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When I was at uni one of my highlights was doing New Testament Greek with a guy called Vras. He was nothing short of a mind blowing experience! He was brilliant, challenging, obtuse and hilarious. This is an article that a good friend of mine Alison wrote about him. It is written brilliantly and really captures some of all that Vras is. You may remember Alison from when I interviewerd her back here, if you haven’t read the interview you definitely should. Anyway on with the show…
“You are freaking me out!”
Vrasidas Karalis
I’m going to say right out that Vras pretty much got me through my degree. My liberal studies degree required me to pass 5 semesters worth of a language. That sounded pretty straightforward after 5 years of Japanese at high school. I chose to study Modern Greek, because it would keep my grandparents happy and get me in touch with my cultural heritage etc, etc. I would not have passed Greek without Vras.
In first year I enrolled in beginner’s Greek. We had two teachers – Martina, a lovely gentle but cool young teacher, and Vras, who appeared to me to be the pinnacle of insanity. Our first week was terrifying for me. Martina and Vras stood at the front of the class room trying to weed out the fluent speakers who were too good for beginners. I don’t think they got them all. It felt like most of the class, even though they weren’t fluent, could still understand Martina and Vras when they accidently slipped into complicated Greek. I spent that year sitting with my friend Amanda. The four hours with Martina were fine. She would give us worksheets, explain grammar to us, ask us questions that were at our comprehensions level. The last hour of the week was with Vras. He would charge into the classroom like a whirlwind, single out one of the girls:
“My, you’re looking very radiant today!”
and then sit on a desk and proceed to rant about the evils of university bureaucracy, the politics of the local Greek community or the shortcomings of that year’s Eurovision contestants. Vras never seemed to have a lesson plan. He would just tell outrageously hilarious or disturbing stories about his life and occasionally link them into our language study by translating the odd word into Greek and scrawling it across the chalkboard. Then he would ask a ridiculous question that was way beyond my Greek knowledge. Amanda and I would cower in the back row, hoping that he wouldn’t call on us for an answer.
“Tell me you love…”
After about six or seven weeks of uni, Vras decied to teach us the verb agapo. which means love. Vras wondered around the room pointing randomly at students crying out “Tell me you love your mother!” “Tell me you love your father!”. He got to me and paused. That day was one of the first days I had been brave enough to wear my EU shirt. “Tell me you love God!” I wasn’t really sure whether he was mocking me or giving me a chance to share my faith with people. Vras was proving to be a little bit obscure with matters of faith. He would tell very obscene stories and then turn around and talk about the New Testament Greek course that he ran after our class finished. He would tell stories about the time he went on a cruise and did lots of things that he found very pleasurable, and then tell one of the boys in our class in all earnestness that he should really read the book of Matthew in the bible, because it would be good for his soul.
“Forget about it”
At the end of the year I followed him up about the New Testament Greek course and summoned the courage to ask him if he was a Christian. Vras looked at me with suprise.
“Of course!”
“Oh. Why do you tell all of those stories?”
Vras paused and then answered (I think he was trying to be cryptic)
“Sometimes a dog’s bark is worse than its bite”.
Whatever that meant.
We talked for awhile and it turned out that Vras was potentially some kind of amazing heretic. He had been excommunicated from the Greek Orthodox church a couple of years beforehand and was struggling to renew his Greek passport. He sent me a copy of an article he had written, a very scathing history of the Greek Orthodox church. At the time he had decided instead to go the the Anglican church near where he lived in Glebe, although I’m pretty sure he has moved on from there. He doesn’t like Calvinists, and most Anglicans in Sydney fall squarely into that category.
“Do you have a friend called Zoe?”
New Testament Greek the next year was an absolute scream. I started realising that Vras had different personas depending on who he was teaching. He still liked stirring people up and freaking people out, but this time, in front of Christians, his weapon of choice was not explicit sex stories but outrageous heresy. Most of what he said went way over my head, but Matt was in that class with me, as well as our friend Ryan and both of them are very keen amateur theologians. They would push back on every point they didn’t like, and also some that they just enjoyed arguing over. My friend Dan was also in that class with me. He would try to speak up too, although is preferred method of voicing his opinion was to try and answer every and any question that Vras asked of the class.
Vras’ favourite method for teaching vocab was to help us link the Greek word with their English words. So, classes went something like “The word for light is phos! Do you know any English words that come from phos? Yes! Photography”. Or like “The word for earth is ygis. Do you know any English words that come from ygis? Yes! Geology, Geography.” Or “The word for life is zoe. Do you have a friend called Zoe?”. No, I didn’t. And I didn’t have any friends called Thanatos, which means death.
