I recently purchased a book on marriage called Preserve Them O Lord by Fr. John Mack.
During my time of learning about Orthodoxy, I came across the Orthodox belief that our marriages have an eternal dimension to them. Such a belief offers many implications for our earthly lives.
As a Protestant, I was taught that human marriage ceases after death. This is probably also a common Roman Catholic belief. But in Eastern Orthodoxy, your marriage continues into eternity! How that works is yet unclear to me as a recent convert, but you don't have to be completely clear about it in order to realize some implications.
Now this Orthodox Christian belief should not be confused with the Mormon belief in "celestial marriage" or the Muslim belief in the 70 virgins! After all, Christ did tell the skeptic Sadducees that in heaven men neither marry nor are women given in marriage but are as the angels in heaven. But Jesus was speaking to the ancient Jewish belief that the primary role of marriage was procreation. Christianity exalted marriage to the status of Icon of the mystical bond between Christ and his Bride, the church.
And as such an icon, marriage must therefore be eternal in some way! The relationship between Christ and his Bride is eternal, so our marriages must reflect that or the icon is defaced.
But more to the point and down to brass tacks, what does the Orthodox belief in the eternality of our marriages mean for us as Christians?
I intend to expand on this topic very soon, but suffice it to say at the moment that such a belief can actually offer people hope when they reason out the implications.
For many people, the thought that their present miserable or disappointing marriage might continue forever is akin to a sentence of eternal damnation! But such a view is short-sighted.
In Orthodoxy, a marriage absolutely doesn't have to stay miserable but can be tranformed into something heavenly. If we allowed this Orthodox perspective to really sink in, we might realize the following things:
First, if we carry our marriage cross faithfully throughout this life, we will be rewarded for it in the life to come. Any imperfections in our marriages and any imperfections in us can be totally redeemed in the life to come.
Think about it! That person you are married to might become, to quote C.S. Lewis, a creature in heaven that if you were to see him or her now, you might be tempted to worship!
Anything we are deeply dissapointed in will be resolved in eternity, provided that we remain faithful and obedient.
If God has promised to wipe away the tears from all faces, well, you do the math if you are currently in a marriage that is painful or a present source of sorrow.
The promise is there: In Orthodoxy the person you are married to RIGHT NOW can be someone you will be ETERNALLY happy with.
The deepest love, joy and contentment IN YOUR PRESENT CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE can and will happen in the world to come. This provides a strong motivation to hang in there with your marriage.
"And they lived happily ever after."
In Orthodoxy, this is really a promise. It might not happen right now, in this temporal life, but it can and will happen in the world to come.
There is only one condition, although it is a tough one:
We must completely lay down our earthly lives for Christ and our marriage partner. But in this requirement, there is also the good news that Christ has provided his Church and the Sacraments to assist us in this journey.
Perhaps many people would quit searching for "the one person I was meant for" if they realized that the person they married is precisely that. The myth of "the Golden Person" has caused the death of many marriages. People in our day and age go from partner to partner and never find the person they are looking for when the first person they married could have been that person if they had made the decision to live the Orthodox Christian life in its fulness.
This Orthodox teaching, properly understood and communicated to others actually has the potential to strenghten the resolve of Christians of all types to stick with their first marriages.
More on this subject very soon. Count on some C.S. Lewis and John Eldredge quotes thrown in for good measure!
Columba Siluoan
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
How 'Bout Those Rockies!?
Along with most of the rest of the Colorado population I've been swept up in Rockies Fever.
I really never thought "World Series" and Colorado Rockies would be in the same sentence.
On Monday, October the 15th, I was able to obtain NLCS Home Game Two tickets for me, my wife and my son Adam. Although Adam has been to a number of Avalanche Hockey games, this NLCS game was his first major league ballgame.
Adam, aged 5, made it all the way through the sixth inning before falling asleep for the rest of the game.
I taught him to crack open peanuts and munch away.
It was always a dream of mine to take my son to a ballgame. Now that dream has been realized.
On the Parker Orthodox front, one of the parishioners of Saint Marks is doing a homework assignment involving research of the Parker area for a possible new WR Orthdox parish. He plans to interview me in coming days.
Life at Saint Marks is going well. The recent growth spurt continues with more than 20 people being scheduled for Chrismation over the next few weeks.
The parish has had a makeover with the addition of a new wing and a remodel of the parish hall.
These are truly exciting times to be living in Denver, both on the Sports front and on the WR Orthodox front.
Pax Christi,
Columba Silouan
I really never thought "World Series" and Colorado Rockies would be in the same sentence.
On Monday, October the 15th, I was able to obtain NLCS Home Game Two tickets for me, my wife and my son Adam. Although Adam has been to a number of Avalanche Hockey games, this NLCS game was his first major league ballgame.
Adam, aged 5, made it all the way through the sixth inning before falling asleep for the rest of the game.
I taught him to crack open peanuts and munch away.
It was always a dream of mine to take my son to a ballgame. Now that dream has been realized.
On the Parker Orthodox front, one of the parishioners of Saint Marks is doing a homework assignment involving research of the Parker area for a possible new WR Orthdox parish. He plans to interview me in coming days.
Life at Saint Marks is going well. The recent growth spurt continues with more than 20 people being scheduled for Chrismation over the next few weeks.
The parish has had a makeover with the addition of a new wing and a remodel of the parish hall.
These are truly exciting times to be living in Denver, both on the Sports front and on the WR Orthodox front.
Pax Christi,
Columba Silouan
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Back from a Summer Hiatus
Now that fall is just around the corner, it's time to take keyboard in hand and start blogging again.
The Summer of 2007 has brought many changes. One of these is a new job at my same company under a Christian supervisor as an Accounting Specialist in the Billing Dept.
I thank God for this, as my previous position had degenerated into job duties that were less than "professional office work" which I need as a bare minimum to not consider myself a complete failure.
My dreams for a "Summer of promoting Orthodoxy" fell a bit short. But God was as work anyway. Saint Mark's is experiencing growth and our priest has developed a deep interest in the writings of Archimandrite Zacharias, Saint Sophrany and Saint Silouan, my patron Saint.
My old spiritual director who was actually a young priest of around my age has moved on to a mission in Fort Collins and I have a new and older spiritual father and have good hopes for renewed spiritual progress and growth under his direction.
The Lord continues to bless my family: My wife and kids are thriving and I am becoming more at ease in my role as a husband and father.
Now I need to think about changing my name legally again to Columba Silouan and about how I might go about picking up the threads I laid down about promoting Holy Orthodoxy in Parker.
So "to it" once again! But this time in a more subdued and prayerful demeanor.
Blessings!
Columcille Siluoan
The Summer of 2007 has brought many changes. One of these is a new job at my same company under a Christian supervisor as an Accounting Specialist in the Billing Dept.
I thank God for this, as my previous position had degenerated into job duties that were less than "professional office work" which I need as a bare minimum to not consider myself a complete failure.
My dreams for a "Summer of promoting Orthodoxy" fell a bit short. But God was as work anyway. Saint Mark's is experiencing growth and our priest has developed a deep interest in the writings of Archimandrite Zacharias, Saint Sophrany and Saint Silouan, my patron Saint.
My old spiritual director who was actually a young priest of around my age has moved on to a mission in Fort Collins and I have a new and older spiritual father and have good hopes for renewed spiritual progress and growth under his direction.
The Lord continues to bless my family: My wife and kids are thriving and I am becoming more at ease in my role as a husband and father.
Now I need to think about changing my name legally again to Columba Silouan and about how I might go about picking up the threads I laid down about promoting Holy Orthodoxy in Parker.
So "to it" once again! But this time in a more subdued and prayerful demeanor.
Blessings!
Columcille Siluoan
Monday, July 2, 2007
The Pontificator Ends His Blog
The Pontificator, Fr. Al Kimmel, a former Episcopal priest who converted to the Roman Catholic Church and who inspired many to convert to Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy is ending his blog.
I found his concluding thoughts to be profound. They reminded me of some of the things John Eldredge has said, and they rang true to my own experience as a recent convert to Eastern Orthodoxy.
Just finding what we believe to be The Church doesn't automatically heal all of our disappointments and heartbreaks. These just remind us that we have yet to reach our true home.
Namárië
27 June 2007
Dear friends,
The conviction has been growing upon my heart that it is time for me to cease blogging. This conviction firmly settled two weekends ago during my attendance at the "Orthodox Readings of Augustine" conference at Fordham. It was a most interesting and encouraging conference. It was refreshing to hear Orthodox scholars eschewing the anti-Catholic polemics and caricatures that have become typical within Orthodox discourse during the past fifty years.
In addition to the fine presentations, several people came up to me and introduced themselves as regular readers of Pontifications. Yet when I returned home, I knew that it was time for me to bring Pontifications to closure. As the preacher says, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven."
I began my blog as a way to work through, both intellectually and emotionally, the crisis of conscience caused by the election of Gene Robinson to the episcopate. I knew that I could no longer summon individuals into the communion of the Episcopal Church. What was I to do? I had been a priest for over 20 years. I knew that I could not join one of the multiple Anglican sects.
The fall of the Episcopal Church into heresy had convinced me that Protestantism was incapable of standing against the corrosive tides of modernity. There were only three options for me-Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or agnosticism.
After two years of deliberation, I found myself, much to my surprise, drawn into the communion of the Catholic Church. Becoming Catholic has brought many blessings, but it has not healed the sorrows of my heart. Indeed, in some ways it has intensified these sorrows. But this is all very private. All I need say is that I often find them overwhelming. God is silent. I am reduced to silence.
On the way home to the Shire, Gandalf sees the discomfort of Frodo:
"Are you in pain, Frodo?" "Well, yes I am," said Frodo. "It is my shoulder. The wound aches, and the memory of darkness is heavy on me. It was a year ago today." "Alas! There are some wounds that cannot be wholly cured," said Gandalf.
When compared to the devastating injuries-physical, emotional, and spiritual-that so many people in the world must endure, mine seem minor and trifling. Yet the burden is real.
Over the past few years God has stripped away the loves and passions of my heart. Even the words seem to be disappearing. Writing has become impossible-and prayer, difficult.
I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you which shall be the darkness of God. (T. S. Elliot)
I wish to thank all who have faithfully read Pontifications over the past three years.
I give you all joy.
Under the Mercy,
Fr. Alvin Kimmel
It is my prayer that whatever is causing Fr. Al's pain will be healed by time and the ministrations of the Holy Trinity.
Columba Silouan
I found his concluding thoughts to be profound. They reminded me of some of the things John Eldredge has said, and they rang true to my own experience as a recent convert to Eastern Orthodoxy.
Just finding what we believe to be The Church doesn't automatically heal all of our disappointments and heartbreaks. These just remind us that we have yet to reach our true home.
Namárië
27 June 2007
Dear friends,
The conviction has been growing upon my heart that it is time for me to cease blogging. This conviction firmly settled two weekends ago during my attendance at the "Orthodox Readings of Augustine" conference at Fordham. It was a most interesting and encouraging conference. It was refreshing to hear Orthodox scholars eschewing the anti-Catholic polemics and caricatures that have become typical within Orthodox discourse during the past fifty years.
In addition to the fine presentations, several people came up to me and introduced themselves as regular readers of Pontifications. Yet when I returned home, I knew that it was time for me to bring Pontifications to closure. As the preacher says, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven."
I began my blog as a way to work through, both intellectually and emotionally, the crisis of conscience caused by the election of Gene Robinson to the episcopate. I knew that I could no longer summon individuals into the communion of the Episcopal Church. What was I to do? I had been a priest for over 20 years. I knew that I could not join one of the multiple Anglican sects.
The fall of the Episcopal Church into heresy had convinced me that Protestantism was incapable of standing against the corrosive tides of modernity. There were only three options for me-Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or agnosticism.
After two years of deliberation, I found myself, much to my surprise, drawn into the communion of the Catholic Church. Becoming Catholic has brought many blessings, but it has not healed the sorrows of my heart. Indeed, in some ways it has intensified these sorrows. But this is all very private. All I need say is that I often find them overwhelming. God is silent. I am reduced to silence.
