> good morning and welcome to mosaic. i'm your host for today and i'm also the lead pastor at st. marks in san francisco. it is the season of advent and soon to be christmas so we want to share a word about these seasons, what you might expect when you worship in a congregation during this beautiful time of year. the first word of encouragement is to worship, to find a place, a

house of worship where you might feel comfortable and go there on a sunday morning or a midweek service and know that you'll be welcome. this is the time of year where churches, congregations expect and hope for newcomers and seekers to come to the houses of worship and to experience god. so go and worship and in the season of advent, we call at this time blue season. you might see lots of blue in the worship space. the season is a time of waiting, of hope and expectation. and yes, it is four weeks and it leads up to the season of christmas. i say season of christmas because christmas is actually a season at the church. its not just one day, it's not just two days, the 24th or the 25th. it is the 12 days of christmas. so we can take our time as christians

to celebrate and to receive the gift of this incarnation of god coming to us at christmas time. this particular time of year is a joyful time of year but for some, it's also a lonely time of year, so go to a house of worship, a church and you will find community. you will find people like you hoping and expecting to receive a word of grace, a word of hope, a word of good news. so go and worship. advent, christmas, which leads us to epiphany and i know that is important and celebrated in our two gusts this morning -- guests this morning. i want to say welcome to the two of you.

we want to hear from you and what people might expect as they worship at your place of worship. i'm so pleased to introduce father tom who is the head priest of the ascension cathedral in oakland, a greek orthodox parish. you and are also a priest, the assistant priest, you are here, father ninos. tell us, for our worshipers, our viewers, if they were to come to the cathedral during the season of advent and christmas, what will they experience in worship and amongst the people there? >> it is a time of preparation. like many periods in the orthodox church, we don't just walk into the feast of christmas. first of all, we don't really call it christmas.

it is the incarnation in the flesh of our lord and savior jesus christ so even the title emphasizes what we're trying to celebrate on that day and everything kind of moves towards that. on november 15th, we transition from our normal sundays and our normal way of living to a fast period, where we prepare for the, for the birth of our lord and savior. this fast period is a little relaxered, not like -- relaxed, not like the strict fast during great lent. it is a time when we are more reflective about what god is doing in us. that is reflected in the worship and being influenced a little bit by what's going on here in the united states and in western culture. we've taken a few things from that, setting up the christmas tree and adding the red and making it more festive >> so that's during the season, do you call at this

time season of advent at this point or a season of preparation? >> it's, yeah, its not so much advent in that terminology. its not a quote, unquote greek word >> we're already seeing differences but also similarities between our two >> very much so >> the heritages. we're going to come back to you after we take i quick break and we also want to hear as opposed to fasting how you'll feast to celebrate the incarnation of jesus christ so we will be back in just a moment.

ninos welcome back to mosaic. we have and are so

privileged to have father tom, the head priest of ascension cathedral in oakland, father ninos, the assistant priest. we're so glad to have you here. we were talking about the fasting in preparation for the incarnation, the celebration of christ's birth. let's talk about the feasting of those celebrations starting on december 24th and 25th. what will worshipers experience for those christmas services and then the 12 days beyond? >> well, the worship is an integral part of the entire season. on christmas eve and on christmas day we will have devine litargy. for us, that is what we're preparing for

because that is for us an incarnation, its god coming to us, entering us. on christmas day, that is accentuated, that sense of incarnation or that experience of incarnation. so in response to that, you have a lot of joy, of course, a lot of family activities, and we'll have a meal or people will go home and just like any other family, opening of gifts and all of those things. there's a theological zachary mental experience and then there's the -- sacramental experience and then there's the family experience >> and that is leading up to the epiphany >> the celebration of our lord and saviors baptism

by john the baptist. we kind of compress, if you will, 30 years between christmas and e pitchny. in the early church, there was no difference and then these were combined because the birth of our lord and savior was found to be so important. i think it's chosen because there was a little empty space on the calendar. the important thing is not the timing. the important thing is the celebration. you have the birth of our lord and savior and then you have the revelation as he is god in the flesh so he's born for