What a difference a year made. Instead of hiding at the back that year, it was a real joy to answer Vras’ questions. I was much less self conscious. Dan kept a score sheet of who volunteered the most answers or comments. If you answered a question really well, Vras would reward you with
“Ryan, you are a star.”
It was the highest compliment you could receive, until one day, after a very intense round of questioning, Dan was rewarded with
“Dan, you are a constellation!”
It was during that year that Matt and I started going out and eventually got engaged. Matt used to tie my shoelaces to the desk during Vras’ lectures.
The outrageous stories kept coming. His favourite one to retell was about the time that he was in Iceland and was so very depressed that he wanted to kill himself. But then he went for a walk and found a little Greek Orthodox church in the middle of nowhere, with some monks or priests inside who talk to him and made him feel better. My favourite story he often told was about his days as a student in Germany. He studied under Joseph Ratzinger (you may know him now as Pope Benedict XVI) and he would recount the theological arguments that they had. I thought it was sweet being taught by a man who has fought with the pope.
“This is off the planet.”
Now even the smartest of men must have his point of weakness. For Vras it was powerpoint software. He didn’t really start using it until I took the New Testament subjects, and once he started there was no return. Every week he had learnt a new function or found a cooler template. Every week there were shouts of frustration as, once again, the powerpoint slides had mangled his Greek text into a whole lot of boxes and squiggles. I think to this day he still hasn’t realised that it is not powerpoint’s fault but teh fault of the university computers that don’t have his Greek font installed. But I digress. One week he had discovered the transition technique where each letter comes up one by one and every letter spins a cartwheel before settling on the screen. It took a while to get through the slides that day. We would score extra marks for including the maximum number of pictures during our tutorial presentations.
“Now I know most of you were only born a few years ago, but some of you might remember what happened in 1396.”
And so it went on and on. Matt got a short gig being his research assistant, and I enrolled and enrolled and enrolled in Vras’, eventually passing enough MGRK courses to get my degree! Plus more to spare. Byzantium: Between East and West. Greeks in the Diaspora. Greece and the European Imagination. They all rocked, and we would spend countless hours watching B-Grade Greek films, reruns of Acropolis Now and video clips from ageing Greek film stars.
“How very Freudian!”
This year one of my classmates took two hours to get through her presentation. She was analysing the representation of Greece in the musical Mamma Mia. Each time she showed us a section of dialogue of the movie, Vras would insist that we continued watching to the next song.
“Ooh! I love this one! Gimme Gimme Gimme a man after midnight! Madonna sang this one too you know.”
So I will really miss being in his classes. Even though I have absolutley no memory of a structured class with Vras, he has been one of the most influential and interesting teachers I’ve had. I may not know how to speak Greek and I may have forgotten a lit of information about Justinian and Homer, but I have really come to appreciate the things you can learn when you question things that are assumed. Vras was very good at getting us to do that. One of the people in his appreciation group on facebook put it this way:
“He knows full well that the best way to teach someone is to get them laughing.”
To sum up, I thought I’d leave you with some of the hilarious quotes that have been collected on Facebook. Enjoy!
——————————————-
15 min into our exam, Vras says “Are you all finished yet?” then pushes clock forward – “Don’t ask me any questions I’m conversing with Plato…”
“Those Egyptians were very nasty people! They killed and raped and ate the human flesh and blood! They were cannibals! Have you tasted human flesh?” [to an Egyptian student]
“Have you read ‘War and Peace’ by Leo Tolstoy…? You haven’t?! Oh my goodness people, we don’t live in a vacuum!”
“You have to be nice to me because I’m writing my magnus opus on violence so I need affection people!”
“The purpose of an institution like university is to produce intellectual disability”
“When are we two going to have sex?” (often said to me, once in front of a whole group of visiting professors during the Biennial Conference)
“Look at your shoes…you can jump to your death from them” (said to a student with high heels).
Student (vehemently): The Greeks gave the light of civilization to the world! (ta fota tou politismou).
Vras (deadpan): Was it Philips or General Electric type lights?
“Justinian loved building walls around things…no doubt as a psychological reaction to his wife who was having sex with half the Empire”
(while talking about sex, Vras stops and looks at me)
Vras: How old are you?
Me: 19
Vras: You look 14.
(someone tries to start up the sex topic again)
Vras: please, not in front of the minor.