On the way home to the Shire, Gandalf sees the discomfort of Frodo:
"Are you in pain, Frodo?" "Well, yes I am," said Frodo. "It is my shoulder. The wound aches, and the memory of darkness is heavy on me. It was a year ago today." "Alas! There are some wounds that cannot be wholly cured," said Gandalf.
When compared to the devastating injuries-physical, emotional, and spiritual-that so many people in the world must endure, mine seem minor and trifling. Yet the burden is real.
Over the past few years God has stripped away the loves and passions of my heart. Even the words seem to be disappearing. Writing has become impossible-and prayer, difficult.
I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you which shall be the darkness of God. (T. S. Elliot)
I wish to thank all who have faithfully read Pontifications over the past three years.
I give you all joy.
Under the Mercy,
Fr. Alvin Kimmel
It is my prayer that whatever is causing Fr. Al's pain will be healed by time and the ministrations of the Holy Trinity.
Columba Silouan
Thursday, June 7, 2007
From Orthodox Blogdom: Liturgy Ideas
Collin Michael Nunis said...
"Judging from the texts I've read and studied, I find both the "Tikhonian" and "Gregorian" liturgies to be beautiful, even though I have yet to attend one.
However, as time passes by, I think it would be good to develop a new liturgy based on both the Tikhonian and Gregorian in both traditional and contemporary English (ala 1979 BCP, minus theological/doctrinal compromises), ensuring that the "best of both the Western-Rite worlds (Roman and Anglican) will be found in this liturgy.
I do not know what others would think, but I believe that a fairly good place to start would be expanding the Roman Catholic Book of Divine Worship's (RC equivalent of BCP) Rite I and Rite II. I do not know how kindly this will be looked upon but if it is possible, that would be great.
By doing this, I think that we will not be selling out to anyone or be "pleasing" to anyone, but rather, make room for the younger generation to understand the depths and beauty of Orthodoxy.
With the Western Rite, not only has it recaptured something it "lost", but has made Orthodoxy more accessible. I'm just hoping to take the accessibility one step further.
Theological correctness for the Eucharistic part of the liturgy is the most important. We should never compromise that. While I am aware that Met. Philip promised no Byzantinisation of the Western Rite, I do not think that using the Byzantine Eucharistic prayer will make the Western Rite less Western."
From these comments, dear readers, we can see that the desire to make Orthodoxy more "accessible" is still alive and well.
I don't know about his idea of a "new" WR liturgy derived from both the Liturgy of Saint Tikhon and the Liturgy of Saint Gregory, but a modern language equivalent for each along the lines of the English Standard version of the Bible might provide at least a shadow of an idea in this direction.
We should consider the Greek Orthodox Church in this regard. Many of their parishes are not allergic to using "you" as opposed to "Thee" in their English translations of the Eastern Rite.
It's kind of silly if we become absolutists on this point if the Greeks aren't that concerned about it. Being addicted to Thees, Thous, Thys and Thines at the expense of potential conversions to Holy Orthodoxy seems to be like straining at gnats while swallowing camels.
Just some thoughts.
Columba Silouan
"Judging from the texts I've read and studied, I find both the "Tikhonian" and "Gregorian" liturgies to be beautiful, even though I have yet to attend one.
However, as time passes by, I think it would be good to develop a new liturgy based on both the Tikhonian and Gregorian in both traditional and contemporary English (ala 1979 BCP, minus theological/doctrinal compromises), ensuring that the "best of both the Western-Rite worlds (Roman and Anglican) will be found in this liturgy.
I do not know what others would think, but I believe that a fairly good place to start would be expanding the Roman Catholic Book of Divine Worship's (RC equivalent of BCP) Rite I and Rite II. I do not know how kindly this will be looked upon but if it is possible, that would be great.
By doing this, I think that we will not be selling out to anyone or be "pleasing" to anyone, but rather, make room for the younger generation to understand the depths and beauty of Orthodoxy.
With the Western Rite, not only has it recaptured something it "lost", but has made Orthodoxy more accessible. I'm just hoping to take the accessibility one step further.
Theological correctness for the Eucharistic part of the liturgy is the most important. We should never compromise that. While I am aware that Met. Philip promised no Byzantinisation of the Western Rite, I do not think that using the Byzantine Eucharistic prayer will make the Western Rite less Western."
From these comments, dear readers, we can see that the desire to make Orthodoxy more "accessible" is still alive and well.
I don't know about his idea of a "new" WR liturgy derived from both the Liturgy of Saint Tikhon and the Liturgy of Saint Gregory, but a modern language equivalent for each along the lines of the English Standard version of the Bible might provide at least a shadow of an idea in this direction.
We should consider the Greek Orthodox Church in this regard. Many of their parishes are not allergic to using "you" as opposed to "Thee" in their English translations of the Eastern Rite.
It's kind of silly if we become absolutists on this point if the Greeks aren't that concerned about it. Being addicted to Thees, Thous, Thys and Thines at the expense of potential conversions to Holy Orthodoxy seems to be like straining at gnats while swallowing camels.
Just some thoughts.
Columba Silouan
So What's the Latest on THE PROJECT?
The latest news I have on THE PROJECT of getting that ball rolling to begin an Eastern Orthodox Mission in Parker is, quite frankly, not much.
The Bible Study has been slow to resume. A new family is visiting Saint Marks and lives close to us and might be open to some involvement. I'm kicking around a number of ideas to try and regain some momentum.
The positive thing is: Saint Marks is feeling more and more like an old friend to us.
Some of the ideas I have are the following: Draw up and distribute flyers and handbills and paste them up all over Parker with the web address of the blogspot and with my e-mail address. Start a newsletter with the tentative name of the Parker Orthodox Times. Start a book study using the books of John Eldredge with an Eastern Orthodox analysis of each one. Attend a Random Hearts event.
As you can see, I have many ideas. But there is one basic thing I'm lacking at the moment: Guinea pigs to practice all these ideas on. :)
I can't be Orthodox as an individual. To ever see this dream become a reality, I'm going to have to find a "Fellowship of the Heart" to journey with.
Part of this Fellowship will have to be found at my home parish.
But part of this Fellowship will have to be searched for.
My dreams for this new church are many and detailed. I wish to see Western Rite Orthodoxy really take off. I wish to see Western Rite parishes every bit as dynamic and thriving as any AMIA parish or CANA parish out there. Of course, we will have to do our parishes differently, because as Orthodox we operate under different contraints then our Anglican counterparts. But make no mistake: Orthodox with a small "o" Anglicans will be our biggest competitors. Behind them will be the LCMS Lutherans.
Why is it a competition, even though we would prefer it not be? Because we believe that Orthodoxy is Christianity without distortions, at least on a doctrinal level. Now WE can distort things ourselves by the way we live, but at least the beliefs are not distortions. It's hard enough to live lives that aren't distorted. When we add distorted and heretical teachings on top of our already distorted lives, things get really sticky.
I have started to pray that someday all the "orthodox" Anglicans will see the light and come home to Holy Orthodoxy. I also pray that as Orthodox Christians, we and our leaders will prepare for and get ready for such an event. We need to pray for our Bishops and other leaders to have deep wisdom about how such an event might become possible.
We need to work on our approach without compromising who and what we are.
What we can do: We can have weekly small groups, book and Bible studies, "singspirations," and otherwise emulate aspects of the Evangelical Culture around us without accomodating to that culture. We remain Orthodox but point to the commonalities between us and the Evangelicals around us. When the differences become apparent, we explain how those differences coming from our side of things can bring life.
We may not be able to do "Praise and Worship" during the Mass, but we can do it in the middle of the week and make some of our "dry" Orthodox parishes less dry when it comes to the life of the community. Orthodoxy isn't dry, but we sometimes make it that way by what we do to Orthodoxy. This doesn't have to be our situation.
Columba Silouan
The Bible Study has been slow to resume. A new family is visiting Saint Marks and lives close to us and might be open to some involvement. I'm kicking around a number of ideas to try and regain some momentum.
The positive thing is: Saint Marks is feeling more and more like an old friend to us.
Some of the ideas I have are the following: Draw up and distribute flyers and handbills and paste them up all over Parker with the web address of the blogspot and with my e-mail address. Start a newsletter with the tentative name of the Parker Orthodox Times. Start a book study using the books of John Eldredge with an Eastern Orthodox analysis of each one. Attend a Random Hearts event.
As you can see, I have many ideas. But there is one basic thing I'm lacking at the moment: Guinea pigs to practice all these ideas on. :)
I can't be Orthodox as an individual. To ever see this dream become a reality, I'm going to have to find a "Fellowship of the Heart" to journey with.
Part of this Fellowship will have to be found at my home parish.
But part of this Fellowship will have to be searched for.
My dreams for this new church are many and detailed. I wish to see Western Rite Orthodoxy really take off. I wish to see Western Rite parishes every bit as dynamic and thriving as any AMIA parish or CANA parish out there. Of course, we will have to do our parishes differently, because as Orthodox we operate under different contraints then our Anglican counterparts. But make no mistake: Orthodox with a small "o" Anglicans will be our biggest competitors. Behind them will be the LCMS Lutherans.
Why is it a competition, even though we would prefer it not be? Because we believe that Orthodoxy is Christianity without distortions, at least on a doctrinal level. Now WE can distort things ourselves by the way we live, but at least the beliefs are not distortions. It's hard enough to live lives that aren't distorted. When we add distorted and heretical teachings on top of our already distorted lives, things get really sticky.
I have started to pray that someday all the "orthodox" Anglicans will see the light and come home to Holy Orthodoxy. I also pray that as Orthodox Christians, we and our leaders will prepare for and get ready for such an event. We need to pray for our Bishops and other leaders to have deep wisdom about how such an event might become possible.
We need to work on our approach without compromising who and what we are.
What we can do: We can have weekly small groups, book and Bible studies, "singspirations," and otherwise emulate aspects of the Evangelical Culture around us without accomodating to that culture. We remain Orthodox but point to the commonalities between us and the Evangelicals around us. When the differences become apparent, we explain how those differences coming from our side of things can bring life.
We may not be able to do "Praise and Worship" during the Mass, but we can do it in the middle of the week and make some of our "dry" Orthodox parishes less dry when it comes to the life of the community. Orthodoxy isn't dry, but we sometimes make it that way by what we do to Orthodoxy. This doesn't have to be our situation.
Columba Silouan
Still too much Head, not Enough Heart
Good Evening, Gentle Readers.
After everything that has been said and done on this blog in the past few weeks, I've found that I'm still living too much in my head and not enough in my heart.
I believe this problem comes across in my writing.
I need to remember that I am just at the very beginning of this Orthodox Journey. I'm not even one full year old in the Orthodox Faith, since our Chrismation was August the 20th, 2006.
I thought I read somewhere in Orthodox blogdom that it takes around 10 - 11 years to fully shed all the pre-Orthodox baggage one accumulates before becoming Orthodox.
Yes, I still have some of that baggage. Orthodoxy is true, but the honeymoon is over. My life is still my life and I am still faced with many of the same challenges and disappointments that plagued me before my conversion.
But unlike the past, I keep "waking up" and I keep realizing that, wow! I'm now a member of The Church. I have resources to assist me that I lacked before. And I'm worshipping a God who is very patient and very kind.
There is a new, underlying optimism buried between my habitual pessimism that I developed before becoming Orthodox. The POSSIBILITY of a better life in Christ is more available than before. The barriers facing me are less, although some are still formidable. At least these barriers are not coming from The Church, but instead from this fallen world and from the Adversary.
There is this new possibility: If I want it badly enough, and if I persevere, I have the chance of becoming a REAL Saint. In the past, I already considered myself a saint simply by virtue of "being a Christian." Now I realize that there are SAINTS with a capital S and that I have such a long way to go to become one.
And God's Grace is there in a synergistic way always available to help.
I've made a lot of mistakes, even recently. But now I can practice the Orthodox adage of "you fell, now get up again."
Columba Silouan
After everything that has been said and done on this blog in the past few weeks, I've found that I'm still living too much in my head and not enough in my heart.
