New and Improved

[White Rabbit]

Ok here's the new and improved version of my poll. In case I miss anything above, it is also a public poll. Please try not to debate below, just tell what your status in the Church is. :)

[White Rabbit]

I am a catechumen, not holding any other status.

[Michael the Iconographer]

I am an Iconographer! :) (In case any of you did not know that!)

[White Rabbit]

I am an Iconographer! :) (In case any of you did not know that!)

REALLY!?! ;)

[Xpycoctomos]

What if you're a deacon AND you are inspiring to be a priest AND you are left-handed iconographer?

[Xpycoctomos]

I'm layity... nothing special. I serve behind the altar but hold no special status

[White Rabbit]

What if you're a deacon AND you are inspiring to be a priest AND you are left-handed iconographer?

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

I ran out of option slots :cry:

[Xpycoctomos]

Okay... otherwise that was the other one you were going to put, right?

lol

[White Rabbit]

Okay... otherwise that was the other one you were going to put, right?

lol

Actually, I was going to put "other (explain below)," so everyone's happy :thumbsup:

[Padraig]

Tonsured Reader.


Padraig

[Khaleas]

I'm a cathecumen for another 230 hours...or so...
Of course I have to have the worst two weeks of school before finals before then so it's going to feel a lot longer... and I have to take time to think and pray... and it's a lot less than I was hoping for :cry: .

[Stefan Davidovich]

I am outside the church :( but interested.:)

[Vasya Davidovich]

Laity.

[ManM]

Reader, at your service. :)

[Kolya]

Laity holding no other status ( Other than occasionally singing in the choir, and dishing out :hug: after DL.)

[The Prokeimenon!]

Lay chanter- waiting for His Grace to come to town to tonsure me

Moses

[vanshan]

Nothing. I would like to become a monastic, but I must wait to see if my wife feels a similar calling. Otherwise, I will remain a laymen.

Basil

[Oblio]

Tonsured Reader

[Eusebios]

Rabbit,
Nicely constructed poll! I am a tonsured Reader.
Nothing. I would like to become a monastic, but I must wait to see if my wife feels a similar calling. Otherwise, I will remain a laymen.

Basil
And Basil, that is amazing. I have the same situation brewing inside me as well. I have been deleriously happy in my 14 year marraige and love my wife with all my heart, and yet I too am strangely drawn to the monastic life. It is not without precedent within the Church that married couples have, at the appropriate time, voluntarily left the marraige to pursue the Angelic life. I'm not aware of too many modern examples,but then again, it seems that monasticism has taken on so much cultural baggage, even within Orthodoxy.
Alas, I ramble.
His unworthy servant,
Eusebios.
:bow:

[Julio]

I was tonsured a Psaltis, or Cantor (not Anagnostis, or Reader). As is customary in Greece and the Balkans, I was appointed by the Bishop to serve in my parish, and named ecclesiarch. Recently, I was raised to Protopsaltis.

[RobWW]

I'm outside of the church for now. There is an OCA parish 30 minutes away that I'm hoping to visit soon. :prayer:

-Rob

[Suzannah]

This poll is much better!
I am a layperson with no other status. But I like to think I am HTSIC.

(Head Toilet Scrubber In Charge). ;)

[Oblio]

Head Toilet Scrubber In Charge



[Geekspeek]
Shouldn't that be Head2 Scrubber in Charge
[/speek]

[Philip]

[Geekspeek]
Shouldn't that be Head2 Scrubber in Charge
[/speek]

Sounds more like Navyspeak to me, except I don't see any TLAs.

[Konstantinos]

Laity Head Choir director

[Suzannah]

[Geekspeek]
Shouldn't that be Head2 Scrubber in Charge
[/speek]

I LIKE that! It would particularly appeal to engineers... especially FIRST engineers...

[Mary of Bethany]

Laity, and in choir.

[stillerfan]

Sounds more like Navyspeak to me, except I don't see any TLAs.

no TLAs, no PQSs....... where's her quals??? ;) :P ^_^

--- from one sailor to another.... :wave:

[stillerfan]

laity, singing in choir for almost ten years now....

[ExOrienteLux]

Laity, altar server/chanter, in a Late Vocations program designed to have me ready to be tonsured a Reader / ordained a Sub-Deacon in a couple of years.

+IC XC NIKA+
Phillip

[Matrona]

I'm laity, obviously, and I sing in the choir (that count as status?). I think someday, though, I might want to be a nun. I see a lot of you are, too, even those of you who are married. :)

[Kolya]

I'm laity, obviously, and I sing in the choir (that count as status?). I think someday, though, I might want to be a nun. I see a lot of you are, too, even those of you who are married. :)

If Seraphima should precede me in falling asleep, I think I shall seek the monastic life too.

[Lotar]

Catechumen as of last Sunday.

[Matrona]

If Seraphima should precede me in falling asleep, I think I shall seek the monastic life too.

How does one discern a true calling to the angelic schema?

[Vasya Davidovich]

How does one discern a true calling to the angelic schema?
How does one discern a true calling to the married life?

I was once told by a wise abbot that one is rarely if ever called to monasticism, just as one is rarely if ever called to marriage.

You meet someone and in her* marriage makes sense. There is a sense of belonging... and you realize that here (with her) is a good way to work out your salvation.

Alternatively, you go to a monastery and in that place monasticism makes sense. There is a sense of belonging, and you realize that here (in this community) is a good way to work out your salvation.

It is not a call to a theory, but to a communion (with a spouse or with a monastic brotherhood).

* It got too difficult to use inclusive language in this post. I wrote it as if it was to me. Sorry, Matrona.

[Kolya]

It is not a call to a theory, but to a communion (with a spouse or with a monastic brotherhood).


Oh Quite! I have a beautiful relationship in marriage now. If I were to lose it, I do not think I could find this level of intensity again.

Then I would probably seek a communion with God in the brotherhood of a monsatary.