ROANOKE TIMES Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1996 TAG: 9601040014 SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-5 EDITION: METRO SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS
Friday night, the eve of the Greek Orthodox Festival of Epiphany, marks the end of the 15-day Christmas season for the family of Dr. Paul Dallas and other Christians like him.
Following customs dating from the earliest centuries of Christianity in the Mediterranean lands, Dallas, his mother and sister who share his home, and other family will prepare for a special annual visit from their pastor, the Rev. Nicholas Bacalis.
The priest, who has been pastor of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church for nearly 20 years, will celebrate the Baptism of Jesus by bringing blessed water to their Churchill Drive Northwest home.
On the dining room table, which the 34-year-old physician's mother, Marigoula Dallas, has carefully dressed with a holy picture of Christ, lighted candles and a small incense holder, Bacalis will place a china bowl filled with the water; it will have been consecrated on Jan. 6 at a morning ceremony at the church.
Using a short liturgy, spoken in both English and Greek for those like the doctor's mother whose command of English is limited, the priest will sprinkle the water about the room and offer a golden cross to all who wish to be blessed. Participants are expected to kiss the cross and then the hand of the officiating clergyman.
The prayers are of praise to God who at the Baptism of his Son manifested himself as the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. For those in the Greek church Epiphany ranks with Easter as one of the two major festivals of the church year.
"We don't have the 12 days of Christmas we sing about in the carol," Bacalis said. "Our season of Christmas has 15 days. It begins on Dec. 24 and lasts through Jan. 7 when we celebrate the feast day of St. John the Baptist."
Unlike some periods in the Christian year, such as Lent and Advent, there is no fasting during the Christmas/Epiphany cycle of holy days, the priest said. That's because they are for celebration, a joyful time to remember yearly not only Jesus' birth but also his baptism as a young man.
Following the consecration of the holy water in the Huntington Boulevard church, Bacalis begins his visits to every household in his congregation. Because Epiphany falls on Saturday this year, he may be able to work in as many as 25 visits after worship is over about 11:30 a.m.
After saying the prayers at each home, he will fill the family's jar of holy water from his supply. The container will be kept at a special place in the home - for the Dallases this is a corner in a bedroom - where a holy picture known as an icon and a candle lighted on special festival days remind the family of God's presence.
When spiritual sustenance is needed during the year, a spoonful of the water is taken. If more is needed, it may be obtained from the church, but it should all be used by the following Epiphany. Any not used will be poured on a living plant.
In his 20 years in Roanoke, Bacalis has developed a routine for the Epiphany visits. His parish covers territory as far west as Welch, W.Va., and north to Covington and Lexington. Few Greek-Americans live in these communities - too few for their own church - and their Roanoke priest's visits to their homes is a fulfilling event, Dallas said.
Bacalis arranges his visits by neighborhoods, going by day to the retired or shut-in and saving the evenings and weekends for the employed. If the winter weather does not keep him from visits to the mountain towns, he should be through by Feb. 2, the day Orthodox celebrate as the presentation of Jesus in the temple.
The priest also blesses new homes at any time during the year; he has done two in recent weeks.
For Dallas, who came with his parents and four sisters from the Evrytania mountain area of Greece when he was 5, the Christmas/Epiphany rituals are part of life. He is one of several men in the parish who serve, like his late father, as cantors at special services.
He said that as a child in Roanoke in the 1960s, he did not know any Greeks who were not at least occasionally visible at Holy Trinity.
"The church has been the center of life for many immigrants," he said. "Our festivals and fasts unite us to others from our part of the world."
Bacalis said that about one-third of Holy Trinity's congregation were born in Greece.
Even when at the University of Virginia, the Medical College of Virginia and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dallas practiced his faith. Now, that he is a teaching internist at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, he still finds it sustaining, he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Wayne Deel. The Rev. Nicholas Bacalis, pastor of Holyby CNBTrinity Greek Orthodox Church, blesses the home of Dr. Paul Dallas
(left) in observance of Epiphany. color.