I believe this problem comes across in my writing.
I need to remember that I am just at the very beginning of this Orthodox Journey. I'm not even one full year old in the Orthodox Faith, since our Chrismation was August the 20th, 2006.
I thought I read somewhere in Orthodox blogdom that it takes around 10 - 11 years to fully shed all the pre-Orthodox baggage one accumulates before becoming Orthodox.
Yes, I still have some of that baggage. Orthodoxy is true, but the honeymoon is over. My life is still my life and I am still faced with many of the same challenges and disappointments that plagued me before my conversion.
But unlike the past, I keep "waking up" and I keep realizing that, wow! I'm now a member of The Church. I have resources to assist me that I lacked before. And I'm worshipping a God who is very patient and very kind.
There is a new, underlying optimism buried between my habitual pessimism that I developed before becoming Orthodox. The POSSIBILITY of a better life in Christ is more available than before. The barriers facing me are less, although some are still formidable. At least these barriers are not coming from The Church, but instead from this fallen world and from the Adversary.
There is this new possibility: If I want it badly enough, and if I persevere, I have the chance of becoming a REAL Saint. In the past, I already considered myself a saint simply by virtue of "being a Christian." Now I realize that there are SAINTS with a capital S and that I have such a long way to go to become one.
And God's Grace is there in a synergistic way always available to help.
I've made a lot of mistakes, even recently. But now I can practice the Orthodox adage of "you fell, now get up again."
Columba Silouan
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Dialogue with an Interested Party
Hi Parker,
My name is Jim, and I have been reading your blog. I like it! I also frequent the RH forum, and try to defend Orthodoxy whenever it comes under fire. Those attempts are usually rabidly resisted by my forum mates, one never knows.
I've even started a few threads trying to introduce folks to it, even though I myself am not Eastern Orthodox. I find Orthodoxy fascinating, compelling, and mysterious. Part of that is due to its ancient heritage, roots that go straight back to the founding of the faith by Jesus and the ante-nicene church fathers.
I am interested in your journey, the adjustments you've had to make as you've made the transition, as well as doctrines that you may have struggled with and successfully integrated into your own faith. As an example, the use of icons was highly offensive to me, in my protestant mind akin to idols and imagery. And I did not understand the veneration of them, to be honest I am not sure that I still do, but I accept that as something that I just don't get.
I am not Orthodox yet, content right now to perch in the Anglican Mission in America. But under the right circumstances, and depending on how the AMiA develops, I may be there sooner than I think.
Anyway, keep blogging, I will be reading and learning. Please feel free to email me to discuss this, I am very interested in your journey,
Thank you so much, and peace to you,
Jim
Dear Jim,
Thanks for writing me and for your kind comments. My response might be kind of lengthy. I hope you don't mind. This issue can be multi-faceted.
I started out my Christian journey as a fundamentalist and dispensationalist Independent Baptist. The theology behind IB Christianity has serious flaws and when I
attempted to base my life on these flaws, I found my life didn't work.
There is a phrase in Orthodox circles that goes something like this: Heresy is cruel to those who follow and practice it. I found this to be true.
My journey into Orthodoxy had its roots in the writings and works of Dr. Francis Schaeffer (and his son Frank's writings as well). Growing up I also loved the writings of C.S. Lewis, so these two influences taken together were not going to let me rest easily in most Protestant churches.
Some of these books were: How Should We Then Live? The Great Evangelical Disaster and Addicted to Mediocrity. The emphasis of Dr. Schaeffer was "The Lordship of Christ in all areas of life." Dr. Schaeffer was interested in making Christ Lord in the Arts and in Culture. The nature of the religious art and culture I loved was going to inevitably lead me somewhere.
My favorite music, for example was baroque classical music and that meant Bach and Handel. My favorite hymns, musically speaking, also came primarily from the same time
period.
Hymns by Isaac Watts and The Wesleys and the music these hymns were set to were particularly good. I also loved church music from even earlier periods going back to the most ancient centuries of the church.
My favorite type of church architecture was also going to lead in a certain direction. I loved stained glass, pipe organs and the great cathedrals of Europe most of all.
In short, my tastes in church expression were Traditional. I deeply needed the worship to be reverent, deep and joyful. These things communicated the greatness of God to my deep heart. JE is right to emphasize the deep heart and how it speaks to us.
Most hymns from the Romantic period and those influenced by the 18th and 19th centuries and American revivalism left me cold. There were a few good hymns from this period, but most of the others were of the "bringing in the sheaves"
variety, and these just didn't cut it.
When I graduated from High School I began to search for a college to attend. I ultimately applied for and was accepted to the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (Biola University).
At Biola, my Baptist underpinnings began to be challenged and knocked out from under me one by one. My beliefs about the end times and The Rapture were the first to go,
since as someone interested in the Arts and Culture, I started to desire enough time down here to make a difference.
A key book was The Meaning of the Millenium, by one Dr. Clouse (I think that was his name).
Also at Biola, I ran squarely into aspects of the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements for the first time which I couldn't just escape by my decisions on who to associate with or where to attend church.
These charismatics were challenging some important errors I was holding to at the time: Cessation of Miracles and sign gifts and easy "Christ as personal savior" believism.
These charismatics had some significant errors of their own, but where they were challenging me was crucial.
Through a series of life experiences The Lord shook me to my foundations: That Christ must be Lord of my life in order for me to truly be "saved" was a viewpoint I hated and feared because it made me very insecure. That "Spiritual Warfare" was still ongoing and serious was also disturbing to me.
I knew that in some areas of my life that Jesus was most certainly NOT my Lord. The problem with my theology of the time was that it allowed me to keep things that way and be "okay" because I had "eternal security" and salvation was by "grace alone."
I was "flying casual" when some serious flying was what was needed.
My belief that the more spectacular spiritual gifts had ceased was a decision to side with The Enlightenment and the resulting skepticism it generated. Either God was
an Interventionist God or He wasn't. It wasn't a long distance from the Enlightenment to the Deism of some of the Founding Fathers of the United States, for example.
Thomas Jefferson wouldn't have done that "cut and paste" job on the Holy Scriptures if he had still believed in the Holy Tradition of The Church.
Some of the Christian leaders during my time at Biola were people like Dr. John MacArthur Jr. who was arguing the Lordship Salvation perspective and even the late Christian singer Keith Green (Memory Eternal), who wrote pamphlets about "What's Wrong with The Gospel - the Added Parts and the Missing Parts."
The christian "relativism" I was running into at Biola wasn't helping me with my life. Who really spoke for God? Everyone had their own favorite "private interpretation" or Christian leader they favored. Competing and contradictory claims led to the loss of my direction in life.
And I knew the Bible! The problem was, people used the Bible in different and contradictory ways.
Other issues I ran into at Biola were over "christian counselling" and the validity of relying on "Christian Psychology" or just relying on the Bible and the church.
After getting "wiped out" at Biola, I transferred to Colorado Baptist University in Denver, finished up and attempted to regroup. I picked up the Schaefferian thread once more and applied and was accepted to Regent University in Virginia Beach, VA(Pat Robertson's Graduate School).
I continued to follow and read the works of Frank Schaeffer IV: Sham Pearls for Real Swine and Dancing Alone.
Frank Schaeffer talked about "the Historic Church" But equating it exclusively with The Orthodox Church just didn't compute for me at that time. So I started to look for historical churches.
I set out to, once again, pursue the career of being a Christian Journalist and to be a crusader in the Christian Right.
But this ultimately led me to apathy and dissilusionment. Fighting the "Culture Wars" didn't fill my inner emptiness.
During this time I met an older Roman Catholic artist friend and began to hang out with her. I also had a Jesuit professor at Regent I liked, too. But I was still Protestant enough to object to the following doctrines: The Immaculate Conception
of Mary, the celibate priesthood, prayers for the dead and The Mass as a re-sacrifice of Christ over and over.
But then I discovered the Charismatic Episocopal Church.
At Regent, I had consented to become a "charismatic with a small c." I now believed all the gifts were for today and even dabbled with speaking in tongues, although I had no real enthusiasm for it.
The CEC was an Anglo-Catholic Anglican group. They were Catholics, but not Roman Catholics. There were no local CEC parishes, so I began to attend a charismatic Episcopal parish in TEC (formerly known as ECUSA) called Messiah Episcopal Church. I became acquainted with Prayer Book Worship and the Holy Eucharist and was converted to "The Real Presence of Christ" in the Eucharist perspective.
Little did I know about all the Episcopalian factions and controversies. What I did know about was that ECUSA was a liberal mainline church and that made me uneasy.
I also ran into the interesting dilemma that American Anglicans frequently face: The Theological Liberals were mostly traditional in worship style and culture, and the Theological "conservatives" were happy clappy.
I didn't mind Christian Contemporary Music in church as long as it was equally mixed with Great Hymns of the Faith. I also didn't mind Christian Rock Music, but I sure didn't want to listen to my Christian Rock during Mass!
In many charismatic Anglican parishes, however, the praise music tends to take over and leave no room for traditional worship at all.
When I left Virginia Beach and Graduate School (I didn't graduate although my grades were good) I returned to Colorado where I attended Beth-El Parish in the CEC. At Beth-El, I functioned as an acolyte and helped the priest at the Altar.
I was interested in the Holy Priesthood as well.
That parish failed and I decided to go to Christ Episcopal Church in Denver. It was from Christ Episcopal Church that I learned to love genuflecting when the cross passed by. My love for the Eucharist also deepened.
Those things, along with praying The Stations of The Cross began to lay the foundation of my not being scandalized by the use of Icons. That, plus reading the newsletter of the Charismatic Episcopal Church, Sursum Corda, for a couple of years led me to the Catholic Faith. Now, I needed to find the Church to practice it in.
I still had issues and fears with ECUSA, and so I teamed up with Fr. David Reagan (Memory Eternal) and attempted to "go independent" of ECUSA while attending an ECUSA parish.
But one thing I've learned since is that "You cannot be Orthodox as an individual."
I travelled with Fr. David to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I was confirmed in the Evangelical Episcopal Church.
I decided to pursue the priesthood in this group, but God kept shutting the door.
The controversies in ECUSA led to Fr. Sandy Green (now Bishop Sandy) to form a "mission church in waiting" at Christ Church in Barns Hall. This new church was named Wellspring and was primarily composed of the Twenties and Thirties
group of Christ Church.
I was re-confirmed in ECUSA during this period.
Since you are in the AMiA, you know the history of the Denver Consecrations. While at Wellspring with my wife, Dianna (while at Christ Church, I found her and we
got married) I was involved in the life of that parish.
The contemporary nature of the worship at Wellspring was a source of great frustration. I ran the church website for over a year, put together a Stations of the Cross set for them and volunteered all over the place.
But Wellspring, as good as it was, wasn't "home." When we moved across town to be closer to my place of employment, we decided to leave Wellspring and church shop.
We temporarily landed at Church of the Holy Spirit in ECUSA, which was another church planted by Christ Church. We were assured that when the time came, this parish would "go with the Anglican Realignment." This has yet to happen.
CHS was pretty good, but it was totally contemporary, once again, and this made me frustrated. To survive, I would attend Saint Mary's Anglican Catholic Church once a month. Their service was traditional and VERY Anglican Catholic.
During this time, I attended an "Into to Orthodoxy" class offered by a Deacon at Saint Catherines Greek Orthodox Church, which is a large parish in Greenwood Village. The name of this Deacon was Father Evan Armatas. He is a young married with three kids and is sharp as a tack.
This class, in a word, was AWESOME. I've taken it twice, my wife going with me the second time around. Deacon Evan is now Father Evan. His class is available by Podcast. You might be able to find it at www.saintcatherinechurch.org
We had a small problem, however. Saint Catherine's was Eastern Rite. This meant no western hymns or music at all.
My wife wasn't totally comfortable and neither was I.
I proposed a Western Rite parish to her (our current church) But at the time she just hated it. We finally could be in ECUSA no longer and at the advice of one of the ministers at Church of the Holy Spirit (He was an ex-LCMS Lutheran Pastor), we tried out the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.
