Further North Again
And Holy Week in Seattle
Contesting the constitutionality of an Oregon county’s zoning law was not the beginning foundation we wanted for our monastery. We saw this zoning code as a possible sign that this farm was not the place God intended for us. With Great Lent nearing completion, we decided to put off any further decision until after Pascha. Invited to participate in the Holy Week and the Paschal celebration at Saint Spiridon Cathedral in Seattle, we drove north into Washington State.
Pascha – Easter Sunday
Holy Week – The week leading up to Pascha
Holy Week was particularly special. We slept on the floor of the old rectory, now serving as the parish office, and attended all the services leading up to the Midnight Paschal Liturgy. On Bright Monday, with Holy Week behind us and Paschal joy in our hearts, we took the ferry to Vashon Island, accepting an invitation to spend two nights in the home of an Orthodox couple we’d met a year earlier.
Vashon proved to be one of the most welcoming places I’d ever visited; two days on the Island were enough to convince us this was the place God had called us to be. Before heading back to Medford, Oregon, Father Paul and I visited a realty office, and arranged to rent a small house above Tramp Harbor. I had dreamed of living on an Island, nestled in a forest, for much of my life, and now God was granting me my wish.
The two-bedroom house was up for sale, and the agreement was that we would move out within 30 days once they found a buyer. Since there were no other houses within our price range, it was possible we’d have to leave in a matter of months. The constant flow of prospective buyers worried us a bit, and I took to donning my kamilavka to greet them. With a ceiling only six feet five inches high, the look on people’s faces upon seeing me with my hat’s top just an inch from the ceiling was priceless. But presently the house was sold, and our search for a home location started again.
Kamilavka – A stiff, tall monastic hat
The Island’s weekly newspaper had an ad for an old farmhouse that caught our eye. We signed a rental agreement, packed up, and moved within 60 days of first having come to the island. The house had been built in 1906 by a Norwegian shipbuilder during the days when Dockton had been the location of the largest dry dock north of San Francisco.
Since this house was a long-term lease, soon after moving in, we drove back to Santa Rosa, and retrieved the monastery’s library, icons, and furniture out of storage. Receiving a blessing from my spiritual father, Archimandrite Dimitry, we said goodbye to our many friends and benefactors in the Bay Area.
Back on the Island, we turned a small room on the main floor into a chapel, with the living room, complete with fireplace, becoming our community room and library. The second floor had two bedrooms, the largest of which we separated into two cells by constructing a wall and turning the extra bedroom into a guest room. An old school bell from Montana, a gift from Father Paul’s dad, was hung from the front porch, completing our move.
Islanders welcomed us warmly, making us feel as though we’d always been a part of the community. A neighbor left flowers and fresh farm eggs on our doorstep, and another Islander gifted us with a large basket filled with smoked salmon and fresh garden vegetables. When walking out on a pier to view close-up a commercial fishing vessel, the captain gave us three freshly caught salmon, all the largest I’d ever seen. A woman who worked in one of the two Island grocery stores would approach us monthly, in the store, with a check written out in the amount of $200.00. Complete strangers would approach us at the post office, welcoming us to the Island.
Finding Our Permanent Home
About a year after moving to Vashon, we took a month-long trip to Greece, including 10 days on Mount Athos. The return to the United States, was a major culture shock, with mounting bills, rising rent costs, little income, and my personal desire to return to Mt. Athos to continue my monastic struggle. I went so far as to ask a blessing from my spiritual father to return to the Holy Mountain. Much to my surprise, Father Dimitry told me that my “salvation was on Vashon Island.”
Mount Athos – An autonomous region of Greece containing many monasteries, and chartered with rights to self administration. It has been a major religious site since roughly 300 AD.
Monastic struggle – The efforts of a monk to work towards Christian ideals in their thoughts, prayers, and actions.
It seemed, given our near financial ruin, to be utter nonsense. How could this possibly be true, living as we were in a rental house, with no prospects of owning property, and no viable way of founding a monastery in the Puget Sound region? However, I knew as a monk I was bound by my vows in obedience to my spiritual father. I also believed, as did many, that Father Dimitry had been blessed with the gift of clairvoyance, and that he could see something in the future that was hidden to me. So I withdrew my request and committed myself to Vashon Island as the place God had chosen for me to work out my salvation.
On August 1st, 1992, having exhausted all our resources, we announced during what was to be our last Monastery Pilgrimage, our decision to leave Vashon Island. The monthly rent for the old farmhouse had risen, our chief benefactor had a series of setbacks in his personal fortunes, and we were faced with just enough money to pay two months rent. We resolved to sell our old truck and car, pack our icons, holy things, and library in the attic of a friend, and leave the country. If Jerusalem didn’t work out, we would go to Mount Athos.
Monastery Pilgrimage – An annual feast hosted by a monastery.
Seventy people joined us on that Saturday. Among them were John and Georgia Ratzenberger (John played Cliff in the television comedy “Cheers”). After announcing we would be leaving the Island, John approached us with an offer. Would we consider staying if he donated five acres of land, just south of the farmhouse we were renting? They owned 16 acres, meant to be an investment, and the uppermost corner would be ours, if we agreed to stay. We accepted the offer as God’s will.
On Monday, August 3rd, James Bryant, a recent convert to Orthodox Christianity, called the monastery with the offer to serve as our architect, free of charge. Thus began what was to become a fruitful and productive friendship. From the very first meeting, James proved to be the perfect architect for us and helped me realize my long-standing dream to design a monastery that would look like a small Norwegian village. The church, which we would dedicate to the Protection of the Holy Virgin, was to be patterned after the historic stave churches of Norway.
Postscript by Andy Valencia
And so they designed it and built it. In subsequent years, the monks purchased the rest of the 16 acres from Mr. Ratzenberger. Early ad hoc solutions like a battered old single-wide gave way to permanent buildings. The site holds the original chapel, the current church, a library building, social and dining hall, a shop with a bookstore, and a set of tiny standalone buildings which serve as monastic “cells.”
People come from across the country and beyond to attend services, and then sit down at trapeza, a post-service shared meal. As Abbot of the monastery, Father Tryphon has introduced countless young men to the possibility of a monastic vocation. Sitting with Father Tryphon or the other fathers and brothers of the monastery, young men often for the first time can see for themselves the reality of a religious life.
See for yourself. Visit their website, vashonmonks.com, and then call ahead to arrange a visit. Peruse their bookstore with its exquisitely curated collection of Orthodox books, along with candles, incense, icons, beard oil, and coffee. Oh yes – the coffee. It’s crafted based on Father Tryphon’s roasting and brewing experiences going all the way back to his grad school days in Berkeley.
If they have the time, you may be able to experience the interior of an Orthodox church. Color and light, churches of the East try to suggest “heaven” with the visual feast of their decorations. Be prepared for a treat!