our salvation and now he's god in the flesh with the witness of the holy spirit and the voice of god saying this is my son. all of these things are connected. that 12 day period, there's no fasting during that period. typically, we fast on wednesdays and fridays. wednesdays because it was the day the lord was delivered up or gave himself up, fridays, of course because he was crews identified so there's no fasting on those days so that we can celebrate this, this wonderful feast, the feast of the birth, the feast of the birth, the feast of his baptism >> if one of our viewers came to worship on either christmas or the epiphany, what will they experience? what should they notice and pay attention to to fully appreciate worship at the cathedral? >> i think as father ninos

pointed out, it is focused on the divine lit argj >> we try to incorporate the whole person. its almost a psycho somatic experience if you will that tries to incorporate the whole person and as we like say all five senses so you will hear the hymns, see the icons, smell the incense, you will taste the body and blood of jesus christ for your eternal salvation. so, the whole person is involved and this has, because as human beings we are both soul, spirit, and body, and all of that has to be given in worship >> do you use a lot of incense in the festival services or throughout the

year? >> depends on what you mean by a lot >> right, i know >> yeah, incense is an integral part of the worshiping. it is an on norring of the space if -- honoring of the space if you will but we also honor the icons whether it's christ or the virgin mary, a saint, and then every other saint that is there which is every human being created in god ace likeness so we are hon -- god's likeness. so we are honoring christ either in the theology or in the human person. every human person is created in god's likeness >> how long would a worship service last? i mean that a viewer might come to >> this year, because christmas falls on a sunday, it kind of changes our order. the eve service is

done on saturday morning. we have a priest service that's about an hour, hour and 15 minutes and then divine is about an hour and a half. we follow the jewish day. at sunset, we've entered into christmas day so at 6:00 as the sun is setting, we are entering into sunday and the celebration of our lord's birth. in the morning, we have, of course an hour, hour and a half and then the divine litargy of st. basil the great. and on saturday, it is st. john. that is a shortened version of basil's so on sunday, it's a little longer. we use basil's 12 times a year to emphasize an

important celebration and in it, the theology of the incarnation is throughout all the prayers and it's a beautiful, beautiful expression of what does in mean to us as human beings >> uh-huh, uh-huh. so in the worship itself, you're teaching, you're witnessing to this theology that's being proclaimed >> exactly >> it's a transformative experience >> yes, yes >> st. john says just by entering into the church at any point during the day, something happens to you. something happens to your soul, some kind of nourishing, some kind of cleansing, some sanctification. we are there simply to receive god, to receive his grace and to come there with a pure heart and to be nourished and fed in that way. it's

not something where we try to rationalize it or reason how does this work, how does that work >> you experience it >> we simply experience it just as you would a beautiful sunset >> thank you, that's a beautiful description there. when we could feel back, we're going to hear -- come back, we're going to hear more from our two priests and their personal stories of faith.

liturgy >> liturgy welcome back. we have father tom and father ninos both from the ascension cathedral in oakland. it is a greek orthodox congregation, parish. i would like to hear more, we would like to hear more

about the two of you as individuals. just how did you happen to become priests. is this a part of your family, kind of heritage, lineage and in particular father ninos, your family in syria that is of concern >> and iraq >> yeah, in iraq. father tom, please >> as far as being a family tradition, when i told my 90 year old grandmother was becoming a priest, she told me in greek that's a strange thing, i go why, she said nobody from our village ever became a priest. i grew up in the greek orthodox church. my parents both came from greece and i was nurtured in that faith and went away to college and studied theology at a presbyterian college in indiana and one of my professors said you should study what your faith is about. i ended up at our seminary and

here i am in oakland, california serving. greek orthodox tracing its roots back to the apostles. i heard about st. paul preaching in corinth. we have the name of every bishop that was in corinth starting with the one he established up to the current bishop so we have have that long, long tradition and we take pride in that connection because it gives us deep roots. the church was really founded and nurtured in that area of the eastern mediterranean. what we called asia minor, present day syria, north africa and greece. its a deep part of who we are and it defines who we are as a peoplement you cannot take it out of being a greek and being greek means that pretty much you're orthodox christian >> yes, but as i was reading