Grace Lutheran in Parker was a great church. It was "Confessional Lutheran" and Traditional. But it was Protestant and I was no longer a Protestant in my heart
(There's that word "heart" again).
We were at Grace for about a year-and-a half but I was still spiritually restless. I slowly realized that I didn't subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions. Then, one day, the Pastor preached a sermon about the necessity to honor the vow you make to the LCMS when you are received / confirmed. I realized I couldn't totally honor that vow with my beliefs.
Then Pastor Murphy taught a Sunday School class about mutual submission in the home. The Husband was to care for his wife, but his word was to be the final one when it came to major decisions like what church to attend.
My wife and I had a very deep discussion. Her need was to be in a church home that was our church home for the rest of our lives. My need was to be in a church where I
100% believed in the doctrine of the church.
We visited a couple of Roman Catholic Churches, but God didn't lead us there.
Finally, we landed at Saint Marks. Saint Marks is a Western Rite (Liturgy of Saint Tikhon) parish, and Dianna likes it and has made friends. We also have a dear friend from our Christ Church days who attends with us. He was there before us.
Our two children, Adam and Abbey, are doing fine at Saint Marks also.
The church has some young families and children and more are starting to come as well.
Best thing of all is, I am "home" at last.
While I believe the Eastern Orthodox Church has a strong claim to be the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, I also realize that as John Eldredge has said that we are in a battle and this is a deeply broken and flawed world.
It was never the intention of Jesus Christ that there would be three seperate churches competing for the title of The Catholic Church. Currently at least three churches make this exclusive claim: The Roman Catholic Church is one, The Eastern Orthodox Church is another, and the Oriental Orthodox Church is the third.
But the two churches which hold to the Seven Councils of the Undivided Church are the RC and the EOC.
Fr. Evan's class made an excellent case for the Orthodox Church and coming in from the Protestant Side of things, that case made sense. Something caused the Protestant Reformation and the Great Schism and I believe the Roman Catholic errors are the best explanation for what happened.
The way I see Icons: Icons are "just the messenger" so don't shoot them. They are sacramental, just as the Holy Eucharist is sacramental, but less important than it is.
Icons are a "doorway" for us to see into heaven, see the saints represented by each one, and to be beckoned by the saints to persevere and follow their examples. If they could do it, so can we, and we are invited by them to do so.
We revere the people behind the Icons and ask for their prayers. They are part of the "great cloud of witnesses" and are deeply interested in what goes on here in the Church Militant. As Jesus said, He is not a God of the dead, but
of the living.
Since Christ came in the flesh, it is now permissible for us to represent him in the flesh, along with his followers down through the centuries.
We revere the Icons of the Saints much as sports fans revere those sports figures in the various "Halls of Fame" for each league.
Of course, our own Hall of Fame means much more, since we live for something which is not perishing.
I love NHL Hockey, for example and you can see the "reverence" for the Stanley Cup and all the great players who have gone before. If you go to the NHL Hall of Fame,
you have pictures of each player by their plaques.
Reverencing things is just a part of our nature that God created in us. I find the EOC use of Icons a much better use of that inherent reverence, that's all.
I pray for the reunion of East and West but in this fallen world, being an Orthodox Christian is a great place to be.
My life is still far from perfect, but at least I trust my church.
And I trust the Savior behind that church and believe that I can count on what I'm taught about Him and the Holy Trinity in Orthodoxy. "We have received the heavenly gift, we have beleived the True Faith, worshipping the Undivided Trinity, for the Trinity has saved us."
Finally, to be honest, I still prefer stained glass to Icons. As a Western-Rite Orthodox Christian, I can literally have all of these wonderful things in one church.
At Saint Marks, we have God's Word, stained-glass, a pipe organ, a choir, Anglican plainchant, incense, Icons, a High Altar, vestments, a processional cross and Hymns from the 1940 Episcopal Hymnal, the Saint Ambrose Hymnal and the Saint Dunstan's Psalter. It's truly a feast which brings me closer to God.
And the best thing about Saint Marks is the people.
I've learned that life in Christ is a lifelong conversion.
I would recommend One Flew Over the Onion Dome by Father Joseph Huneycutt as a book to read about Southerners and Eastern Orthodoxy. That Website is called Orthodixie and you can google it (since I don't have the web address handy).
Fr. Stephen Freeman's "Glory to God for All Things" is also excellent.
Fr. Freeman is also a Southerner and a former Episcopal priest as well.
I would also recommend looking into all the Orthodox jurisdictions: Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, ROCOR, OCA and the Antiochian Archdiocese.
Hopefully if and when you're ready, you can find a parish in one of these Orthodox jurisdictions. Or, if there are enough like-minded people in your current parish who aren't "home" you can make the journey together.
Fr. Sandy was most kind in this regard. He once counselled a friend of mine to look into the Antiochians because this person wasn't at home in the AMiA.
This was kindly and pastoral of him, even though he's an AMiA Bishop.
If people aren't home, they just aren't and its better to get them home. Bishop
Sandy understood this in the case of my friend. My friend didn't convert because he is still too "Reformed" in his theology. But my friend and his wife are still unstable in their church affiliation, the last time I checked.
Orthodoxy is all about Godly and Spiritual Stability
I hope the length of this reponse wasn't a problem and I look forward to further discussions with you.
Feel free to ask more questions.
The Peace of the Lord be with You!
Columba Silouan
Dear Columba,
The length of the response is not a problem, the problem is that I am not literate enough in church history and understanding to adequately articulate all that I am feeling and know by faith.
I read Father Stephen's blog regularly, it is very good. It has proven very helpful to me already.
I grew up UMC, went into the AoG, but was never a regular speaker of tongues either. I don't hold anyone suspect that does, it just has never manifested in me in a meaningful. way. I felt out of sync because of that, so eventually left.
I went into the SBC for a time, but the legalism and easy believism killed my heart, I hung on for awhile but eventually left. I am ashamed to say that I went out into the world, I knew Jesus was real and true, but felt I had either sinned too badly (?) or was past saving, so I cashed in my inheritance and went on a trip.
I've come back, but this time things are different. I discover that I do not believe the classical Reformed doctrines, that I meet Christ in the Eucharist, and that I don't believe the sensational doctrines such as pre-trib Rapture, etc. The more I learn, the more I realize that I do not fit in a traditional Reformed setting. Hence my exploration of the AMiA.
I've read Schaeffer, and he started me thinking as well. I am now reading as much as I can of the ante-nicene fathers, and a History of Christian Thought by Paul Tillich (I know he's anathema, but it's a good history so far).. I've attended an OCA church, St. Innocent's, back home near my parents home. It was very nice, although I attended at Christmas and the intensity was a little more than I was ready for at the time. But I will go back next time I am home.
I can't take the purpose driven stuff, and need a thoughtful, reflective faith. If there was an Orthodox church nearby I would darken the door and inquire, but for now AMiA is as orthodox as I can get.
I will give you a more proper introduction later, but you may get a taste of me here at www.tcrossroads.blogspot.com. I write for myself, looking for my way, no one hardly ever reads it other than me.
But then it is about a journey.
Peace, Jim
Dear Jim
"I went into the SBC for a time, but the legalism and easy believism killed my heart, I hung on for awhile but eventually left. I am ashamed to say that I went out into the world, I knew Jesus was real and true, but felt I had either sinned too badly (?) or was past saving, so I cashed in my inheritance and went on a trip."
Now this is an issue I can really relate to as well.
At Biola, I, too, went through a phase / flirtation with packing it in spiritually. I grew up in a really dysfunctional home and some other things had gone wrong in my life as well. I remember sayng to God "If You let one more bad thing happen to me, I'm done."
That's not the smartest thing to say to God.
I also thought to myself: If this stuff isn't true, I really need to start seeking my own happiness and success. That last was also a very bad idea.
God seemed to send stern discipline as a result of these bad attitudes: I developed a bone-marrow disorder that required a bone-marrow transplant. After I recovered from that one and after I made it back to Biola the final time before I finally left, I ran headlong into some Arminian Pentecostalists who were big on Bible verses like Hebrews 6:1-6: "It is impossible for those who have been once enlightened, who have tasted of the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to be renewed again to repentance."
This verse haunted me for many long years afterwards. In some ways this verse and the examples of Biblical people like Cain, Esau, King Saul and Judas has caused me more spiritual anguish than all the false doctrines I've believed down through the years.
A number of things in Orthodoxy have helped me with this. First is the example of one of my patron saints, Saint Silouan the Athonite.
Saint Silouan had a terrible 15 Year experience with Spiritual Dryness / Despair that was finally overcome when Jesus revealed to him "Keep thy mind in hell and despair not."
Fr. Evan recently responded to my question about this topic with this: We can make things impossible for ourselves, but nothing is impossible with God. Finally a little known secret about Orthodoxy is a belief shared by many of the Monks: "Dare we hope for the salvation of all?"
The Orthodox Church emphatically does not teach that everyone will be saved, however, in Orthodoxy, people can be prayed out of hell and there is a hope that perhaps a majority of people may be saved as opposed to a small minority.
This kind of reminds me of the C.S. Lewis book The Great Divorce, where some of the "ghosts" crawled out of hell literally for miles and miles and escaped it. I still struggle with this one, however, and your prayers in this area would be greatly appreciated. If you are suprised by that last aspect of EO I mentioned, you might ask Fr. Freeman about it. I would be very interested in his answer. As a convert, himself, I wonder what his take on this is.
Christ is in our midst!
Columba Silouan
Dear Columba,
I must say that we have walked parallel paths, the scriptures from Hebrews being ones that had begun to torment me in the AoG, and frankly had even after I walked away.
I had been enlightened, and knew the truth, I was just not letting it live through me.
My understanding about being unsaveable now is different from when I was younger, I see God's grace as being larger than I ever gave Him credit for it being. And the acts of the Spirit in prompting us toward godliness in a practical sense is so much more a real part of this life, we are not left alone. God has not left me alone, that I know.
Your emails have been extremely helpful and encouraging to me, simply by knowing that someone else has been on the same journey, and has been turning in the same way at these similar signposts. Mine journey is not well thought out, but it is more intuitive, things that do or do not line up with truth as I have experienced it have turned me this direction.
Being Reformed, the two biggest hang-ups I had were icons and Mary.
I think that what you said about icons is my current attitude and understanding about them, and to me that has in theory become a non-issue. I can accept that, understand it, but it may take some getting used to. As some may say, it may be an aquired taste.
Issues surrounding Mary are really my last major stumbling block to being "in communion" with EO. And I am afraid that these vestiges of rabid protestantism might be harder to root out, although nothing is impossible with God.
I will be reading some on this soon, and will want to talk to you about it as well. I like your sensibility and approach to these things, but then you have also come to this place from a similar direction, so you do understand my concerns and "hangups". LOL!
Is your real name Columba (I think not !?)?, but is that what I should call you? It does not matter to me, friend, whatever you prefer. My friends genrally just call me Jim. Peace!
Dear brother Jim, My real name is -------------.
In Orthodoxy, it is tradition to be given a new name upon entering The Church. You might recall those verses in Revelation that mention God giving us a new name. Like you, I am ashamed over things in my past. I've failed a lot and really want my life in Orthodoxy to be a clean break from the past.
I chose Saint Columba as my first Patron Saint because he sinned greatly out of Anger and Pride before he repented and became "The Missionary to Scotland." There is a verse that states "Anger does not bring about the righteous life that God Desires."
Of course, I chose Saint Silouan as my second Patron Saint because of his struggle with Despair. And in Orthodoxy, there is a sense that our Patron Saints are introduced to us more than being chosen by us. I can testify to this as well. It seemed to me that God directed me to these two patrons, and being in the Western Rite, it is super that I have one Saint from each tradition in the church. Saint Silouan the Russian Orthodox Monk, and Saint Columba / Columcille the Irish monk.
I ask both these Saints and Fathers to pray for me on a regular basis.
Now, about the Holy Theotokos: Getting used to the idea of asking her prayers for me was a bit of an adjustment. But because The Church taught the importance of this, I submitted to her teachings. Mary, after all, is my adopted mother, since I am the adopted brother of our Lord Jesus Christ.
