The Omaha Sunday
Bee
TART THREE
MAGAZINE
PAGES ONE TO EIGHT
PART THREE
EDITORIAL
PAGES ONE TO EIGHT
VOL. XLV NO. 26.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MOUSING, DECKMHHR 12, 1015.
SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS.
est
Omaha Greeks
Their Ancient
Priest Ordained
IXTEENTII and Martha streets, Omaha, la
1915. doesn't seem to have anything in
common with the Olympic games ot
Greece. 700 years before Christ. Still
less with Hercules, hero of Greek myth
ology, whose life is merged in the mists
cf prehistoric times.
t But there is a close connection.
On the southeast corner of Sixteenth and Martha
streets stands the Greek Orthodox church, the only
one of its kind In Nebraska, and one of only five
In this country. A black-bearded man with long
black hair was sent out by the Holy Synod of
Greece at the request ot the Greek communion or
ganized in Omaha in 1907. From hit ancient na
tive land he came to the new World and to a new .
part of the New 'World, bringing with him the re
ligion that la the oldest in Christendom.
This priest, rector of St. John's Orthodox Greek
church, is Rev. Constantlnos Harvalis, and he was ,
born in Olympia on the western coast of the Greek
Peloponnesus.
. Olympia, the very town where the Olympic
games were first played, hundreds of years before
the birth of Christ!
In his boyhood days this Omahan wandered'
along the banks of the river Alpheus and among the
ruins of that level plain where, 2,600 years ago, his
nnoatnra nlnvari at tViA era moo fn tha. ftnrreri crnvA
of Altis. This grove was adorned with exquisite
'statues and works of art. Here stood the famous
temple of Olympian Zeus containing the chrys
elephantine statue of that god. Legend told that
Hercules, hero of Greek, mythology, laid out the
grove himself. -
Today it is ruins and cornfields. Zeus is for
gotten and Christ Is the god of the Greeks. And
from Olympia comes a minister td preach Hia gos
pel in a land that wasn't dreamed, of "until twenty
centuries after the Olympic games were instituted.
. The descendants of the ancient Hellenes in
Omaha and Nebraska are many land they are an
Industrious, thrifty people. In 1907 they decided
they needed spiritual organization and the Greek
communion was formed. The next, year the Greek'
congregation was organized and an appeal sent to
Greece for a minister. In 1910r the church -was
built. The congregation now has nearly 500 mem
bers. The parish Includes all Nebraska, and the
rector makes many trips out into the state to bap
tize children and perform marriage and funeral
ceremonies according to rites of the ancient church.
' Rev. Mr; Harvalis has a pleasant home at 1907
South Sixteenth street, and his five children are
t
e
i
1
t
being educated in the American fashion. They
epeak excellent English. He himself speaks no En
glish, for alljhis work Is among the Greeks and
he spends much of his time at the church going
through the ancient rites. -
We don't use any organ or piano in our
church," said his daughter, interpreting for her
father. "We have services In the church every
Sunday beginning at 8 in the morning and lasting
AKai in Si: Johns
((rreelf Orthodox.
Church.
fjj " : - g y ijoj
of
Worship According to Rites of
Church- Under Guidance of a
Under Shadow of Olympus
till about noon; also Saturday afternoon, from 5
to 6:30 o'clock. "Besides this the minister goes
every day to the church for worship between the
hours of 6 and 7 in the morning and 7 and 8 in
the evening."
It is a striking thing to hear these people talk
of Socrates and Lycurges as their ancestors and to
mention St. Paul's preachiug in their own cities.
"Our church," said Rev. Harvllls through his
interpreter, "is the oldest in Christendom. The
Jews were converted before the Greeks, but fhe
Jewish Christian churche passed over into the
Greek. The apostles of Christ used our language
and the Greek was used also by the great majority
of the early fathers, Polycarp, Ignatius, Clement
of Alexandria, Eusebius, Basil, Athanaslus, Gregory
of NBjzianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, Chrysostom, Cyril
ot Jerusalem and Cyril of Alexandria. The first
Christian emperors, from Constantlne the Great, to
gether with a host of martyrs belonged to the Greek
communion. Even Clement of Rome, Hernias,
Hoppolytus and others of the western church wrote
in Greek. The early popes were Greeks. The very
name of pope is Greek. The Roman congregation
Itself was originally a colony of Greek Christians.
"Paul's first Journey from his own country was
to Greece. Socrates had laid down the law that
anyone who preached a new god should die. Paul
Ot around this law when he came to Athens by
discovering among the many . gods of the Greeks
an altar marked 'To the Unknown t2od.' Paul
then preached about the unknown God. which was
his God. Thus he did not break the Athenian law."
Rev. Mr. Harvalis was married before he took
Ma holy orders. This is a law of the church.
Priests must marry' once, but are not allowed to
marry twice. If the first wife dies the priest must
remajn forever a widower. Celibacy is confined
to bishops and monks. Absolution is given in the
form of the prayer, "May the Lord absolve thee."
The altaf of the churc h at Sixteenth and Martha
streets is gorgeous with pictures of Saint Mary,
Saint John, Saint William, Saint George. Rev. M:
HarvaHs robes of office are long, full, flowing and
made of rich material embroidered gold In colors.
The service in the church Is strongly oriental,
symbolical, mythical. There is fascinating display
and pomp, and much changing of sacerdotal dress.
An elaborate ceremonialism marks It, far in excess
of the ceremony in the Roman church.
Singing is led by two singers, Peter Dimmoulias
on the right side and Thomas Maharas on the left,
and it is without instrumental accompaniment. As
yet there are no seats in the church. In the Rus
sian branch of the Greek cliurch there are no scats,
the congregation standing throughout the long
service.
Many fasts are observed by the Omaha and
Nebraska Greeks, in accordance with the church's
n . .
Relig
laws. They have not only one Lent, but fuur.
There is one ot fifty days immediately preceding
Easter, one from November 15 to Christmas, one In
June and one from August 1 to 15.
During these periods they eat no meat, butter,
eggs or cheese. In addition to these long periods,
Wednesday and Friday of every week In the year
are fast days, on which no meat, butter, milk, eggs
or cheese are eaten. So the Greeks come near to
being vegltarians.
Christmas in the Greek Orthodox church does not
come until January 6 of our calendar. This is be-
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, cause the orthodox Greeks still use the Julian cal
endar, while we use the Gregorian. The former in
thirteen ! days behind the latter. Julius Caesar
originated the Julian calendar, under which a year
consists of 365 days. This Is 11 minutes, 13.95
seconds more than the solar year. Pope Gregory
XIII, In 1582, reformed the calendar by dropping
ten days and making the rule for a year as we have
It today. Germany and Denmark adhered to the
Julian calendar till 1700. and in England, Parlia
ment, in 1752, abolished the Julian calendar,
' skipped" from September 2 to September 14 over
right, )as since followed the Gregorian cal
endar with the rest of the world. But the ortho
dox Greek church sticks to the Julian.
Rev. Mr. Harvalis, descendant of an ancient
line, priest of an ancient church, born In n an
cient city, educated in the ancient city of Athens,
says he "likes Omaha fine."
BevCcmstanliiios Harvalis
4 "
- .