Friday, July 26, 2013

Orthodox priest has an unorthodox past

http://www.orthodoxcheyenne.org/assets/images/wedding1.JPGFor an Orthodox priest, Father Jason Dickey has lived an unorthodox life.
Born and raised in the Boston area and coming from an Irish Catholic family, Dickey’s background is unusual for a clergyman at a church that is closely tied to ethnic Greek and Eastern European communities.

But it may be because of his history that the soft-spoken veteran of the Afghanistan war has been so well received by the congregation at Saints Helen and Constantine Greek Orthodox Church here in Cheyenne.

“He’s a unique individual,” said John Cantos, a parishioner who helps organize the church’s annual Greek Festival. “He was really a blessing to us with his demeanor.

“He’s very caring, very protective of the community. He’s not what you’d call your traditional Orthodox priest.”

But Dickey said he doesn’t make distinctions between one servant of God and another. For him, it’s merely enough to be able to serve.

Born in Lowell, Mass., Dickey said he was a “nominal Catholic” in his youth. But it wasn’t until he enlisted in the Army that he truly began to explore his faith.

“I was at Camp Mackall in North Carolina for Special Forces assessment school when Sept. 11 happened,” Dickey said. “We thought it was a role playing exercise at the time. I didn’t really know what had happened until the end of October, the full effect.”

In 2002, Dickey was pulled from Special Forces training to head to Afghanistan. He served two tours there, which he described as “unpleasant” while preferring not to elaborate.

But during his time overseas, Dickey sustained injuries to his nervous system. By the time he returned to the U.S. in 2003, he was considered fully disabled.

It was during his time in Afghanistan that Dickey began to feel his calling.

“In the Army, I would go to church to get out of work,” he said. “But then I realized I needed faith when I was training for my deployment and for combat. I was aware that I might not live.”

In Afghanistan, Dickey made the acquaintance of a soldier who had once been a Trappist, a member of a Christian monastic order. The man introduced Dickey to the Jesus Prayer, which is commonly recited in the Eastern Orthodox tradition: “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.”

It was a simple prayer, but Dickey said it gave him a base to start from.

“And he gave me one of my first Orthodox texts, ‘The Way of the Pilgrim,’” Dickey said. “I read that overseas and at home in between deployments.”

Dickey also read the Bible cover to cover during downtime overseas. But he said his first true epiphany hit him on his way home.

“I was traveling through Kyrgyzstan and ended up at Manas Air Force Base in (the capital of) Bishkek,” he said. “It was very crowded in the terminal, and I went upstairs to get somewhere quiet.”

It was there that he got his first real exposure to Orthodoxy in the form of a proskynetarion, a small prayer shrine with an icon of the Virgin Mary. It was simple enough, but for Dickey just seeing it was a profound experience.

“I didn’t want to leave,” he said. “I think it was because you’re in a place like Afghanistan so long, where everything is so ugly, and you finally see something nice looking.”

Upon his return to Massachusetts, Dickey continued to study Orthodoxy until he met his wife, Tiffany. A member of the Orthodox faithful with Greek roots, Tiffany took Dickey to his first church experience, which he described as transformative.

“When I was in the church for the first time, I felt emotions I didn’t even know existed,” he said. “I struggled to even keep my eyes open because I felt so small. Things I had felt had turned around to something that was healing.”

Dickey then entered seminary, studying at Hellenic College and Holy Cross in Brookline, Mass. He was ordained July 17, 2011, and spent his first year in Merrillville, Ind.

By the time he was assigned to Cheyenne in September 2012, Saints Helen and Constantine was facing a challenge as some members left to start a second Orthodox church in town.

Some of the remaining members, like Tom Zumo, were troubled. But Dickey’s arrival proved to be a stabilizing influence.

“When you’ve been through what he has been through, pretty much anything that happens here is minor by comparison,” Zumo said. “Just having had that experience, it lends itself well to being really level-headed and calm about things.”

Cantos said it has helped that Dickey, Tiffany and their three children seem to have taken to Cheyenne.

But for Dickey, the real love is for his congregation.

“I’m here not for people to get something out of me, but to facilitate people’s experience with God,” he said. “It got me through a war twice. It got me through coming home from a war. It has sustained my family, and there are other things I would be lying if I tried to describe them.

“It’s just my life’s vocation.”