My own mother is a great person, but as in all relationships down here, I've experienced dissapointment in that relationship. So I look to Mother Mary to make up for those deficits.
The comforting difference between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism about Mary is the following: In Orthodoxy, there is a school of thought that says that although Mary was a very devout and holy person from the beginning, she was a sinner in need of a savior like the rest of us. However, when she said "Yes" to God about bearing The Christ, God at that point cleansed her from all sin from that point forward.
Mary's YES to God is our example. Saint Mary is called The Champion Leader of Christians and it is precisely because of her YES that she is called this. She is our supreme example to follow, next to the Lord Jesus Christ. And not believing in the Roman Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, she becomes more accessible and more truly human to me.
I realized before my conversion that with Mary's attitude towards God, if He had requested that she be a Virgin throughout her life to safeguard the identity of Jesus as the Incarnate Word, she most definately would have said YES to that as well. So I no longer have theological problems with Mary as The Holy God Bearer and as Ever Virgin.
Getting used to requesting her intercessions and aid was something gained with practice.
Hope this helps,
Columba Silouan.
Dear Columba,
A new name, what a wonderful gift. That is truly the mark of a new beginning.
I know that God has a name for me, I've heard him say so in the past. It has not yet been revealed, however. Perhaps one day.
I am sure that there are many things surrounding Jesus' birth, life, and death that would yet surprise us if we knew them all. So the possibility of Mary being ever-virgin, and living a sinless life do not surprise me at all.
I can relate to despair.
May God illumine and guide me.
Forgive me if you've already told me this, but what are you doing now? Are you in seminary? I am by trade a Forester, but spend my days more at the computer than in the forest ;>)
Good afternoon, Jim.
My current job is at the western sales center of a building products company where I've worked for ten years. I am a Support Staff Assistant.
I have applied for a Copy Writer position at a local ministry here in town. I've been told I'm a strong candidate and to expect a second interview.
I still have an interest in the Priesthood. We'll see about that in time.
Blessings,
C. S.
My name is Jim, and I have been reading your blog. I like it! I also frequent the RH forum, and try to defend Orthodoxy whenever it comes under fire. Those attempts are usually rabidly resisted by my forum mates, one never knows.
I've even started a few threads trying to introduce folks to it, even though I myself am not Eastern Orthodox. I find Orthodoxy fascinating, compelling, and mysterious. Part of that is due to its ancient heritage, roots that go straight back to the founding of the faith by Jesus and the ante-nicene church fathers.
I am interested in your journey, the adjustments you've had to make as you've made the transition, as well as doctrines that you may have struggled with and successfully integrated into your own faith. As an example, the use of icons was highly offensive to me, in my protestant mind akin to idols and imagery. And I did not understand the veneration of them, to be honest I am not sure that I still do, but I accept that as something that I just don't get.
I am not Orthodox yet, content right now to perch in the Anglican Mission in America. But under the right circumstances, and depending on how the AMiA develops, I may be there sooner than I think.
Anyway, keep blogging, I will be reading and learning. Please feel free to email me to discuss this, I am very interested in your journey,
Thank you so much, and peace to you,
Jim
Dear Jim,
Thanks for writing me and for your kind comments. My response might be kind of lengthy. I hope you don't mind. This issue can be multi-faceted.
I started out my Christian journey as a fundamentalist and dispensationalist Independent Baptist. The theology behind IB Christianity has serious flaws and when I
attempted to base my life on these flaws, I found my life didn't work.
There is a phrase in Orthodox circles that goes something like this: Heresy is cruel to those who follow and practice it. I found this to be true.
My journey into Orthodoxy had its roots in the writings and works of Dr. Francis Schaeffer (and his son Frank's writings as well). Growing up I also loved the writings of C.S. Lewis, so these two influences taken together were not going to let me rest easily in most Protestant churches.
Some of these books were: How Should We Then Live? The Great Evangelical Disaster and Addicted to Mediocrity. The emphasis of Dr. Schaeffer was "The Lordship of Christ in all areas of life." Dr. Schaeffer was interested in making Christ Lord in the Arts and in Culture. The nature of the religious art and culture I loved was going to inevitably lead me somewhere.
My favorite music, for example was baroque classical music and that meant Bach and Handel. My favorite hymns, musically speaking, also came primarily from the same time
period.
Hymns by Isaac Watts and The Wesleys and the music these hymns were set to were particularly good. I also loved church music from even earlier periods going back to the most ancient centuries of the church.
My favorite type of church architecture was also going to lead in a certain direction. I loved stained glass, pipe organs and the great cathedrals of Europe most of all.
In short, my tastes in church expression were Traditional. I deeply needed the worship to be reverent, deep and joyful. These things communicated the greatness of God to my deep heart. JE is right to emphasize the deep heart and how it speaks to us.
Most hymns from the Romantic period and those influenced by the 18th and 19th centuries and American revivalism left me cold. There were a few good hymns from this period, but most of the others were of the "bringing in the sheaves"
variety, and these just didn't cut it.
When I graduated from High School I began to search for a college to attend. I ultimately applied for and was accepted to the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (Biola University).
At Biola, my Baptist underpinnings began to be challenged and knocked out from under me one by one. My beliefs about the end times and The Rapture were the first to go,
since as someone interested in the Arts and Culture, I started to desire enough time down here to make a difference.
A key book was The Meaning of the Millenium, by one Dr. Clouse (I think that was his name).
Also at Biola, I ran squarely into aspects of the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements for the first time which I couldn't just escape by my decisions on who to associate with or where to attend church.
These charismatics were challenging some important errors I was holding to at the time: Cessation of Miracles and sign gifts and easy "Christ as personal savior" believism.
These charismatics had some significant errors of their own, but where they were challenging me was crucial.
Through a series of life experiences The Lord shook me to my foundations: That Christ must be Lord of my life in order for me to truly be "saved" was a viewpoint I hated and feared because it made me very insecure. That "Spiritual Warfare" was still ongoing and serious was also disturbing to me.
I knew that in some areas of my life that Jesus was most certainly NOT my Lord. The problem with my theology of the time was that it allowed me to keep things that way and be "okay" because I had "eternal security" and salvation was by "grace alone."
I was "flying casual" when some serious flying was what was needed.
My belief that the more spectacular spiritual gifts had ceased was a decision to side with The Enlightenment and the resulting skepticism it generated. Either God was
an Interventionist God or He wasn't. It wasn't a long distance from the Enlightenment to the Deism of some of the Founding Fathers of the United States, for example.
Thomas Jefferson wouldn't have done that "cut and paste" job on the Holy Scriptures if he had still believed in the Holy Tradition of The Church.
Some of the Christian leaders during my time at Biola were people like Dr. John MacArthur Jr. who was arguing the Lordship Salvation perspective and even the late Christian singer Keith Green (Memory Eternal), who wrote pamphlets about "What's Wrong with The Gospel - the Added Parts and the Missing Parts."
The christian "relativism" I was running into at Biola wasn't helping me with my life. Who really spoke for God? Everyone had their own favorite "private interpretation" or Christian leader they favored. Competing and contradictory claims led to the loss of my direction in life.
And I knew the Bible! The problem was, people used the Bible in different and contradictory ways.
Other issues I ran into at Biola were over "christian counselling" and the validity of relying on "Christian Psychology" or just relying on the Bible and the church.
After getting "wiped out" at Biola, I transferred to Colorado Baptist University in Denver, finished up and attempted to regroup. I picked up the Schaefferian thread once more and applied and was accepted to Regent University in Virginia Beach, VA(Pat Robertson's Graduate School).
I continued to follow and read the works of Frank Schaeffer IV: Sham Pearls for Real Swine and Dancing Alone.
Frank Schaeffer talked about "the Historic Church" But equating it exclusively with The Orthodox Church just didn't compute for me at that time. So I started to look for historical churches.
I set out to, once again, pursue the career of being a Christian Journalist and to be a crusader in the Christian Right.
But this ultimately led me to apathy and dissilusionment. Fighting the "Culture Wars" didn't fill my inner emptiness.
During this time I met an older Roman Catholic artist friend and began to hang out with her. I also had a Jesuit professor at Regent I liked, too. But I was still Protestant enough to object to the following doctrines: The Immaculate Conception
of Mary, the celibate priesthood, prayers for the dead and The Mass as a re-sacrifice of Christ over and over.
But then I discovered the Charismatic Episocopal Church.
At Regent, I had consented to become a "charismatic with a small c." I now believed all the gifts were for today and even dabbled with speaking in tongues, although I had no real enthusiasm for it.
The CEC was an Anglo-Catholic Anglican group. They were Catholics, but not Roman Catholics. There were no local CEC parishes, so I began to attend a charismatic Episcopal parish in TEC (formerly known as ECUSA) called Messiah Episcopal Church. I became acquainted with Prayer Book Worship and the Holy Eucharist and was converted to "The Real Presence of Christ" in the Eucharist perspective.
Little did I know about all the Episcopalian factions and controversies. What I did know about was that ECUSA was a liberal mainline church and that made me uneasy.
I also ran into the interesting dilemma that American Anglicans frequently face: The Theological Liberals were mostly traditional in worship style and culture, and the Theological "conservatives" were happy clappy.
I didn't mind Christian Contemporary Music in church as long as it was equally mixed with Great Hymns of the Faith. I also didn't mind Christian Rock Music, but I sure didn't want to listen to my Christian Rock during Mass!
In many charismatic Anglican parishes, however, the praise music tends to take over and leave no room for traditional worship at all.
When I left Virginia Beach and Graduate School (I didn't graduate although my grades were good) I returned to Colorado where I attended Beth-El Parish in the CEC. At Beth-El, I functioned as an acolyte and helped the priest at the Altar.
I was interested in the Holy Priesthood as well.
That parish failed and I decided to go to Christ Episcopal Church in Denver. It was from Christ Episcopal Church that I learned to love genuflecting when the cross passed by. My love for the Eucharist also deepened.
Those things, along with praying The Stations of The Cross began to lay the foundation of my not being scandalized by the use of Icons. That, plus reading the newsletter of the Charismatic Episcopal Church, Sursum Corda, for a couple of years led me to the Catholic Faith. Now, I needed to find the Church to practice it in.
I still had issues and fears with ECUSA, and so I teamed up with Fr. David Reagan (Memory Eternal) and attempted to "go independent" of ECUSA while attending an ECUSA parish.
But one thing I've learned since is that "You cannot be Orthodox as an individual."
I travelled with Fr. David to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I was confirmed in the Evangelical Episcopal Church.
I decided to pursue the priesthood in this group, but God kept shutting the door.
The controversies in ECUSA led to Fr. Sandy Green (now Bishop Sandy) to form a "mission church in waiting" at Christ Church in Barns Hall. This new church was named Wellspring and was primarily composed of the Twenties and Thirties
group of Christ Church.
I was re-confirmed in ECUSA during this period.
Since you are in the AMiA, you know the history of the Denver Consecrations. While at Wellspring with my wife, Dianna (while at Christ Church, I found her and we
got married) I was involved in the life of that parish.
The contemporary nature of the worship at Wellspring was a source of great frustration. I ran the church website for over a year, put together a Stations of the Cross set for them and volunteered all over the place.
But Wellspring, as good as it was, wasn't "home." When we moved across town to be closer to my place of employment, we decided to leave Wellspring and church shop.
We temporarily landed at Church of the Holy Spirit in ECUSA, which was another church planted by Christ Church. We were assured that when the time came, this parish would "go with the Anglican Realignment." This has yet to happen.
CHS was pretty good, but it was totally contemporary, once again, and this made me frustrated. To survive, I would attend Saint Mary's Anglican Catholic Church once a month. Their service was traditional and VERY Anglican Catholic.
During this time, I attended an "Into to Orthodoxy" class offered by a Deacon at Saint Catherines Greek Orthodox Church, which is a large parish in Greenwood Village. The name of this Deacon was Father Evan Armatas. He is a young married with three kids and is sharp as a tack.