“Elate paidia. Sit closer. Konta! Konta! I don’t bite, I don’t eat human flesh anymore!”
“Don’t you have a friend called Theodora or Zoe?”
“Do you have a friend called Thanatos?”
Thanks heaps to Matt who posted this on his blog. That is where I first saw it.
If you haven’t seen this then you really must. You might want to share whether you thought it was accurate or not after you have seen it – especially in regards to Julia Gillard’s maniacal laughter
Enjoy!
Well it has been a long time since our last “4 quick questions and 1 strange one with…” heer at Micaiah Sells Out, which is sad because this is one of my favourite blog strands! So I have decided to get back on the horse and get some more interviews out there with interesting people for your reading and informative pleasure.
Well who better to re start “4 quick questions and 1 strange one with…” than Matt Moffitt. Matt has just started working for the Howard Guiness Project at Sydney Uni (but he will tell you more about that below). Matt loves all thing theological; he regularly blogs about his theological musings and has a very impressive and intimidating library in his living room. Matt is married to the lovely Alison who was actually interviewed last year at Micaiah Sells Out, you can read it here. Matt attends St Johns Ashfield and is involved with ministering to international students there. Matt also loves cricket and is the author the Blog Hebel
Matt and his wife Alison
Matt, you have just started something called the Howard Guinness Project. What is it and why did you decide to do HGP instead of other forms of ministry training?
HGP is a two year ministry apprenticeship at Sydney University with the Evangelical Union. The project is named after Howard Guinness, who was sent by the evangelical students in the UK around the world to start Christian ministry on campus. It was his arrival in Sydney in 1930 that encouraged the Christian students to establish the Sydney Uni EU.
HGP provides people like me with an experience of real ministry while receiving real training. I get to do evangelism, lead Bible studies, train students with ministry skills, and see people come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and grow in him.
Why did I decide to the HGP instead of other forms of ministry training? HGP is run by the EU Grads Fund, which was founded 20 years ago to provide staff to work alongside the EU. In those twenty years, the Grads Fund has trained over 60 people. It has a great track record when it comes to training. With six senior staff workers responsible for training the howies (people like me doing HGP), HGP offers a unique opportunity for training that most churches in Australia are unable to provide.
The EU Grads Fund also has an amazing vision that I wanted to be part of: “To flood God’s church in Sydney, Australia and beyond with lay and vocational Christian leaders who are biblically and theologically mature, servant hearted, and innovative ministry strategists.” We often talk about the Christianity in Africa being a mile wild and an inch deep. Before HGP I spent three years working for CMS-NSW (the Church Missionary Society), and during that time I came to realise that this is true not just for Africa, but everywhere. I decided that HGP would be a strategic way to develop Christian leaders here in Australia and overseas. And it would be a strategic way for me to grow as a Christian leader and prepare for ministry, wherever I end up serving.
What will you be doing with the EU?
I’m working with the students in the AgVet (agricultural science and vet science) and PBF (Postgrad/Staff Bible Fellowship) faculties. After the first week of semester, I’m still working out what that looks like. Basically I work alongside the student leaders in both faculties, mentoring and caring for them, whilst thinking about the ministry in their faculty. This also means that I’m on both faculty committees, planning and praying about fulfilling the EU’s three objects in the faculty. I’ll be running a first year bible study for AgVet, and training a second year student in how to be a small group leader. I’m involved in a bible study for PBF, and part of several post grad prayer/network groups (i.e a group for all the Christian post grad students in Arts).
I’m also part of the team that runs Equip, the EU’s centralised training program.
What do you foresee will be the biggest challenges/joys about doing HPG?
I think that working with two small faculties will be challenging for me. It means that we need to be creative in the way we go about ministry. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I’m discovering. It actually presents us with many kinds of opportunities. But it is still challenging none the less. Ministering in small faculties also has the potential to very relationally intense. I’m not sure yet how I’ll deal with that, but it’s something I’m very mindful of.
However, with the challenges come many joys. In the past fortnight I’ve seen a fairly new Christian from my church who is just starting at Sydney Uni join the EU and totally throw himself into ministry and God’s mission at uni. That’s really exciting! And when I think back to my time in the EU, I can remember so many moments that stretched and grew me in my love and service of Jesus, his church and his world. To be apart of that now as a staff worker for students is really exciting.
What is the plan for you and Alison after HGP?
