Father Alexey, Old Stone, Warm Hearts, So much beauty to comprehend.

Today started with another unbelievable sunrise. 

We all had ocean view rooms in Kusudasi!

We sat in a circle today and talked about the day-- and people shared one impression-- one thing that really "got" to them.  The variety of responses was refreshing-- some people were moved by little things-- some monumental... One moving experience that was held in common was the bracelets we made today. Lynn lead us in making prayer bracelets out of hemp twine and beads. Everyone got their own length of twine in whatever color they wanted and chose 4 beads. The beads are meant to remind us to pray 4 times a day... Some people added little extras to theirs-- a Blessed Virgin pendant from Mereyemana... a cross... a heart .... 

Lynn gets us ready to make our prayer beads for one another. 

We had morning prayer next to the beach in Kusudasi.

Later we hiked up the hill to St Philip's church. The ruins have intact walls and we walked up to the apse (the top of the cross) where we celebrated communion. Tim invited us to stand during the service so we all stood. We were tired and footsore, but he wanted us to have the experience of standing during the entire service-- in the manner of our Orthodox brothers and sisters who were celebrating Eucharist today as well.

Our lunch was at a gorgeous outdoor restaurant near 

Pammukale. Roasted trout, salad of fresh parsely, cucumbers 

and tomatoes, Turkish Coffee thick as soup...

We put all our beads and a few other things under the "corporal" (a bar towel that Happy Harris had). Our communion bread was two sweet buns with crosses on them we found at a market close to our hotel in Kusudasi... our wine was Turkish red from the same market... our "paten" a CD case... our chalice a glass we procured from a sweet lady at a concession stand in the little market at the Pammukale mineral springs...  Tim stood at the bottom of the apse and put it all on a flat ledge...

Pammukale was so gorgeous. 

Bright white calcium cliffs full of 

blue mineral waters.

                        

              

There are so many things to share from Eucharist.. but the highlight for most of us was at the end, I think. Tim was standing there about to do the blessing.. and behind him (and unbeknownst to him) there was a group of Orthodox Christian pilgrims (who we later found out were Russian...) Their leader, Father Alexey, had them start singing during our blessing... They sang three songs with a alot of gusto and then said what we are pretty sure was "Jesus is Lord" in Russian. It was a great way to end the service.

A few of us ran over to meet them and Tim tried to introduce himself to the priest. When he told him he was a priest, too, this cassock-clad Priest looked him up and down.. Another pilgrim asked him, when he said he was Episcopalian, "Are you Christian??" Funny. Father Alexey was not too friendly... We might even think that had his folks sing to show us up. (Henry joked that it was like that "We got Spirit!" cheer they do at a football game.. Maybe Alexey was challenging us to a sing- off??  If he was.. well.. we lost...!0

Funny thing, though, we were moved by the singing. Even if Alexey was trying to drown out the heathens with Russian praise music, he still moved us and made a powerful memory for us all... We are all tired-- some of the folks are down in the huge hot tub they have at this weird tourist hotel... Others are in their rooms falling to sleep... We start early tomorrow and head to Laodicea, Sardis, Alesehir (Philadelphia) and then end in Bergama.... Whew!! So many cities....

More later. Time to sleep...