The blessings of the grapes

Father John Finley sings hymns Sunday with children after he has blessed Lavender Ridge Vineyard grapes. Enterprise photos by Kate Gonzales

Finley blesses thousands of grapes with holy water. Enterprise photo by Kate Gonzales

Lavender Ridge Vineyard owners Rich and Siri Gilpin added an extra ingredient to their winegrapes this weekend: holy water.

Friends, family and employees of the Gilpins traveled out to their vineyard along the rolling golden hills of Milton to enjoy the second annual ceremony of the blessing of the grapes.

“It's just new to people's ears,” said Patsy Gonzalez, who has lived in Avery for more than 30 years.

“It's been done in the Orthodox Church for centuries. We're asking God to bless something that he created,” Gonzalez said.

Not anyone can do it – only an ordained priest, and the men for the job Sunday afternoon were Fathers John Finley and Stephen Howell. Both men live out of the area, but take turns with Father Polycarp Whitcomb leading weekly Mass at St. Gabriel Orthodox Church in Angels Camp.

“You say a prayer and sprinkle holy water on it,” Finley simply stated. He added that they try to do it around Aug. 6 in honor of the feast of the transfiguration of the Lord. During the blessing, a line of children followed Finley as he chanted hymns and splashed holy water onto thousands of grapes. The group then ate a buffet lunch featuring some of the artisan cheeses sold at the winery's tasting room in Murphys, and afterward watched some of the recently harvested grapes get crushed.

Susan Cullen, who works as a bookkeeper for the Gilpins, and her husband, Matt, attended the blessing for the first time this year.

“It's really nice, a really great spiritual event, meaningful for Rich and Siri and all of their employees,” Susan said.

Many of the families who attended are members St. Gabriel Orthodox Church, which was established by about five families and Finley after they found a need for such a church.

Before they had a building in which they could worship, several families would take turns meeting at each other's houses once a week. The children outnumbered the adults, as they did on Sunday, and were very young at the time, said Shannon Sharp of Mountain Ranch.

“You can imagine all these little kids running around a house,” and it was too crowded, Sharp said.

She and her husband, Skip, had been members of St. James Orthodox when they lived in Modesto six years ago. When they moved up here and saw the need, Sharp asked a man who tended a little-used church in Angels Camp if they could use the building for weekly services.

“And he just handed me the key,” she said. That church, however, had no bathroom or playground.

The building they use today was donated in 2005 by the former Christian Science Church in Angels Camp and is at 1538 Highway 4 in Angels Camp.

The Lavender Ridge Tasting Room in Murphys offers organic olive oil, wines, lavender products and artisan cheeses, and is open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is at 425 A Main St.. For information on the winery or for tours of the vineyard, call the tasting room at 728-2441.

Of the Orthodox Christians mentioned in this article, you find not a Greek or Slavic name in the bunch (pun intended)!

The Orthodox Church, surviving from the Islamic jihad and Communist genocide arrayed against it, is growing beyond the seed churches.

2 posted on 09/29/2009 9:50:35 AM PDT by Nikas777 (En touto nika, "In this, be victorious")

Antiochians. I see they do a weekly “Mass”.

3 posted on 09/29/2009 9:55:29 AM PDT by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!)

To be fair I think “mass” is how the reporter categorized it because of cultural/religious ignorance.

4 posted on 09/29/2009 9:59:19 AM PDT by Nikas777 (En touto nika, "In this, be victorious")

“To be fair I think “mass” is how the reporter categorized it because of cultural/religious ignorance.”

Or the so called “Western Rite”....Orthodox lite! :)

5 posted on 09/29/2009 3:53:04 PM PDT by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!)

I think it is a translation error by the journalist.

The church’s website lists a liturgy not a mass:

http://www.stgabrielofangels.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=5&Itemid=3

6 posted on 09/30/2009 6:37:37 AM PDT by Nikas777 (En touto nika, "In this, be victorious")

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