot, and last November he ran the Marathon, which, of course, here in Greece, follows the original route from Marathon to Athens. This is somewhat hilly in part so cannot be run at the same speed as in other flatter locations – the record here is about 2 hours 10 minutes compared to a world record of just 2 or 3 minutes over the two hours. Thanasis came in somewhere between seven and eight hundredth with a time of 3 hours 40.

During our conversation I ate a soya cheese toasty. As such it conformed to the standards for the Great Lent fast during which the devout abstain from meat, fish and dairy products. They can eat food containing oil but the more rigorous abstain even from this on all or most weekdays. Squid and octopus can also be consumed, because they contain no blood. Thanasis said he eats the former from tins (something I used to do often when I first came here) and beans, but confessed to putting dairy based protein powder in his fruit juice in order to give himself strength for his heavy workouts.

After lunch I went to sit in the sun and read in the little square near my flat. When I first arrived, there was just a well tanned but somewhat unkempt old boy walking around jangling his keys. Soon, though, a chum of his, who looked considerably older, arrived with what looked like his daughter and granddaughter. The new arrival was frail and had to be helped to the bench by the womenfolk. They all chatted together with the men smoking and chucking their buts on the ground. The older guy looked like he’d been through a few packets in his time, and was thus a rather typical Greek. I read in a course book that Greeks smoke the highest number of cigarettes per head in the EU – something like 7.7 per person per day. This fits in with my experience – even the mother who came with her little daughter sat down and lit up while the little girl rolled her ball around. It’s next to impossible to find cafes or restaurants with meaningful no-smoking areas. A small coffee bar comes to mind where the high table with bar stools by the window has a no smoking sign on it, but is immediately adjoined by a table with an ashtray. In company, even at the restaurant table, non-smokers are expected to put up with others’ fumes, and only in bigger internet cafes can you hope to have a more or less smokeless spot.

The sun is now approaching its equinox and, on a clear day like today, you can feel its heat on your face even at five in the afternoon. It’s rather odd when a cool Balkan breeze blows across your back at the same time.

It seems that what Orthodoxy has done is to successfully preserve the right brain side of Christianity. High Protestantism is largely a left brain religion – exposition, exhortation, assertion, discussion and acceptance (or otherwise) of theological propositions, rational praise and so on. Much of orthodoxy though cannot really be fully rationalised. It’s tradition – the way things have always been done – and it draws on all the senses, with rich colours, sights, sounds and smells. The only question we can ask is, “overall, is it in Christ?” I would answer this in the affirmative. At an intellectual level I don’t go along with praying to Mary and the saints, but this is only part of a much greater whole which is sincerely done to the glory of God. The ritual as a whole honours God, putting the participant in his rightful position of a sinner supplicating the mercy of his Maker, whilst at the same time communicating something about the Deity and our relation to Him in a sphere outside that of reason and logic. As humans there is more to us than just rationality, and in religion, as in other aspects of life, the right side of the brain has to have a realm to wander in.

Here's the video from last week's trip to Vergina, showing the Macedonian basin from where Alexander set off on his amazing conquests.