Frank
Frost and
Archbishop Demetrios |
CATHEDRAL OF THE HOLY TRINITY
Generous Volunteers Make
Screening Smashing Success
By
Roger Webster
Photos by Dimitrios Panagos
 HE
Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity hosted a
screening of The Other Holy Land, a one-hour television
documentary exploring the history of the land that is now called
Turkey.
It
was an informative celebration with welcoming remarks by Father Robert
Stephanopoulos, dean of the Cathedral. Edward J. Murray,
president of Faith & Values Media, and J. Tom Hill,
representing the Aegean Free Zone, two of the funders of the
project, spoke, as did producer Frank Frost.
His
Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America made the closing
remarks, raving about the genius of the film editors and then
brilliantly tying the distant past of Asia Minor to our present
life in New York City.
Edward J. Murray and
Nikki Stephanopoulos |
The
documentary, which will be shown periodically on the Hallmark
Channel, was excellent and particularly interesting to me as I had
just returned from a wonderful visit to Turkey and spent time in
each of the areas – Istanbul (formerly Constantinople),
Cappadocia and Ephesus – featured in the piece. It was filmed in
Turkey and the United States, combining travelogue, art and
history, focusing on the formative events of the first 1,000 years
of the Christian Church.
There
are interviews with His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew;
Bishop Kallistos Ware, Spalding lecturer in Eastern
Christian studies at Oxford University; Dr. Helen Evans,
curator for early Christian and Byzantine art at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, where they will open a much anticipated exhibit,
Byzantium: Beauty and Power 1261-1557, on March 23, 2004; as well
as Archbishop Demetrios and Father Stephanopoulos.
Marguarite Stephanopoulos and
Marissa Cotsidis |
Among
the 300 guests at the party enjoying delicious Cypriot wine and
cheese donated by Dennis Droushiotis of the Cyprus Embassy
Trade Center, were Presbytera Nikki Stephanopoulos,
a key figure in the success of both the show and the evening,
Father Angelo Gavalos, Nellie Logothetides, Marguarite
Stephanopoulos , John Stratakis, Michael and Mary
Jaharis, Marissa Cotsidis, Dean Sirigos, Joan Kasimatis, Steven
Georgou, Violet Maneatis, Alex Pecounis, Helen Konstantine, Alex
Mastoras and Henry Calcanes.
Generous
volunteers, including Olga Vezeris, Aspasia Smith, Chris Orros,
Andrea Pappas, Lilly Georgopoulos, Nick Georges, Niki Evangelou,
Constantine Morphopoulos, Steve Kalcanides, Athena Kotsinos, Eli
Papadeas, Paul Sengakis, and Charles Connant, made the
evening a smashing success.
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