Easter liturgy welcomes the light Worshippers from miles around celebrate at Greek Orthodox church in Bangor

T

he light of Christ filled a tiny church on Sanford Street in Bangor at midnight while most Christians were sleeping, their alarm clocks not set to go off for another five hours.

On one of the occasions when Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter on the same Sunday, 100 people attended a three-hour Resurrection Liturgy at St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Bangor.

Worshippers included college students far from their home countries, immigrants, recent converts and descendants of the church’s founders.

The three-hour service on Orthodox Easter, called Pascha by the Greek Orthodox, was the culmination of a Holy Week in which services have not changed for centuries.

Beginning with Palm Sunday on April 1, distinctive worship services were held every day last week.

Georgia Panakis, 17, of Millinocket attended the Pascha service, which began at 11 p.m. Saturday, with two of her five siblings and her parents.

Her friends who practice Western Christianity are intrigued by the fact that she puts on her Easter finery to stay up until what are the wee hours of the morning even for teenagers.

“My friends say we’re crazy,” she said after the service, as the congregation gathered in the church basement for fellowship and a meal. “But they’re also curious about it.”

For her mother, Vasiliki Panakis, 43, who was born in Greece, being able to attend Greek Orthodox services is an important way for her six children, all but one of whom was born in the United States, to stay connected to their roots.

“Coming here means they will keep the culture, religion and tradition and pass it on to their children,” she said.

Another tradition for the family, which owns Millinocket House of Pizza, involves the candles worshippers light at midnight to symbolize the light Christ’s Resurrection meant to the world. Instead of picking up the plain white tapers at the entrance to the church, the girls had been given decorated candles for Easter by their godparents.

Because St. George is the only Eastern Orthodox church north of Lewiston, Russians, Albanians, Ukrainians, Romanians, Syrians, Serbs and Lebanese worship there in addition to Greeks. The church was built on the narrow street between Second and Third streets in 1930 by Greek immigrants.

Descendants of the founders still attend.

Leonidas P. Jonason Jr., 50, of Bangor is one of them. He attended the Easter service with his wife, Susan Jonason, who converted several years ago. Although his grandfather helped organize the congregation more than 75 years ago, Jonason did not grow up in the church.

“We skipped a generation,” Jonason said after the service. “When my cousin got married here, I had to join. He was my godfather. Now, I am here and he doesn’t come anymore.”

Susan Jonason’s faith was strong before she became an Orthodox Christian. Jonason, 46, of Bangor was raised a Lutheran, but attended churches of various Protestant denominations as her family moved often. Her father was a singer, and the priority, she said, was which church had the best choir not whether it was Lutheran.

“The Greek Orthodox tradition goes deeper,” she said after the Pascha service. “It sinks in more deeply than the others I’ve experienced. When I first came here, it was all a mystery to me. As I came more regularly, I found the connection to God through the liturgy to be very strong.”

That is what draws people from the cities, towns and villages of northern and eastern Maine to the unimposing white church in a residential neighborhood, the Rev. Adam Metropoulos, pastor of St. George, said Sunday morning.

“We are here in the middle of the night,” Metropoulos said, “to talk about Christ’s Resurrection as the light that shows the way for all of us.”

BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY GABOR DEGRE

Parishioners stand during the reading of the Gospel at St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Bangor early Sunday morning. The three-hour Resurrection Liturgy traditionally starts at 11 p.m. on Holy Saturday to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

HED: Easter liturgy welcomes the light

SUBHED: Worshipers from miles around celebrate at Greek Orthodox church in Bangor