Community Corner

An Open Mind At St. Sophia Hellenic Orthodox Church

Censers and icons at this Greek Orthodox Church

There are times when you come across a building that just doesn’t seem like it’s in the right place. At Macalester College in Minnesota, one dorm was elevated on pillars and there was a running joke that we had accidentally gotten the plans for a hurricane-resistant building meant for a Florida university. Early on in the movie The Deer Hunter, the establishing shots take in a foundry, gritty-looking downtown, and an inexplicable pile of a church with onion domes. Here in New London, the rounded, sandy-colored St. Sophia Hellenic Orthodox Church isn’t quite as jarring but still looks like it could have been transplanted from the Mediterranean.

The slightly out of place feeling was bolstered by the arrangement of Sunday services. While some of the churches I visited included multiple times listed simply as “Sunday service,” St. Sophia did not explicitly list when a service was to take place. Rather, there was matins at 8:30 a.m. and liturgy an hour later.

Not knowing if matins was the official beginning of an ongoing service, I opted to arrive early to start with that. Father Charles Sinones, a retired priest who led St. Sophia for 45 years and continues to help with services, greeted me at the door. Recognizing me as a newbie, he promptly set me up with someone to help me out. This was Dr. David Arpie of Groton, who has been attending the church for just over a year. Matins is a nearly nonstop chanting prayer from the clergy at the front of the church, alternating between English and Greek, and Arpie had a large book serving as a guide for services.

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Continuous standing and holding a heavy text is a bit of a task, so Arpie eventually suggested that it would be OK to sit down. The only other person attending matins from the start, an older woman several rows in front of us, stayed on her feet for most of the hour-long service.

“She’s 85 years old. She’s stronger than steel,” Arpie joked.

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The worship in the church is rather fluid. About a dozen people had floated in by the end of matins, and more and more came in at different times throughout the liturgy portion until much of the church was full. The matins and liturgy, to me, seemed nearly indistinguishable; Sinones later told me that it went from psalms and recognition of saints to scriptural quotes. The songlike service continued to alternate languages and brought in a few biblical lessons, with a “great entrance” of clergy preceding the communion.

Several times during the service, a bell-clad censer was swung to distribute incense. The front of the church is filled with beautiful icons, including one of Jesus Christ on a large half-dome over the altar. Father Dean Panagos said at the end of the service that the iconography “communicates the message of God’s saving grace,” a message created by everything from the artwork to the chants to the church building.

The service had some resemblance to that of the St. James Episcopal Church one I visited in April, though the most noticeable difference seemed to be that the congregation is largely passive. Unlike services with hymns and responsive reading and other features, parishioners are largely observant rather than participatory. Arpie said this meditative aspect was one thing that drew him to the church.

“I’m very drawn to the contemplative lifestyle,” he said. “The Greek Orthodox really follows that tradition.”

Eleni Mosher, a Greek native who now resides in Quaker Hill, has attended the church for 56 years.

“I love everything about the church,” she said. “I came here when I was 19, so I know more about this church than the one I was born into.”

Sinones said the bilingual services are part of the slow transition from Greek to English. Along with the other members of the congregation, he was very welcoming and glad to talk about the church. Recognizing that new visitors might be a little daunted by the traditions, he left me with one piece of advice:

“Attend our church with an open mind,” he said. “I know from a sociological and a scriptural perspective that it will be a cultural shock.”

Matins at St. Sophia Hellenic Orthodox Church starts at 8:30 a.m., and the liturgy starts at 9:30 a.m.


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