Orthodox Annunciation -- apparently, the event usually depicted on the Holy Doors of the ikonostasis. First Contact, in a way, at least for Mary. It's one thing to organize your perception of the world on the assumption that there are other, higher orders of creatures and being, but it's quite another matter when one (or three) of them stops by to say hello. Cf. perhaps, Roadside Picnic, in the spirit of Chariots of the Gods. But it's an article of faith, I think, that these higher orders are entirely native to our humble sphere of dirt and water and fire. Pace, perhaps the elaborate interplanetary scheme in C.S. Lewis's science fiction.