This class, in a word, was AWESOME. I've taken it twice, my wife going with me the second time around. Deacon Evan is now Father Evan. His class is available by Podcast. You might be able to find it at www.saintcatherinechurch.org
We had a small problem, however. Saint Catherine's was Eastern Rite. This meant no western hymns or music at all.
My wife wasn't totally comfortable and neither was I.
I proposed a Western Rite parish to her (our current church) But at the time she just hated it. We finally could be in ECUSA no longer and at the advice of one of the ministers at Church of the Holy Spirit (He was an ex-LCMS Lutheran Pastor), we tried out the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.
Grace Lutheran in Parker was a great church. It was "Confessional Lutheran" and Traditional. But it was Protestant and I was no longer a Protestant in my heart
(There's that word "heart" again).
We were at Grace for about a year-and-a half but I was still spiritually restless. I slowly realized that I didn't subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions. Then, one day, the Pastor preached a sermon about the necessity to honor the vow you make to the LCMS when you are received / confirmed. I realized I couldn't totally honor that vow with my beliefs.
Then Pastor Murphy taught a Sunday School class about mutual submission in the home. The Husband was to care for his wife, but his word was to be the final one when it came to major decisions like what church to attend.
My wife and I had a very deep discussion. Her need was to be in a church home that was our church home for the rest of our lives. My need was to be in a church where I
100% believed in the doctrine of the church.
We visited a couple of Roman Catholic Churches, but God didn't lead us there.
Finally, we landed at Saint Marks. Saint Marks is a Western Rite (Liturgy of Saint Tikhon) parish, and Dianna likes it and has made friends. We also have a dear friend from our Christ Church days who attends with us. He was there before us.
Our two children, Adam and Abbey, are doing fine at Saint Marks also.
The church has some young families and children and more are starting to come as well.
Best thing of all is, I am "home" at last.
While I believe the Eastern Orthodox Church has a strong claim to be the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, I also realize that as John Eldredge has said that we are in a battle and this is a deeply broken and flawed world.
It was never the intention of Jesus Christ that there would be three seperate churches competing for the title of The Catholic Church. Currently at least three churches make this exclusive claim: The Roman Catholic Church is one, The Eastern Orthodox Church is another, and the Oriental Orthodox Church is the third.
But the two churches which hold to the Seven Councils of the Undivided Church are the RC and the EOC.
Fr. Evan's class made an excellent case for the Orthodox Church and coming in from the Protestant Side of things, that case made sense. Something caused the Protestant Reformation and the Great Schism and I believe the Roman Catholic errors are the best explanation for what happened.
The way I see Icons: Icons are "just the messenger" so don't shoot them. They are sacramental, just as the Holy Eucharist is sacramental, but less important than it is.
Icons are a "doorway" for us to see into heaven, see the saints represented by each one, and to be beckoned by the saints to persevere and follow their examples. If they could do it, so can we, and we are invited by them to do so.
We revere the people behind the Icons and ask for their prayers. They are part of the "great cloud of witnesses" and are deeply interested in what goes on here in the Church Militant. As Jesus said, He is not a God of the dead, but
of the living.
Since Christ came in the flesh, it is now permissible for us to represent him in the flesh, along with his followers down through the centuries.
We revere the Icons of the Saints much as sports fans revere those sports figures in the various "Halls of Fame" for each league.
Of course, our own Hall of Fame means much more, since we live for something which is not perishing.
I love NHL Hockey, for example and you can see the "reverence" for the Stanley Cup and all the great players who have gone before. If you go to the NHL Hall of Fame,
you have pictures of each player by their plaques.
Reverencing things is just a part of our nature that God created in us. I find the EOC use of Icons a much better use of that inherent reverence, that's all.
I pray for the reunion of East and West but in this fallen world, being an Orthodox Christian is a great place to be.
My life is still far from perfect, but at least I trust my church.
And I trust the Savior behind that church and believe that I can count on what I'm taught about Him and the Holy Trinity in Orthodoxy. "We have received the heavenly gift, we have beleived the True Faith, worshipping the Undivided Trinity, for the Trinity has saved us."
Finally, to be honest, I still prefer stained glass to Icons. As a Western-Rite Orthodox Christian, I can literally have all of these wonderful things in one church.
At Saint Marks, we have God's Word, stained-glass, a pipe organ, a choir, Anglican plainchant, incense, Icons, a High Altar, vestments, a processional cross and Hymns from the 1940 Episcopal Hymnal, the Saint Ambrose Hymnal and the Saint Dunstan's Psalter. It's truly a feast which brings me closer to God.
And the best thing about Saint Marks is the people.
I've learned that life in Christ is a lifelong conversion.
I would recommend One Flew Over the Onion Dome by Father Joseph Huneycutt as a book to read about Southerners and Eastern Orthodoxy. That Website is called Orthodixie and you can google it (since I don't have the web address handy).
Fr. Stephen Freeman's "Glory to God for All Things" is also excellent.
Fr. Freeman is also a Southerner and a former Episcopal priest as well.
I would also recommend looking into all the Orthodox jurisdictions: Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, ROCOR, OCA and the Antiochian Archdiocese.
Hopefully if and when you're ready, you can find a parish in one of these Orthodox jurisdictions. Or, if there are enough like-minded people in your current parish who aren't "home" you can make the journey together.
Fr. Sandy was most kind in this regard. He once counselled a friend of mine to look into the Antiochians because this person wasn't at home in the AMiA.
This was kindly and pastoral of him, even though he's an AMiA Bishop.
If people aren't home, they just aren't and its better to get them home. Bishop
Sandy understood this in the case of my friend. My friend didn't convert because he is still too "Reformed" in his theology. But my friend and his wife are still unstable in their church affiliation, the last time I checked.
Orthodoxy is all about Godly and Spiritual Stability
I hope the length of this reponse wasn't a problem and I look forward to further discussions with you.
Feel free to ask more questions.
The Peace of the Lord be with You!
Columba Silouan
Dear Columba,
The length of the response is not a problem, the problem is that I am not literate enough in church history and understanding to adequately articulate all that I am feeling and know by faith.
I read Father Stephen's blog regularly, it is very good. It has proven very helpful to me already.
I grew up UMC, went into the AoG, but was never a regular speaker of tongues either. I don't hold anyone suspect that does, it just has never manifested in me in a meaningful. way. I felt out of sync because of that, so eventually left.
I went into the SBC for a time, but the legalism and easy believism killed my heart, I hung on for awhile but eventually left. I am ashamed to say that I went out into the world, I knew Jesus was real and true, but felt I had either sinned too badly (?) or was past saving, so I cashed in my inheritance and went on a trip.
I've come back, but this time things are different. I discover that I do not believe the classical Reformed doctrines, that I meet Christ in the Eucharist, and that I don't believe the sensational doctrines such as pre-trib Rapture, etc. The more I learn, the more I realize that I do not fit in a traditional Reformed setting. Hence my exploration of the AMiA.
I've read Schaeffer, and he started me thinking as well. I am now reading as much as I can of the ante-nicene fathers, and a History of Christian Thought by Paul Tillich (I know he's anathema, but it's a good history so far).. I've attended an OCA church, St. Innocent's, back home near my parents home. It was very nice, although I attended at Christmas and the intensity was a little more than I was ready for at the time. But I will go back next time I am home.
I can't take the purpose driven stuff, and need a thoughtful, reflective faith. If there was an Orthodox church nearby I would darken the door and inquire, but for now AMiA is as orthodox as I can get.
I will give you a more proper introduction later, but you may get a taste of me here at www.tcrossroads.blogspot.com. I write for myself, looking for my way, no one hardly ever reads it other than me.
But then it is about a journey.
Peace, Jim
Dear Jim
"I went into the SBC for a time, but the legalism and easy believism killed my heart, I hung on for awhile but eventually left. I am ashamed to say that I went out into the world, I knew Jesus was real and true, but felt I had either sinned too badly (?) or was past saving, so I cashed in my inheritance and went on a trip."
Now this is an issue I can really relate to as well.
At Biola, I, too, went through a phase / flirtation with packing it in spiritually. I grew up in a really dysfunctional home and some other things had gone wrong in my life as well. I remember sayng to God "If You let one more bad thing happen to me, I'm done."
That's not the smartest thing to say to God.
I also thought to myself: If this stuff isn't true, I really need to start seeking my own happiness and success. That last was also a very bad idea.
God seemed to send stern discipline as a result of these bad attitudes: I developed a bone-marrow disorder that required a bone-marrow transplant. After I recovered from that one and after I made it back to Biola the final time before I finally left, I ran headlong into some Arminian Pentecostalists who were big on Bible verses like Hebrews 6:1-6: "It is impossible for those who have been once enlightened, who have tasted of the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to be renewed again to repentance."
This verse haunted me for many long years afterwards. In some ways this verse and the examples of Biblical people like Cain, Esau, King Saul and Judas has caused me more spiritual anguish than all the false doctrines I've believed down through the years.
A number of things in Orthodoxy have helped me with this. First is the example of one of my patron saints, Saint Silouan the Athonite.
Saint Silouan had a terrible 15 Year experience with Spiritual Dryness / Despair that was finally overcome when Jesus revealed to him "Keep thy mind in hell and despair not."
Fr. Evan recently responded to my question about this topic with this: We can make things impossible for ourselves, but nothing is impossible with God. Finally a little known secret about Orthodoxy is a belief shared by many of the Monks: "Dare we hope for the salvation of all?"
The Orthodox Church emphatically does not teach that everyone will be saved, however, in Orthodoxy, people can be prayed out of hell and there is a hope that perhaps a majority of people may be saved as opposed to a small minority.
This kind of reminds me of the C.S. Lewis book The Great Divorce, where some of the "ghosts" crawled out of hell literally for miles and miles and escaped it. I still struggle with this one, however, and your prayers in this area would be greatly appreciated. If you are suprised by that last aspect of EO I mentioned, you might ask Fr. Freeman about it. I would be very interested in his answer. As a convert, himself, I wonder what his take on this is.
Christ is in our midst!
Columba Silouan
Dear Columba,
I must say that we have walked parallel paths, the scriptures from Hebrews being ones that had begun to torment me in the AoG, and frankly had even after I walked away.
I had been enlightened, and knew the truth, I was just not letting it live through me.
My understanding about being unsaveable now is different from when I was younger, I see God's grace as being larger than I ever gave Him credit for it being. And the acts of the Spirit in prompting us toward godliness in a practical sense is so much more a real part of this life, we are not left alone. God has not left me alone, that I know.
Your emails have been extremely helpful and encouraging to me, simply by knowing that someone else has been on the same journey, and has been turning in the same way at these similar signposts. Mine journey is not well thought out, but it is more intuitive, things that do or do not line up with truth as I have experienced it have turned me this direction.
Being Reformed, the two biggest hang-ups I had were icons and Mary.
I think that what you said about icons is my current attitude and understanding about them, and to me that has in theory become a non-issue. I can accept that, understand it, but it may take some getting used to. As some may say, it may be an aquired taste.
Issues surrounding Mary are really my last major stumbling block to being "in communion" with EO. And I am afraid that these vestiges of rabid protestantism might be harder to root out, although nothing is impossible with God.
I will be reading some on this soon, and will want to talk to you about it as well. I like your sensibility and approach to these things, but then you have also come to this place from a similar direction, so you do understand my concerns and "hangups". LOL!
Is your real name Columba (I think not !?)?, but is that what I should call you? It does not matter to me, friend, whatever you prefer. My friends genrally just call me Jim. Peace!
Dear brother Jim, My real name is -------------.
In Orthodoxy, it is tradition to be given a new name upon entering The Church. You might recall those verses in Revelation that mention God giving us a new name. Like you, I am ashamed over things in my past. I've failed a lot and really want my life in Orthodoxy to be a clean break from the past.
I chose Saint Columba as my first Patron Saint because he sinned greatly out of Anger and Pride before he repented and became "The Missionary to Scotland." There is a verse that states "Anger does not bring about the righteous life that God Desires."
