HUNTINGTON - For more than 40 years, Holy Spirit Orthodox Christian Church has hosted a Middle Eastern dinner in celebration of the ethnic roots of the founders of the church, many of whom immigrated from Lebanon and Syria.
This year, the annual dinner representing nearly 12 Middle Eastern/Eastern European countries, including Ethiopia, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and parish members from the United States, is offered from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16, in the social hall of the church, 1 Woodhaven Drive (one mile from I-64 interchange on 5th Street Road).
"We invite our neighbors to come and celebrate the rich cultural diversity of the Tri-State community and savor the unique flavors of the traditional foods of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and throughout the eastern Mediterranean area," said Father John Dixon, parish priest at the church for 15 years and a member of the church 15 years prior to that.
A popular addition has been sampling of the foods of Ethiopia for the past several years.
"Ethiopian dishes have been added over the past eight years, and we have been blessed with Christian Ethiopian families that have become members of the church and offered to share their culture and food with us," said Christina Saad McNeely, chairwoman of this event in her fourth year.
"We are so happy to have all the families' participation and have become one big multicultural family over the past eight years," she said. "We are learning about each other's cultures, which enriches us in the church as well as at home."
Spices used in Ethiopian cuisine make the difference in Middle Eastern foods, which tend to use salt, pepper, cardamom seed, cinnamon and allspice. Ethiopian cuisine uses different spices, such as mitmita (a powdered seasoning mix, red/orange in color and containing ground birdseye chili peppers), cardamom seed, cloves, salt, others such as cinnamon, cumin and ginger.
Available Ethiopian dishes include injera, a signature Ethiopian flat bread, and vegetarian options such as falafel.
"This annual fundraiser helps us reach out to the community and share part of our church's culture with our friends and neighbors," McNeely said.
"I have been involved my entire life with the dinner," she said. "When I was younger, I was one of the children you would see bussing tables and 'helping' but staying out of the way.
"Now I am usually in charge of the a la carte section each year, and this year was also asked to be chairman," she noted. "My aunt, Mary Rahall, is my co-chair and has been a tremendous amount of help."
The main dish for the meal is kibbee, a dish made of bulgur wheat (cracked wheat), minced onions and finely ground lean beef. In addition to the kibbee, cabbage rolls, green beans and rice, salad and baklawa (Arabic version of baklava) round out the meal. Available a la carte items include hummus (chickpea dip), grape leaf rolls, baba ghanouj (roasted eggplant dip), pita bread and various Middle Eastern pastries, including macaroons, date ma'amoul, walnut ma'amoul and more.
Turkish coffee, traditionally served in Greece, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan (each country calls it something different: Arabic coffee, Greek coffee, Syrian coffee, etc.), is also served.
Advance tickets are $15 adults or $20 at door or $10 ages 10 and younger or $15 at door. Take-out orders are also available. Tickets may be purchased by contacting McNeely, 304-617-1631, csaad4@gmail.com; or Dixon, 304-634-0411 or frjohnwv@aol.com. Tickets are also sold at Julian's Market, 1049 12th St., and Saad Dixon Law Office, 730 4th Ave.
"In the past, our church relied on the Middle Eastern dinner in order to cover a portion of the operating costs of the church," Dixon said. "Now, because of the growth in our church, over the past two years, we have been able to donate 10 percent of the proceeds to Recovery Point and Lilly's Place."
"This year, funds will be donated to assist in the continuing recovery efforts from the floods that occurred in West Virginia earlier this summer," McNeely said.
"Hardly a day passes without some news reports of the ongoing violence in the Middle East," she said. "It is easy to forget that the very roots of our Christian faith are there and Orthodox Christians have been there since the time of Jesus Christ and the apostles.
"Our parish is a part of that unbroken link with those Christians of the first century," she said. "We love to share our culture but even more so, we love to share our Orthodox Christian faith that transcends culture or place." Read more here
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