Church Building

Adjectives can’t fully describe our new church building, but my two favorites so far are Matushka Ingrid’s “Glorious,” and LouAnne’s “Breathtaking!”  It’s the most beautiful place I have ever worshipped, and yet during our first liturgy, my thoughts drifted to the people who weren’t there. There were a lot of people missing in the crowd of one hundred and sixty-six.  People who have passed away, people who have moved, and people who didn’t come.  I missed my brothers and sisters in Texas and California.  It felt like they too should be standing nearby, sharing this moment with me.  Everyone was in my heart though, so in a way, it’s almost like they were there.  I’m so thankful that God brought my family home to Albuquerque so that we could be here on this momentous day.  By the grace of God, our parish has built a church.

The walk was twice as long as last Sunday though I was on time.  The parking lot was filled like Christmas, and I had to drive past the basketball court where the weeds try to overtake the sparse gravel at the end of the parking lot.  As I passed the doors to the building which was our sanctuary days ago and is now our fellowship hall, I realized there were more steps to go.  I circled the huge domed adobe building and entered through the double doors that faced the street to the west.  Bells from the tower rang out the music for the procession of the people.  The nave…we have a nave people!!!…was empty and hushed except for the tolling bells from above and the chanting coming from the sanctuary before me.  I stepped through the wooden doors which were propped open into a brilliant, beautiful cathedral-like room.  Golden chandeliers lined with icons of the saints shined light upon the faithful.  Sunbeams streamed in from high windows above.  Pristine white walls rose into arches.  Wings gave the sanctuary the shape of a cross.  The choir to the right.  The old ladies lining benches to the left.  Parents with small children rolling on the rug before them.  I stood on the rug to be near Mike and his mom.  It was the rug that once filled our prayer corner/ front room in Fort Worth Texas, the place we held our reader services when the church was closed in 2020.  My boys were lost in the crowd standing in the center of the church though Justin joined me once I found my place.

The service started with “Blessed is the Kingdom.”  We had three priests in the altar area in the front and many altar boys and servers.  Without a wooden iconostasis, it had the open feel of a Pascal service.  The choir sang in angelic voices carried through the church with heavenly acoustics.  I breathed in the rich scent of incense.  Saints looked out of the icons set on the walls throughout the sanctuary.  Warm air rippled above the candlestands aglow with our prayers.

It was a glorious service made even more fun by the twirling of the biggest chandelier during the Cherubic Hymn.  The usual crowd was there, so many new faces to me since I returned to Albuquerque.  I looked for my friends and found them on their usual sides.  No longer packed like sardines.  There was space.  There was movement.  The beauty and the majesty were new and yet not new.  Our service has a holiness that brings me into heaven whether it’s held in a storefront or a cathedral.  The order was the same, the hymns were familiar, and yet worshiping in our new church building was as wonderful as we had hoped and prayed for over the years it was being built.

Our old building was filled with memories of all who have meant so much to our parish.  Everyone who has worshiped there has left their presence in my memory.  I could hear the voices of choir members who have passed away or see where young mothers once managed their children who are now grown.  I remember when the old lady wall was to the right instead of to the left.  I remember so much, and it has always been a comfort.

In addition to the Sunday regulars, people come from near and far to be present for this first liturgy.  We were like a woman who had put on a new dress.  The same bride, but more beautiful.  All who have passed away were there too as the Church Triumphant.  Father George, Deacon Nicholas, Michael I., Rebecca G., Nonna Gretchen, Paul S., and Mom were the people who were foremost on my mind.

I’ve been writing a cast of characters for Syra’s Scribbles V, so I’m very aware of who of my girlfriends were there.  In the front of the church, we had Kelly and Christa.  Dobrina stood in the back near Lynda who came down from Sante Fe to be there.  Jenifer was to the right next to the choir.  She was with her family who including Fr. Paul were there for Deacon Nicholas’ funeral on Tuesday.  Diane of course was still leading the choir.  Andrea stood near me, and I was near my mother-in-law who joined our ranks in 2020.  Mother Rachael sat or moved with the little children in the parish.  The other Rachael’s in-laws were there but she and her family haven’t come in ages.  Maren and her family moved to San Francisco, and Frances had moved to Arizona.  Gretchen passed away even though her hopes of seeing the new church building helped keep her alive month after month during her cancer battle.  Gretchen’s daughter was there. but so many of the children from our friend group back in the day weren’t there.  Some couldn’t come, some didn’t come, and some wouldn’t have come even if they were back in town.  I wasn’t alone in counting children, thankful for those who were there and missing those who weren’t.

Fr. Silouan from Archangel Monastery who gave the homily talked about St. Nina’s chapel in Georgia.  The original chapel has been the place of centuries of worship. He said one could sense a holiness there as you walk in the doors.  The newer building next to it is bigger, grander, and more beautiful but it feels new.  It’s ironic that all the years in the little house and our fellowship hall, while we were praying and working towards the construction of a dedicated church building, we were sanctifying the spaces we were in.  We were also growing as a loving family and so it is a family with stronger bonds, with the years of loving each other that we are moving into the building.  Not all is lost.

I think about the future.  When our children return to Church we have a beautiful building in which to worship with them.  When our yet unborn grandchildren come they can be baptized and married in this church.  I’m eager to invite my friends and share with them this beauty in addition to the blessings of my Faith.  Through the prayers of those who have gone before us.  Through the prayer of the Saints of North America, and through our prayers, may God bless our parish.