Orthodox church planned for Albany

A downtown business owner is trying a new venture: opening an
Eastern Orthodox Church.

ALBANY — What started out as a bit of research into the Eastern Orthodox Church’s old-calendar tradition for Jimmie’s Hot Dogs owner Tommy Mathes has turned into the formation of a church.

Mathes was raised in a new-calendar Orthodox Church and served as an altar boy in the Tallahassee congregation. But after he and his wife, Maria, began looking at the history of the Eastern Orthodox Church, they decided they wanted to stick with the more traditional of the two.

“Well, for us it was really hard to go back” to the new-calendar services, Mathes said. “Once you start researching, you see there have been many changes to the Orthodox Church. We just wanted to go back to tradition.

“The more we researched the more we were led to the traditional Orthodox Church.”

The new calendarists use the Gregorian calendar, while the old calendarists use the Julian calendar, which affects the timing of different feasts and helps to connect the church back to the original apostles of Christ, Mathes exlained.

There’s still much to be done though before an Orthodox Church could be established in Albany. A handful of other families have expressed interest in being baptized into the faith if a church were established, Mathes said.

Bishop Demetrius, of the Holy Orthodox Metropolis of Boston, said he wanted to send a priest to Albany about every two months to help establish the church here. Demetrius is one of five bishops for North America.

“The mission in Albany is just getting on its feet. I’m going to try my best to send a priest down once every two months or so,” Bishop Demetrius said. “I try to keep a close eye on our missions since they have no priest.”

The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church were a single entity until a split in 1054. Among the things the Orthodox Church disagreed with the Catholic Church about was the position of the pope as the head of the church.

Services for the Orthodox Church, which last about 90 minutes to two hours, focus on the Eucharist and include hymn singing and teaching, Demetrius said. One distinction in the church is that its attendees stand during its services, with exceptions for the elderly and the ill, Mathes said.

Mathes said he had an old home on South Jackson Street at West Broad Avenue that he wanted to try to convert into usable space for church services.

“You’ll walk in there and you’ll know you’re walking into a holy place,” he said, excitement bubbling out during the course of the interview Friday afternoon.

Times for services haven’t been nailed down yet, Mathes said. A person doesn’t have to be a member of the Orthodox Church to attend services, though he or she would have to be a member to take Eucharist, he said.

Anyone interested in finding out more about the Orthodox services in Albany can call Mathes’ wife at (229) 886-0095 or e-mail the couple at tmathes1@.at.bellsouth.net.

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