TSN0724

11 THE SHEPHERD • JULY 2024 • SAINT SPYRIDON GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH OF SAN DIEGO Nektarios Tradas BUSINESS GRAPHICS nt@art-worx.us 858.292.6070 art-worx.us SESSION 1: July 7th - 13th ST. NICHOLAS RANCH SUMMER CAMP 2024 WWW.GOSFYOUTH.ORG DUNLAP, CA Campers can be ages 8-18 SoCal Bus! ONLY $175! TO and FROM Camp for Session 1 Contact Bill Navrides to register for the bus: navridesfamily@gmail.com and 619-992-6775 FOR SALE: Last remaining side-by-side grave plots at scenic Greenwood Mortuary in the Anastasis area. Located to the left of the Glavas grave plot. $48,000 for both. Call or email for more info: 858.504.1222 – kevin@sdthreshold.com Books. Posters. Flyers. Mailers. Packaging. Brochures. Forms. Stationery. Newsletters. Marketing & Collateral. Digital. Offset. Short & Long Runs. WEBSITES AUDIO / VIDEO PHOTOGRAPHY SIGNAGE PRINTING Indoor & Outdoor Directional Signage. Displays. Banners. Retail Signage. Trade Show Exhibits. Advertisment. Product. Real Estate. Corporate Portraits. Retail. Aerial. 360º Virtual Reality. Corporate. Promotional. Product. Real Estate. Aerial. 360º Virtual Reality. Public Service Announcements. Small Business. Retail. Online Store. Proprietor. Creative Director. Project Manager. Reflections on our Greek Festival Some time in the early 90’s I visited the Greek Festival for the first time. I was not an active parishioner then and I hardly knew anybody in the Greek Com- munity. Well, I’m not ashamed to admit it but... I didn’t get it. It didn’t get the Festival thing, I didn’t get the Church community thing. You see, at the time I was only familiar with how things were in Greece: A church on each corner (well, not really, but it felt like it), a couple of priests in each church, with even fewer parishioners (with the exception of major feast days when all of a sudden the churches were full) and little reason to be involved in church life, perhaps other than the occasional Christian youth club. And as far as Greek festivals (πανηγύρια) were concerned, you’d have to visit some remote village or small rural town in the middle of summer to experience anything close to a deeper exhibit of Greek grassroots culture. Well, it all changed quite drastically after I was invited to join the adult dance group Pélagos in 2001. I got to meet more people, and we eventually performed at the festival a few times and even at FDF once. The dance group was my mo- tivation to get more involved in the community and soon I started volunteer- ing for the festival and other Church events. And that’s when my eyes started to open. I saw people driving long distances to help with the festival prepara- tions, dedicating an incalculable amount of time to so many operations that made my head spin. They spent time in the kitchen, in the office, in the hall, and in every corner of the Church grounds always taking care of things, either in the foreground or behind the scenes. And that intrigued me and fascinated me. What drove them? What inspired them? Why wouldn’t they dedicate their extra time to their work, to their families, or to themselves instead? It turns out that there was really not a single shoe size to fit everyone. The di- versity of reason and intent was alive and well. Staring at the faces imprinted on the three commemorative banners hung on the fence during the festival, pondering what those people might be thinking and feeling at the time, I de- tected a joyful glow emanating from their faces. Young faces, bright faces, old faces, tired faces, all shared a sense of determination and joy for what they were doing. Who knows, perhaps they were just smiling for the camera; yet, the camera has a way of capturing the truth in someone’s eyes. They seemed like people who were genuine and secure in their convictions. They were showing us not only what they were doing, but why they were doing it: Some were help- ing their community fundraise in order to grow; some of them really enjoyed cooking; some just liked socializing; others were driven purely by the strength of their faith; others by the sense of duty to their community and pride of being Greek. Perhaps they didn’t all agree on how to go about best achieving the goals at hand, but they got along and did it anyway. While contemplating all these reasons, I looked around me and noticed almost the same thing hap- pening. Faces new and old, doing similar things in similar ways. Surely, some of the old traditions were being kept, while others were being abandoned or upgraded to newer versions. But the spirit of “we’re here because it’s the right thing to do for our community” was still abundant and intact. I felt a newly-found sense of hope for the future, albeit with a flag of caution: We simply cannot rest on our laurels. We may have had another successful festival this year, but perhaps at an high personal cost to many. It’s become increasingly more difficult to sustain “20% of the people doing 80% of the work.” The more we believe in a cause, the more it falls upon us to do towards it, which is fine. For as long as we can share the same convictions and spread the load more evenly, we are destined to collectively pull harder and go farther. To paraphrase President Ronald Reagan’s famous quote, [ anything ] is never more than one generation away from extinction. We must protect our vision and pass it on to the next generation. Sure, life goes on, trends change, meth- ods evolve. We need to embrace all change without destroying the thing we are trying to preserve in the process. I’m confindent we can succeed, if more of us get involved in our community’s ministires and activities while setting our own good examples and seeking inspiration in our faith, our leaders, and those who left us an important legacy to follow, preserve, and grow. ~ Nektarios Tradas Sponsored Announcement Sponsored Announcement