Of course, I chose Saint Silouan as my second Patron Saint because of his struggle with Despair. And in Orthodoxy, there is a sense that our Patron Saints are introduced to us more than being chosen by us. I can testify to this as well. It seemed to me that God directed me to these two patrons, and being in the Western Rite, it is super that I have one Saint from each tradition in the church. Saint Silouan the Russian Orthodox Monk, and Saint Columba / Columcille the Irish monk.
I ask both these Saints and Fathers to pray for me on a regular basis.
Now, about the Holy Theotokos: Getting used to the idea of asking her prayers for me was a bit of an adjustment. But because The Church taught the importance of this, I submitted to her teachings. Mary, after all, is my adopted mother, since I am the adopted brother of our Lord Jesus Christ.
My own mother is a great person, but as in all relationships down here, I've experienced dissapointment in that relationship. So I look to Mother Mary to make up for those deficits.
The comforting difference between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism about Mary is the following: In Orthodoxy, there is a school of thought that says that although Mary was a very devout and holy person from the beginning, she was a sinner in need of a savior like the rest of us. However, when she said "Yes" to God about bearing The Christ, God at that point cleansed her from all sin from that point forward.
Mary's YES to God is our example. Saint Mary is called The Champion Leader of Christians and it is precisely because of her YES that she is called this. She is our supreme example to follow, next to the Lord Jesus Christ. And not believing in the Roman Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, she becomes more accessible and more truly human to me.
I realized before my conversion that with Mary's attitude towards God, if He had requested that she be a Virgin throughout her life to safeguard the identity of Jesus as the Incarnate Word, she most definately would have said YES to that as well. So I no longer have theological problems with Mary as The Holy God Bearer and as Ever Virgin.
Getting used to requesting her intercessions and aid was something gained with practice.
Hope this helps,
Columba Silouan.
Dear Columba,
A new name, what a wonderful gift. That is truly the mark of a new beginning.
I know that God has a name for me, I've heard him say so in the past. It has not yet been revealed, however. Perhaps one day.
I am sure that there are many things surrounding Jesus' birth, life, and death that would yet surprise us if we knew them all. So the possibility of Mary being ever-virgin, and living a sinless life do not surprise me at all.
I can relate to despair.
May God illumine and guide me.
Forgive me if you've already told me this, but what are you doing now? Are you in seminary? I am by trade a Forester, but spend my days more at the computer than in the forest ;>)
Good afternoon, Jim.
My current job is at the western sales center of a building products company where I've worked for ten years. I am a Support Staff Assistant.
I have applied for a Copy Writer position at a local ministry here in town. I've been told I'm a strong candidate and to expect a second interview.
I still have an interest in the Priesthood. We'll see about that in time.
Blessings,
C. S.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Personal Motivation for this Project
Normally, a person might think that someone who wishes to promote the establishment of an Orthodox Mission must himself be a Postulant for Holy Orders or someone interested in becoming a Deacon or Priest.
In my case, I sure would love that to happen someday, but at present I don't feel "together enough" or worthy enough to be a Priest.
Nevertheless, I love The Church and the things of The Church.
So I've decided to be a tentmaker because I enjoy it so much.
I don't know if God will ever call me to the Holy Priesthood. He would have to do a lot of work in me first and I would really have to be aware of such grace in my life. To barge ahead without God's clear leading would be presumptious and spiritually dangerous. I "will have to know that I know" if it is ever to happen. Right now, I just don't know, and that's not good enough.
But Orthodox lay people can help get Orthodox Missions going. If we depend on priests and deacons to do everything, we're going to be dissappointed. They have their hands full.
I recently listed this project on the Ransomed Hearts website of John Eldredge. This is my dream, and Ransomed Hearts as a ministry encourages people to dream.
Pray for me, dear readers. I wish to become more and more like Christ. I have a very long way to go, but I have the help of the Orthodox Church to get there. This kind of help is the best and surest kind. I just need to cooperate with it.
Blessings,
Columba Silouan
In my case, I sure would love that to happen someday, but at present I don't feel "together enough" or worthy enough to be a Priest.
Nevertheless, I love The Church and the things of The Church.
So I've decided to be a tentmaker because I enjoy it so much.
I don't know if God will ever call me to the Holy Priesthood. He would have to do a lot of work in me first and I would really have to be aware of such grace in my life. To barge ahead without God's clear leading would be presumptious and spiritually dangerous. I "will have to know that I know" if it is ever to happen. Right now, I just don't know, and that's not good enough.
But Orthodox lay people can help get Orthodox Missions going. If we depend on priests and deacons to do everything, we're going to be dissappointed. They have their hands full.
I recently listed this project on the Ransomed Hearts website of John Eldredge. This is my dream, and Ransomed Hearts as a ministry encourages people to dream.
Pray for me, dear readers. I wish to become more and more like Christ. I have a very long way to go, but I have the help of the Orthodox Church to get there. This kind of help is the best and surest kind. I just need to cooperate with it.
Blessings,
Columba Silouan
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Reaching Heterodox Christians (and non-believers too).
In this post, I'm going to try to create a rough sketch on how being a vibrant Orthodox Community might work.
As you may know if you know anything about Saint Marks Orthodox Church, our parish is predominately made up of converts to Orthodoxy.
Now in my personal experience, I see no reason why those of us in the Western Rite can't find ways to bridge the cultural gap that still exists between Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism. And bridging this gap can reach "The Lost" as well as the "semi-saved."
Here's how to do this:
Right up front, it must be remembered that there will be no importing of the current trends found in contemporary evangelicalism or charismatic / pentecostalism into the Divine Liturgy. Don't even think about it, it isn't going to happen.
However . . .
You can build a parish with the goal of establishing a "Community Center" / Christian school in mind. You can also imitate much of the structure found in Protestant circles when it comes to small group Bible studies, cell groups, vacation bible school, sunday school, retreats, book studies and mid-week "singspirations."
All of these things are part of the culture we as Orthodox Christians are trying to influence.
For example, potential converts to Holy Orthodoxy, if they are devotees of "praise music" and "worship bands" are going to be turned off and turned away if there is absolutely no place for such music in the life of the Orthodox Community they might possibly join.
So instead of making promises to them we absolutely cannot keep ("Don't worry, we might set up a contemporary service for you") we can provide a place where they can use the talents and interests they currently have. The way this is done is to allow them to sing and perform "praise music" in their small groups, at a church retreat where the Divine Liturgy is NOT being conducted, at a teen SOYO meeting, or at an Orthodox Community Center once a particular parish has had a chance to establish one.
Of course all such music has to be filtered through Holy Orthodoxy to determine what meets the doctrinal test and what doesn't.
Small Groups is another form to examine here: I can envision an Orthodox Small Group studying the works of popular Evangelical authors while filtering everything said through an Orthodox perspective.
The works of John Eldredge are a prime example: JE touches on many Orthodox themes while not fully understanding the depth of what he is touching on.
Larry Crabb's recent book Shattered Dreams is also an excellent example of work done by an evangelical that is moving in an Orthodox direction.
We as Orthodox need to learn to "spoil the Egyptians" and easily move within Evangelical circles and culture while retaining our Orthodoxy intact.
We have much we can teach our seperated brothers and sisters, and the holiest among them have much to teach and inspire us to do and be.
We can be sure of where The Church is, we cannot be sure of where The Church isn't. Closing ourselves off from all Heterodox fellowship and influence is a big mistake, in my opinion.
Using some of these forms can create a vibrant and caring Orthodox community that can actually speak to the felt needs of the Unchurched. Evangelicals and Charismatics are generally better at reaching the lost for Christ than the Orthodox. We need to remember that "people need The Lord" of Orthodoxy! Our deep view of the Holy Trinity is NEEDED today. There are many in our culture who have become jaded and hardened by the easy believism "gospel" that is so common today.
Orthodoxy is a pure stream of undiluted and undistorted Christianity that can truly lead people to the Risen Christ and not to a close counterfeit void of life and power.
"We have found the True Faith, worshipping the Undivided Trinity, for the Trinity has saved us!"
Sincerely,
Columcille Silouan
As you may know if you know anything about Saint Marks Orthodox Church, our parish is predominately made up of converts to Orthodoxy.
Now in my personal experience, I see no reason why those of us in the Western Rite can't find ways to bridge the cultural gap that still exists between Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism. And bridging this gap can reach "The Lost" as well as the "semi-saved."
Here's how to do this:
Right up front, it must be remembered that there will be no importing of the current trends found in contemporary evangelicalism or charismatic / pentecostalism into the Divine Liturgy. Don't even think about it, it isn't going to happen.
However . . .
You can build a parish with the goal of establishing a "Community Center" / Christian school in mind. You can also imitate much of the structure found in Protestant circles when it comes to small group Bible studies, cell groups, vacation bible school, sunday school, retreats, book studies and mid-week "singspirations."
All of these things are part of the culture we as Orthodox Christians are trying to influence.
For example, potential converts to Holy Orthodoxy, if they are devotees of "praise music" and "worship bands" are going to be turned off and turned away if there is absolutely no place for such music in the life of the Orthodox Community they might possibly join.
So instead of making promises to them we absolutely cannot keep ("Don't worry, we might set up a contemporary service for you") we can provide a place where they can use the talents and interests they currently have. The way this is done is to allow them to sing and perform "praise music" in their small groups, at a church retreat where the Divine Liturgy is NOT being conducted, at a teen SOYO meeting, or at an Orthodox Community Center once a particular parish has had a chance to establish one.
Of course all such music has to be filtered through Holy Orthodoxy to determine what meets the doctrinal test and what doesn't.
Small Groups is another form to examine here: I can envision an Orthodox Small Group studying the works of popular Evangelical authors while filtering everything said through an Orthodox perspective.
The works of John Eldredge are a prime example: JE touches on many Orthodox themes while not fully understanding the depth of what he is touching on.
Larry Crabb's recent book Shattered Dreams is also an excellent example of work done by an evangelical that is moving in an Orthodox direction.
We as Orthodox need to learn to "spoil the Egyptians" and easily move within Evangelical circles and culture while retaining our Orthodoxy intact.
We have much we can teach our seperated brothers and sisters, and the holiest among them have much to teach and inspire us to do and be.
We can be sure of where The Church is, we cannot be sure of where The Church isn't. Closing ourselves off from all Heterodox fellowship and influence is a big mistake, in my opinion.
Using some of these forms can create a vibrant and caring Orthodox community that can actually speak to the felt needs of the Unchurched. Evangelicals and Charismatics are generally better at reaching the lost for Christ than the Orthodox. We need to remember that "people need The Lord" of Orthodoxy! Our deep view of the Holy Trinity is NEEDED today. There are many in our culture who have become jaded and hardened by the easy believism "gospel" that is so common today.
Orthodoxy is a pure stream of undiluted and undistorted Christianity that can truly lead people to the Risen Christ and not to a close counterfeit void of life and power.
"We have found the True Faith, worshipping the Undivided Trinity, for the Trinity has saved us!"
Sincerely,
Columcille Silouan
Heterodoxy is Hazardous
One goal of Eastern Orthodox Christianity is surely to convert as many Heterodox Christians as possible.
Why? Because being a Heterodox Christian can be hazardous to a person's spiritual health, not to mention agonizing!
Take the case of the worldwide Anglican Communion as only one example. The Episcopal Church (TEC) has been counselled by the Tanzania meeting of the Anglican Primates to repent from ordaining actively gay Bishops and performing same-sex blessings by September the 30th or face a reduced status in the Anglican Communion.
The Bishops of TEC have said for the most part, that they will defy the Communique. Grace and Saint Stephens Episcopal Church in Colorado Springs is undergoing a split between those loyal to conservative and "orthodox" rector Don Armstrong and around 100 parishoners (including most of the choir) who went down the street to Shrove Chapel to stay in the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Colorado.
Again the strange dichotomy of many an Epicopal parish might be in place here: Speaking from experience as a former Episcopalian myself, one of the most frustrating things about the current Episcopal scene in the United States is the strange fact that many of the "orthodox" Episcopalians and Anglicans lean towards the charismatic and evangelical end of the religious spectrum and as such, they favor more upbeat and contempary music and liturgies.
