To our recent visitors

[prodromos]

Jesus Christ of Nazareth is your Shepherd.
Turn to Him.
Blessings.

You already have a shepherd, His name is Jesus.

Blessings.

The Holy Spirit of God is to be our teacher and our guide. Man is not to teach us. It is interesting to hear their testimony and a report on what God is doing in their life and teaching them. We need to be careful though because sooner or later we will be sucked into their error. So we add their error to our own error.

Matthew 23:15 (NIV): "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are."

I just wanted to clarify my response to your posts in a recent thread as there seemed to be significant misunderstanding. It is apparent that you clicked on the thread link either from the main page or from suggested links at the bottom of another thread, and as such you were not aware that the thread had been posted in the Congregational Forums. This happens quite often which is why one of us will post a gentle reminder to pre-empt any posts which might invite a response from the moderators. We generally will not report such posts as we understand that most people are unaware of where the thread was posted.

About halfway down the terms and conditions for Christian Forums you will find the following:

Congregational Forum Restrictions​

Members who do not truly share the core beliefs and teachings of a specific congregational forum may post in fellowship or ask questions, but they may not teach or debate within the forum.​

This rule was added to ensure that each of the Congregational forums would be treated as a "safe house" for people in each congregation. Otherwise it would often turn into a free for all with people from outside a particular congregation debating their particular understanding as if it was a thread in General Theology.

We in The Ancient Way are unique on Christian Forums in that we welcome debate from people who may disagree with points of Eastern Orthodox theology and praxis, however we have a specific sub-forum for that called St Justin Martyr's Corner, so if you feel that something we posted crosses a line for you, there is a place where you can safely debate your understanding without fear of reprisals from the moderators.

So all that said, we certainly agree that Christ is our chief shepherd, however Christ also charged His Apostles with shepherding His sheep, and in the Orthodox Church we believe that role has been passed on through the laying on of hands to this very day. Thus, when someone comes to the Eastern Orthodox congregational forum, asking about needing a shepherd, perhaps you can understand how your responses fall short. Eastern Orthodoxy is not "me and Jesus", it is "we and Jesus", that is, Jesus and His body, the Church. Some people in the Church are called to be shepherds and it is a grave responsibility, but one that we believe was clearly established by Christ.

That is all I want to say on the matter, but if you disagree you are welcome to put your argument forward as I have posted this thread in St Justin Martyr's Corner.
God bless you all.

 

[ArmyMatt]

thanks for this, tis much needed

 

[JesusFollowerForever]

I just wanted to clarify my response to your posts in a recent thread as there seemed to be significant misunderstanding. It is apparent that you clicked on the thread link either from the main page or from suggested links at the bottom of another thread, and as such you were not aware that the thread had been posted in the Congregational Forums. This happens quite often which is why one of us will post a gentle reminder to pre-empt any posts which might invite a response from the moderators. We generally will not report such posts as we understand that most people are unaware of where the thread was posted.

About halfway down the terms and conditions for Christian Forums you will find the following:

Congregational Forum Restrictions​

Members who do not truly share the core beliefs and teachings of a specific congregational forum may post in fellowship or ask questions, but they may not teach or debate within the forum.​

This rule was added to ensure that each of the Congregational forums would be treated as a "safe house" for people in each congregation. Otherwise it would often turn into a free for all with people from outside a particular congregation debating their particular understanding as if it was a thread in General Theology.

We in The Ancient Way are unique on Christian Forums in that we welcome debate from people who may disagree with points of Eastern Orthodox theology and praxis, however we have a specific sub-forum for that called St Justin Martyr's Corner, so if you feel that something we posted crosses a line for you, there is a place where you can safely debate your understanding without fear of reprisals from the moderators.

So all that said, we certainly agree that Christ is our chief shepherd, however Christ also charged His Apostles with shepherding His sheep, and in the Orthodox Church we believe that role has been passed on through the laying on of hands to this very day. Thus, when someone comes to the Eastern Orthodox congregational forum, asking about needing a shepherd, perhaps you can understand how your responses fall short. Eastern Orthodoxy is not "me and Jesus", it is "we and Jesus", that is, Jesus and His body, the Church. Some people in the Church are called to be shepherds and it is a grave responsibility, but one that we believe was clearly established by Christ.

That is all I want to say on the matter, but if you disagree you are welcome to put your argument forward as I have posted this thread in St Justin Martyr's Corner.
God bless you all.

Hello prodromos,

I always wanted to know more about Eastern Orthodox theology and praxis, could you point to a link that would be informative?

Thank you.

 

[The Liturgist]

Hello prodromos,

I always wanted to know more about Eastern Orthodox theology and praxis, could you point to a link that would be informative?

Thank you.

A lot of the material I have pertains to our liturgy, but there is some real beauty - I am trying to think of a good introductory site. I have in mind one site by Sandipolous except it has some material that is problematic, and also, I’ve heard much of the material he posts on it is accessible elsewhere.

Any thoughts @ArmyMatt @gurneyhalleck1 @prodromos and also @jas3 , since you just opted to join us, was there anything you found useful or inspiring?

In my case the interest there had been present from a while, and viewing a combination of theological lectures by Fr. John Behr and Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, and certain early recordings of the Divine Liturgy on YouTube, and then hearing of the abduction of the Metropolitans of Aleppo in 2013 was enough to make up my mind for me.

I was also intrigued by coming across the story of how the EOC parishes led by the likes of Fr. Peter Gilquist, memory eternal, was received into the Antiochian Orthodox Church, which dispelled from my mind any remaining notion of the sort propagated by unhelpful films like a certain romantic comedy produced by a certain Hollywood actor that conversion to the Orthodox Church is unusual and the services incomprehensible, and the sort of thing one would do only to facilitate marriage to an Orthodox Christian. Rather it brought back to the forefront of my mind an OCA priest, now retired, in Chico, where I grew up, who in the 1990s would attend the farmer’s market in downtown and sell icons from a beautiful cart, and it was there I first saw the logo of the Orthodox Church in America, which I loved, and he was an exceedingly loving man. I wonder if he was still alive - if he is I’d really like to thank him for planting a seed.

 

[ArmyMatt]

Any thoughts @ArmyMatt @gurneyhalleck1 @prodromos and also @jas3 , since you just opted to join us, was there anything you found useful or inspiring?

Fr Seraphim Rose, Fr Thomas Hopko, Abp Michael of NY, Fr John Reeves, LoS podcast to name a few

 

[jas3]

Any thoughts @ArmyMatt @gurneyhalleck1 @prodromos and also @jas3 , since you just opted to join us, was there anything you found useful or inspiring?

One good online resource I liked was a podcast called "At the Intersection of East and West," which has some older episodes from around 2010, if I remember correctly, where Dn. Michael Hyatt goes through the history of the ecumenical councils in an easy to understand way.

Another with lots of reading material is Home :: Orthodox Christian Information Center

 

[The Liturgist]

One good online resource I liked was a podcast called "At the Intersection of East and West," which has some older episodes from around 2010, if I remember correctly, where Dn. Michael Hyatt goes through the history of the ecumenical councils in an easy to understand way.

Another with lots of reading material is Home :: Orthodox Christian Information Center

I like to avoid that last one because its run by Old Calendarists and some of the articles on it do not reflect the current state of the canonical churches.