A Few Pictures and the Feast of Nek'resoba!

I figured I would share what happenned yesterday, since in my last blog I mentioned the feast of St. Abibus Nek'resshi.  Since I took a couple pictures (only a couple, sadly; I hoped to be able to find more of the event itself online, but I haven't had much luck so far), and wanted to share them now, I figured first I would show the pictures I've taken since my last photo-post and now as well.

November 23:

 Unfortunately, the camera focused on my window; this was taken in the morning, before school, out my window to show a couple of the ox and cow-herders at work

November 24:

 Some children out playing in the...snow, snow snow snow SNOW!!! (think Irving Berlin).

November 25:

November 26:

 The small garden next to our main yard, and the rest of the view, from the balcony.

November 29:

 The mountains, as viewed from our yard.  Note the banana trees (cut for winter) with snow on them, as I mentioned in my "Have you ever..." blog entry.

November 30:

 The mountains at sunset.

December 12:

So in the morning, Fr. Davit came and picked me up, and to my surprise (though it would explain why we started out so early (7AM; it was still dark and cold)), we went first to the monastery (convent) he serves and held Liturgy.  After that, we went to Q'vareli, and joined the processional, which couldn't have started off much before we got there (as they were only perhaps half the way out of Q'vareli from the Church) as it went off toward Nek'resi:

 The processional, as seen from ahead.

The processional, as seen from near the very front.  For the non-Orthodx, the banners have icons on them.  Fr. Davit is on the right, and another very wonderful priest, whose name I unfortunately cannot recall, is on the left with the cross.  Behind me is a large reliquary being carried by four men.

We walked there, the choir behind chanting, until we got to Nek'resi.  Along the way, I met someone who speaks English and learned more about St. Abibus' life.  I also found out that, unlike what I wrote a couple days ago, we were not going all the way up to the top (though they have done it before in other processionals) because the Church dedicated to St. Abibus is at the bottom of this monastery-on-a-hill.  It's pretty awesome to see as many people in processional as there were.

Once we got there, we found that three bishops were there to serve (one was Metropolitan Sergi, the other two, judging by their pectoral adornment, were normal bishops), and there were a ton of priests and monks.  Unfortunately, as some of the priests do not always wear their pectoral crosses, it can sometimes be difficult to tell who's a priest and who's a monk.  Anyway, the liturgy there was good, though a bit difficult to hear (except for the choir, which was quite large and loud) because there were so many people between the clergy and where I was standing.  We did it all outside the small church, because of its size, except for the deacon, who went in and out quite a few times to cense, and when the priests likewise needed to go behind the altar.  Afterwards, we venerated the relics from the reliquary we brought, and after that went to a small cultural festival they arranged (i.e., Georgian polyphonic singing, churchkhela, et cetera) before going into the restoraunt for a supra.  Many of the priests and monks went instead to the trapeza for a meal (I was among them, taken under wing by Mama Davit) before coming out to receive blessings from the bishops before they left (luckily, I was able to receive a blessing from them as well--or at least, from the metropolitan and one of the other bishops), and then continue in the supra that had been going on in the resauraunt.  I came back to home after it all (by car) overstuffed and quite tired, but happy with a day well spent.

Well, today's been a normal day at school--other than showing up in my fifth grade class to find that they had all gone home for the day (probably a teacher got mixed up on the schedule and excused them a period early).  I probably won't blog again until near the Christmas break, unless something exciting comes up, but I will try to send off one blog before I leave, just letting everyone know about any last updates.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

In Christ,

Teopile/Theophilos Porter