about your congregation, you welcome people of all backgrounds and cultures >> and we have tremendous different cultures in your parish. we have a lot of people that have come from different parts of the orthodox world. we have a lot of people that have converted into the faith from varied backgrounds. in fact, and we'll lead goo this with father ninos because he comes from a very interesting orthodox background that people aren't so much aware of >> let's hear more >> christianity is often put into two categories, you have the east and the west and it's usually known as the greek east and the latin west but there's actually a third branch, and that's the kind of in the middle. its if you will, the far east branch. from the earliest days of christianity, you had the aramaic and arabic

speaking christians and here, you have the most early, primitive christian communities and eventually large centers of christianity. so my background as an acirian christian traces its roots in that part of the world. it's not very well known mostly because, like i said, a lot of the theology was expressed in the greek world and also in the latin world but you have, as part of what's called syriac christianity, a tremendous treasure of writings, of church fathers, of poetry, people like st. isaac, st. ephram the syrian who were able to capture the

truths of christianity through poetry, through theological writings. from these communities, you have then a number of churches that flourished and among them is the eastern orthodox which also traces its roots in a not very well known but part of this asyrian experience and like father said, you would find them in iraq and even in iran and lebanon and syria. my family, my great grandfather was an orthodox priest >> okay >> he served in iran in the 1930s. >> and he was a, quite a powerful preacher and missionary priest who converted many people and then he had to flee because of that. he wasn't really

welcomed to do that in a predominantly muslim country so he fled to iraq and started a mission parish there. he had three sons who all became priests and these were my great uncles so i'm kind of following in their footsteps >> there's a lineage >> there's a lineage in terms of my story >> father, you have family now in syria >> and iraq. i do have family in iraq. most of them are trying to leave. some of them have stayed. it's very difficult. i have one aunt who in fact just came recently and she had lived there her whole life and it was hard to pick up and leave at this stage in her life but you have to. thankfully, i think there is an effort now to create a region in northern iraq for christians, for the asyrians because this is the indigenous people of iraq, the asyrians are the indigenous people and they are

trying to have a place where they can worship, preserve their culture and language and be safe from people like a us and all of the other -- isis and all of the other fundamentalists >> thank you for reminding us of that. it is a season of hope and joy but it is also a season where we pray for peace. thank you. we will be right back in just a minute.

welcome back. we have father tom and father ninos from oakland with us: tell us, when people, particularly on christmas, can come worship with the congregation >> christmas eve we have the christmas eve divine

liturgy which is at 10:00 on saturday morning. everybody's welcome. we do snot have open communion but at the end of every liturgy, we give out a piece of blessed bread. its remnant of the meal the early christians celebrated so everybody leaves with a little something. being greek, we have to give you something when you leave. and then we go at 5:00 on saturday which transitions us into christmas. on christmas morning, the divine liturgy is at 10:00 in the morning. a little longer, very theologically profound. i read the priests prayers out loud so people can hear these beautiful prayers. after worship, we try to sing a few christmas carols because we are in the west and we celebrate that aspect of being christian and being part of the american mosaic if you will

>> thank you for that and our viewers, if they were to worship with you, they'll see both of you at the services? >> yes, we celebrate together >> that's important. services at st. marks lutheran's church, we love to sing carols, its one of our special heritage, we have services christmas eve 5:00, 7:00, 10:30 christmas day at st. marks lutheran church at 10:00 a.m. there are many, many choices for you to make. go and worship. make worship and being part of a congregation part of your christmas celebrations. we all want to wish our viewers a blessed and merry christmas. thank you for joining us here this sunday morning. blessings to each of you. thank you to our guests >> thank you and have a blessed nativity >> thank you.

shen yun means 'the beauty of devine beings dancing' the dance company by the same name is good morning and welcome to bay sunday, everyone. ♪[ music ] coming to san francisco... bringing costumes, live music and centuries of tradition. here in the studio this morning about it is jason >> mer dancer with shen and centuries of tradition. here in the studio this morning to tell us all about it is jason king, a former dancer with the group. welcome to bay sunday >> thank you for having me >> thanks for being here. so first of all, its a beautiful show >> yes, >> and you said it changes every year >> yes so it's