We have been watching "The Durrells in Corfu" on PBS. It is based on the autobiographical books of Gerald Durrell. The series depicts the story of the widowed Mrs. Durrell and her three sons and one daughter as she moves her family from Britain to the Greek island of Corfu.
We like the program and it was the inspiration for two bouts we had with passwords, PBS/Wis Public TV and donations. Lynn handles our donations and her email was the one on the PBS account. I installed our Roku and my email tends to be associated with tv and streaming accounts. It took us a while to convince the software that we had made contributions and should be allowed to watch the programs. We have computer experience, two iPads, and iPhone and a Chromebook, just enough equipment to manage to get clearance to watch.
It can be a trial for Britons to move to a Greek island. One of many cultural differences is the presence of Greek Orthodox priests and monasteries. At one point, the daughter becomes interested in the Greek church, to the point that she sees a future for herself as a nun. Of course, a Greek Orthodox nun might lead a life that differs in some important ways from a Roman Catholic nun. The episodes involve marriage, death, baptism and show some differences between our experience of religious ceremonies and what happens on Corfu in that period of 1935-1939.
Since today is Easter Sunday and I get a little PBS dose of other churches than my usual, I looked up Greek and Russian Orthodox churches and religious practices. I read that Greek priests can marry before they are ordained. I have learned that Queen Elizabeth's mother-in-law was a Greek Orthodox nun. I read an interesting paper on the Russian Orthodox Church as it was attacked and de-valued by the Bolshevik government but was asked by a later version of the government to assist in recruiting soldiers to repel the Nazis.
The head of the Russian Church, Patriarch Kirill, and the Roman Pope, met for the first time in 1100 years in the Havana airport in 2016. Look in up.
Religion, institutional and personal, continues along, on top, in parallel and beneath other parts of human lives.
