Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 126, Saint Nektarios Church, Tsesmes, Rethymnon

The Church of Saint Nektarios in Tsemes, east of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The General Synod of the Church of Ireland is due to conclude its meeting today, and once again I am likely to find myself in front of a the screen of my laptop for much of the morning, if not much of the day, taking part in ‘Zoom’ meetings.

But, before the day gets busy, I am taking a little time this morning for prayer, reflection and reading. Each morning in the time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

My theme for these few weeks is churches in Rethymnon on the island of Crete, where I spent two weeks in mid-September.

My photographs this morning (2 October 2021) are from the Church of Saint Nektarios, in small village of Tsesmes, east of Rethymnon, in the hills above the long stretch of beach at Platanias.

Inside the Church of the Saint Nektarios in Tsesmes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I have been visiting Rethymnon almost annually since the mid-1980s, and I have stayed in the suburban areas of Platanias and Tsesmes, east of Rethymnon, since 2015. This area is a mix of suburban, commercial, and slowly developing tourism.

The shops and supermarkets cater primarily for the local residents, but there is a number of small hotels and apartment blocks where I have stayed, including La Stella, Varvara’s Diamond, and Julia Apartments, and restaurants that I have become comfortable with and where I receive a warm welcome each time I return.

These two villages have merged almost seamlessly, and although they have two churches, they form one parish, served by one priest, Father Dimitrios Tsakpinis.

These churches are recently-built parish churches: the church in Platanias dates from 1959 and the church in Tsesmes from 1979. They are small, and in many ways, unremarkable churches, compared to the older, more historic churches in the old town of Rethymnon.

But when I am staying in Platanias and Tsesmes, I have seen them as my parish churches, and I have always been welcomed warmly.

The church in Tsesmes is dedicated to Saint Nektarios (1846-1920), Metropolitan of Pentapolis and Wonderworker of Aegina. He was born in Selymbria (today Silivri, Istanbul), and at the age of 14 moved to Constantinople. In 1866, at the age of 20, he moved to the island of Chios to take up a teaching post. Ten years later, in 1876, he became a monk.

Saint Nektarios served the church in Cairo and Greece, and was recognised as a saint in 1961.

Father Dimitrios, the parish priest, celebrates the Divine Liturgy on alternate Sundays in the churches in Platanes and in Tsesmes. However, churchgoing is often low in numbers in the summer months because of the heavy demands on local people working in the tourism sector.

Throughout the liturgy, there is a regular censing of the people by the priest, as they present themselves as a holy people, prepared to meet Christ in the proclamation of the Gospel, in offering the gifts of bread and wine, and the presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

I am always taken aback at the small number of people who actually receive the Communion in Greek churches on a Sunday morning, although everyone takes portions of the blessed bread or prosphora afterwards to bring home, making the day holy for the whole family.

An icon of Christ the Great High Priest on the bishop’s throne in Saint Nektarios Church in Tsesmes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 10: 17-24 (NRSVA):

17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ 18 He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19 See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’

21 At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’

23 Then turning to the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.’

An icon of the Holy Trinity in Saint Nektarios Church in Tsesmes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (2 October 2021, International Day of Nonviolence) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for an end to conflict, and a renewed commitment to peace..

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

After the Divine Liturgy in Saint Nektarios Church in Tsesmes on a Sunday morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The triple-bells of Saint Nektarios Church in Tsesmes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

One family’s story of love and tragedy during the Holocaust

The walls of the Pinkas Synagogue are covered with the names of 78,000 victims of the Holocaust … one name provided clues for Ariana Neumann’s book ‘When Time Stopped’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Packing for a holiday is always a difficult task. It’s not so much which clothes, towels or suncream to take, but which books to take … and which books not to take.

I no longer need to take a Bible or prayer book, as these are easy to find on my laptop and on my phone. I always take a number of local guidebooks – even if I’ve been there before, there’s always somewhere new to discover or explore, and something new to learn. And I also like to take some poetry, and the latest editions of the Economist, New Statesman and the Church Times.

Last month, my case to Rethymnon also included two books I am reviewing for journals, and one paperback that I thought, from its formatting and presentation, was going to be lighter reading by the pool or on the beach: When Time Stopped by Ariana Neumann.

Yes, I read it by the beach and by the pool, and, although a review on BuzzFeed says it ‘reads like a thriller and is so, so timely,’ it was anything but light reading.

Ariana Neumann grew up as a Catholic in Caracas in the 1970s, the daughter of successful industrialist, publisher and philanthropist in Venezuela. But it was a chance remark from a fellow student during her orientation at Tufts University near Boston that led her to the story of her father’s family.

Her search was also stimulated by questions about Jan Šebesta, whose Nazi-issued ID card she found as a child, later being told at Tufts that she must be Jewish, hearing her father sob by an old railway station in Czechoslovakia, and finding his name among the 77,297 Nazi victims listed on the memorial that covers the walls of the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague.

Over time, and through a worldwide search, she put back together the details of the family tree, rediscovering the intimate details of their lives, loves and suffering.

The first member of the Neumann family to die in the Holocaust, her cousin Ota, was arrested by the Nazis in the former Czechoslovakia fin 1941 for swimming in a stretch of river forbidden to Jews. He was deported to Auschwitz and was murdered 11 days later.

She found how her grandparents, Ella and Otto Neumann, were sent to Terezín (Theresienstadt) in 1942. Their daughter-in-law Zdenka was not Jewish but smuggled herself into Terezín on at least two occasions to offer them comfort and support before slipping out again. They survived for two years before being sent to Auschwitz where they were murdered in 1944.

Of the 34 members of the Neumann family she identifies, 25 were murdered by the Nazis. One of the survivors was Hans Neumann, Ariana’s father, who avoided deportation twice, and went into hiding after his third call-up. He escaped certain death in the Holocaust by travelling to Berlin and hiding in plain sight under the very eyes of the Gestapo.

But his experiences were so horrific, he never found the words to share them with his own children. When Hans died, he left his daughter a small box filled with letters, diary entries, and other memorabilia. But it took Ariana 10 years to summon the courage to have the letters translated.

When Time Stopped is an epic family memoir, spanning almost 90 years of family history. Ariana Neumann was painstaking in her research into the story of her Jewish-Czech family, and her resulting book is a gripping search for truth that is part memoir, part history, with all the qualities of a well-written novel.

But this is no fiction: it is both harrowing and beautiful at one and the same time, filled with tragedy, sorrow and death alongside hope, love and life.

There are some brief stories of bruising encounters with the Ursuline nuns at school in Caracas, and of nominal conversions to Catholicism to ensure the legality of marriages under Nazi occupation. But there is virtually no discussion of the faith, beliefs, customs and practises of a largely secular Jewish family in central Europe.

What provided them with hope? Where did they find spiritual succour? Did they ever come together at Passover or Hanukkah?

And, on this Friday evening, two weeks after finishing this book in Rethymnon, I find myself wondering whether someone, anyone, prays the mourner’s kaddish for those who died such terrible deaths.

Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the world
which he has created according to his will.

May he establish his kingdom in your lifetime and during your days,
and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon;
and say, Amen.

May his great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honoured,
adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be he,
beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that
are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us
and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates peace in his celestial heights,
may he create peace for us and for all Israel;
and say, Amen.

Shabbat Shalom

● Ariana Neumann has worked as a foreign correspondent for Venezuela’s The Daily Journal and has also written for The European. She now lives in London with her family. When Time Stopped is published in paperback by Scribner (London, 2021), and sells in Irish bookshops for €10.95.

‘When Time Stopped’ … a memoir of resilience, hope and love during the Holocaust