We’re still working that out – trusting that God will continue to transform us into the likeness of his son. Lord willing after HGP I’ll be attending one of the fine theological colleges Sydney has to offer for three or four years. Our long term plan is work overseas in student ministry. They say that ‘if you change the university, you change the world’, and we would like to serve in a place where student ministry is not only going to have a positive influence on the church, but in a place where, Lord willing, it will have a transformative affect on society. That would be several years away, but I’ve heading into HGP with the mindset that HGP will be great preparation for overseas ministry (or whatever we end up doing) many years down the track.
As someone who will be working with post grad students, could you share your reflections on this pertinent fable?
One sunny day, a rabbit came out of her hole in the ground to enjoy the fine weather. The day was so nice that she became careless and a fox snuck up behind her and caught her.
“I am going to eat you for lunch!” said the fox. “Wait!” replied the rabbit,” You should at least wait a few days.”
“Oh yeah? Why should I wait?”
“Well, I am just finishing my dissertation on ‘The Superiority of Rabbits over Foxes and Wolves.’”
“Are you crazy? I should eat you right now! Everyone knows that a fox will always win over a rabbit.”
“Not according to my research. If you like, you can come into my hole and read it for yourself. If you are not convinced, you can go ahead and eat me for lunch.”
“You really are crazy!” said the fox, but since the fox was curious and had nothing to lose, it went into the hole with the rabbit.
The fox never came out.
A few days later, the rabbit was again taking a break from writing when a wolf came out of the bushes and was ready to set upon her.
“Wait!” yelled the rabbit,” You can’t eat me right now.”
“And why might that be, my furry appetizer?” said the wolf.
“I am almost finished with my dissertation on ‘The Superiority of Rabbits over Foxes and Wolves.’”
The wolf laughed so hard he almost let go of the rabbit. “Maybe I shouldn’t eat you–you really are sick in the head! You might have something contagious.”
“Come and read it for yourself, you can eat me afterwards if you disagree with my conclusions.”
So the wolf went down into the rabbit’s hole…and never came out.
The rabbit finished her dissertation and was out celebrating in the local lettuce patch.
Another rabbit came along and asked, “What’s up? You seem very happy.”
“Yup, I just finished my dissertation.”
“Congratulations! What’s it about?”
“‘The Superiority of Rabbits over Foxes and Wolves.’”
“No way! That can’t be right.”
“Oh, but it is. Come and read it for yourself.”
So the two rabbits went down into the rabbit hole. As they entered, the friend saw the typical graduate abode. A computer with the controversial work was in one corner surrounded by discarded papers. And on one side of the room there was a pile of fox bones, while on the other side there was a pile of wolf bones. And in the centre, there was a large, well-fed lion.
The moral of the story:
The title of your dissertation doesn’t matter. The subject doesn’t matter. The research doesn’t matter. All that matters is who your advisor is.
Why doesn’t the lion eat the second rabbit? I’m sure picking the right supervisor is tremendously important. Pick the wrong supervisor, and you’re in for 3-4 very painful years. But for any potential post graduates out there, you still need to produce a quality piece of work, no matter who your supervisor is.
This is just a quick post to say that if you haven’t already you should check out Matthew Moffitt’s blog on recompense and restitution. He quotes a section of Peter Adam’s talk on the issue and has a link to the full transcript. I have read it and think it is something every Australian Christian should read! You can also read it here
Settlement was nothing less than a planned military invasion.
I would just like to say one thing on this before you all click over to Matthew’s blog.
True reconciliation will always be more than words. True reconciliation must be more than words, if it is not then we make the invasion of Australia nothing more than a trivial matter, easily resolved with an apology. No, a real and grievous crime has been done to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We are fooling ourselves if we think of the ‘settlement’ as anything less than a planned military invasion. We should mourn that we maintained the offensive belief – the myth- of terra nullius for so long. We must accept our share of the guilt! As Adam says in his lecture:
“Christian believers around Australia would be horrified at the thought of murdering their
neighbours in order to steal their property, and would be highly offended if we suggested
that they might do such things. But we have benefited because others have done these
actions for us, and we continue to live off the proceeds of those crimes and sins.
Our guilt is great.”
The Rudd government’s apology was an important step towards true reconciliation, but again, true reconciliation must be more than words, we need to start thinking about real recompense! After all our sins were not merely forgiven by words; instead the Lord Jesus paid our recompense in his body on the cross. God’s love for us was real – it was action. Our love must also be real. Our reconciliation must be real!
Real Repentance, Real Restitution, Real Reconciliation