The Liberals, on the other hand, tend to be more "traditional" in church culture and end up favoring the best church music, the best traditional "high church" forms, and the oldest Episcopal cultural norms. They may hold to beliefs that deny the faith, but no-one can beat them when it comes to their style of worship.
So the choice facing many an Episcopalian / Anglican today in the U.S. is attending a parish that is a rough equivelant to a "Vineyard Christian Fellowship" or a "Calvary Chapel" with Sacraments or a mid to high church parish long on style but empty of orthodox content. Some choice. This is why our family ultimately became Orthodox.
We had a brief detour in the LCMS for about a year-an-a-half at a "Confessional Lutheran" church, but I, for one, was never a true Lutheran and couldn't ultimately accept the Lutheran Confessions. I just wasn't a Protestant anymore.
Back to Grace and Saint Stephens: As of this writing, it is unclear who will maintain control of the nearly 100-year old church building. Will this beautiful orthodox building be controlled by the liberals who don't believe what the architecture displays "written in stone" and stained glass or will the "orthodox" faithful find a way to keep the building and avoid another The Church nightclub being established?
And this battle over church property is being played out all over the United States. A person only need look at what is happening in the Diocese of Virginia to see other battles in progress.
And you're no safer if you're a Presbyterian! In the supposedly "conservative and orthodox" Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Colorado, a church in Greenwood Village is struggling to stave off a "purpose driven" takeover of what was supposed to be THE TRADITIONAL PARISH in the greater Denver area.
Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church is being torn up by those who want to take the church in the direction of many "mega-churches" and those who wish to maintain traditional worship and presbyterian polity. The "Purpose Driven" movement has been doing what ECUSA-style liberals could never get away with in the more "conservative" evangelical denominations such as the EPC and the Southern Baptist Convention: Undermining traditional churches and replacing them with "contemporary" purpose-driven hedonistic wastelands.
Truly the only safe place to be if you are a traditional Christian is the Eastern Orthodox Church. This is because the way we worship is as absolute as the Nicene Creed and the Sacred Scriptures. Even the Roman Catholic Church in the United States is a limited option at best. Most RC parishes are heavily influenced by Vatican Two.
In my next posting, I will explore how an Orthodox Parish can accomodate some of the culture and tastes of Heterodox Christians in the life of the community while maintaining strict standards during the Divine Liturgy. In Orthodoxy, altering the Divine Liturgy in any way is an absolute non-starter!
Have a blessed and Holy Pascha!
Columcille Silouan
Why? Because being a Heterodox Christian can be hazardous to a person's spiritual health, not to mention agonizing!
Take the case of the worldwide Anglican Communion as only one example. The Episcopal Church (TEC) has been counselled by the Tanzania meeting of the Anglican Primates to repent from ordaining actively gay Bishops and performing same-sex blessings by September the 30th or face a reduced status in the Anglican Communion.
The Bishops of TEC have said for the most part, that they will defy the Communique. Grace and Saint Stephens Episcopal Church in Colorado Springs is undergoing a split between those loyal to conservative and "orthodox" rector Don Armstrong and around 100 parishoners (including most of the choir) who went down the street to Shrove Chapel to stay in the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Colorado.
Again the strange dichotomy of many an Epicopal parish might be in place here: Speaking from experience as a former Episcopalian myself, one of the most frustrating things about the current Episcopal scene in the United States is the strange fact that many of the "orthodox" Episcopalians and Anglicans lean towards the charismatic and evangelical end of the religious spectrum and as such, they favor more upbeat and contempary music and liturgies.
The Liberals, on the other hand, tend to be more "traditional" in church culture and end up favoring the best church music, the best traditional "high church" forms, and the oldest Episcopal cultural norms. They may hold to beliefs that deny the faith, but no-one can beat them when it comes to their style of worship.
So the choice facing many an Episcopalian / Anglican today in the U.S. is attending a parish that is a rough equivelant to a "Vineyard Christian Fellowship" or a "Calvary Chapel" with Sacraments or a mid to high church parish long on style but empty of orthodox content. Some choice. This is why our family ultimately became Orthodox.
We had a brief detour in the LCMS for about a year-an-a-half at a "Confessional Lutheran" church, but I, for one, was never a true Lutheran and couldn't ultimately accept the Lutheran Confessions. I just wasn't a Protestant anymore.
Back to Grace and Saint Stephens: As of this writing, it is unclear who will maintain control of the nearly 100-year old church building. Will this beautiful orthodox building be controlled by the liberals who don't believe what the architecture displays "written in stone" and stained glass or will the "orthodox" faithful find a way to keep the building and avoid another The Church nightclub being established?
And this battle over church property is being played out all over the United States. A person only need look at what is happening in the Diocese of Virginia to see other battles in progress.
And you're no safer if you're a Presbyterian! In the supposedly "conservative and orthodox" Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Colorado, a church in Greenwood Village is struggling to stave off a "purpose driven" takeover of what was supposed to be THE TRADITIONAL PARISH in the greater Denver area.
Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church is being torn up by those who want to take the church in the direction of many "mega-churches" and those who wish to maintain traditional worship and presbyterian polity. The "Purpose Driven" movement has been doing what ECUSA-style liberals could never get away with in the more "conservative" evangelical denominations such as the EPC and the Southern Baptist Convention: Undermining traditional churches and replacing them with "contemporary" purpose-driven hedonistic wastelands.
Truly the only safe place to be if you are a traditional Christian is the Eastern Orthodox Church. This is because the way we worship is as absolute as the Nicene Creed and the Sacred Scriptures. Even the Roman Catholic Church in the United States is a limited option at best. Most RC parishes are heavily influenced by Vatican Two.
In my next posting, I will explore how an Orthodox Parish can accomodate some of the culture and tastes of Heterodox Christians in the life of the community while maintaining strict standards during the Divine Liturgy. In Orthodoxy, altering the Divine Liturgy in any way is an absolute non-starter!
Have a blessed and Holy Pascha!
Columcille Silouan
One Million People in 2011
For my second post I wish to briefly mention an article in the Parker Chronicle that appeared in the March 30th edition.
In that article it was predicted that by 2011 there will be ONE MILLION people living within 15 miles of downtown Parker. ONE MILLION!!
If you live near Parker and ever read The Chronicle, you can easily find all the types of churches listed. You have Roman Catholic Churches, Episcopal Churches, Presbyterian Churches, Baptist Churches, Lutheran Churches, a United Methodist Church, A Morman Church and a Kingdom Hall (Jehovah's Witnesses) church.
In the entire town of Parker, there is not one Eastern Orthodox Church of ANY jurisdiction.
If Parker is going to have a population of ONE MILLION people by 2011, the absence of an Orthodox Church is simply a scandal.
I, for one, would love to attend an Orthodox parish within ten minutes of my home on the border of Parker.
Orthodox Churches have many, many services. Being married with young children limits my ability to attend some of the major services that take place during the week.
My parish, Saint Mark's, is a great place. But it is located in Denver. The parish cannot be considered to be local to where I live.
A goal of the Orthodox should be to have a parish in every major suburb of every major city. I believe this should be a Western Rite goal as well.
With the crackup of the Episcopal Church going on, the Western Rite of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese and ROCOR has an opportunity like never before to collect all the disaffected Episcopalians out there before they go to the Convocation of Anglicans in North America and the Anglican Mission in America.
Let's not kid ourselves, folks! If we don't make a strong move, we will miss out on many potential converts to Holy Orthodoxy.
As a former Anglican, I can say that I've found a true home in Western Rite Orthodoxy. There is peace and life here. It is refreshing to be worshipping as the old time Anglicans worshipped without worrying where my church is going to be in the next ten years.
The Orthodox Christian Church will be where it's always been. Preserving the Faith once delivered to the saints.
Stay tuned for further posts. The next post will cover the topic of how to reach the current Christian sub-culture with Orthodoxy. There is a way to do this without compromising the essentials of the faith.
Columcille Silouan
In that article it was predicted that by 2011 there will be ONE MILLION people living within 15 miles of downtown Parker. ONE MILLION!!
If you live near Parker and ever read The Chronicle, you can easily find all the types of churches listed. You have Roman Catholic Churches, Episcopal Churches, Presbyterian Churches, Baptist Churches, Lutheran Churches, a United Methodist Church, A Morman Church and a Kingdom Hall (Jehovah's Witnesses) church.
In the entire town of Parker, there is not one Eastern Orthodox Church of ANY jurisdiction.
If Parker is going to have a population of ONE MILLION people by 2011, the absence of an Orthodox Church is simply a scandal.
I, for one, would love to attend an Orthodox parish within ten minutes of my home on the border of Parker.
Orthodox Churches have many, many services. Being married with young children limits my ability to attend some of the major services that take place during the week.
My parish, Saint Mark's, is a great place. But it is located in Denver. The parish cannot be considered to be local to where I live.
A goal of the Orthodox should be to have a parish in every major suburb of every major city. I believe this should be a Western Rite goal as well.
With the crackup of the Episcopal Church going on, the Western Rite of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese and ROCOR has an opportunity like never before to collect all the disaffected Episcopalians out there before they go to the Convocation of Anglicans in North America and the Anglican Mission in America.
Let's not kid ourselves, folks! If we don't make a strong move, we will miss out on many potential converts to Holy Orthodoxy.
As a former Anglican, I can say that I've found a true home in Western Rite Orthodoxy. There is peace and life here. It is refreshing to be worshipping as the old time Anglicans worshipped without worrying where my church is going to be in the next ten years.
The Orthodox Christian Church will be where it's always been. Preserving the Faith once delivered to the saints.
Stay tuned for further posts. The next post will cover the topic of how to reach the current Christian sub-culture with Orthodoxy. There is a way to do this without compromising the essentials of the faith.
Columcille Silouan
Thursday, March 15, 2007
One Step in a Long Journey
Welcome to the Orthodox Parker Blogspot. The purpose of this blog is to promote the eventual planting of a Western Rite Orthodox Church in the Parker, Colorado area. This church would serve Parker, unincorporated Englewood, Franktown, Elisabeth and Castle Rock.
Various Eastern Orthodox subjects will be covered in this blog, along with the progress of the Orthodox Mission in Parker.
My Orthodox name is Colmcille Siluoan, after Saints Colmcille (Columba) and Saint Siluoan the Athonite. My home parish is Saint Marks Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, located in Denver, Colorado.
I have a wife, a four-year-old son, and a 20-month-old daughter. I live on the northern border of Parker in unincorporated Englewood in the South Creek subdivision. When I was a child, my father and mother had a ranch in Parker. When they divorced, we were forced to leave the ranch. But I've always considered Parker to be my true home in this world.
The first step in planting an Orthodox mission is, of course, to begin a home Bible Study. This has already happened. The study is covering the books of 1st and 2nd Corinthians and the Study Guide is by Orthodox Priest Fr. Lawrence R. Farley. The title of the book is Straight from the Heart. Attendance has been sporadic, but we have at least one regular attender, a catechuman at Saint Marks.
The Bible Study resumes after Great Lent.
I'm currently reading the excellent book The Enlargement of the Heart, by Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou. Some other recent Christian books I've read are the works of John Eldredge (The Sacred Romance, Wild at Heart, The Journey of Desire, and Waking the Dead), The book Shattered Dreams by Dr. Larry Crabb, and The End of the Church by Dr. Ephraim Radner.
As far as fictional books go, I love the books by Stephen Lawhead: The Pendragon Cycle, Byzantium, The Silver Hand, etc. I also am a devote of science fiction.
I'm a sports fan as well, and my favorite sports are NHL Hockey and NLL Lacrosse. GO AVALANCHE and MAMMOTH!!
My fondest dream is to see a thriving Orthodox parish take root in Parker. I hope this parish can become a true "Fellowship of the Heart" as John Eldredge has mentioned in his books.
Just because a parish is Orthodox it doesn't automaticaly preclude heartfelt and fervent piety. Orthodox don't have to be "The Frozen Chosen" of this world. My patron saint, Fr. Silouan, was one of the most warm-hearted saints who has graced The Church. There is every reason to emulate his piety and not run from such an example.
Of course, any Orthodox Parish will be traditional in worship style. This is part of the deposit of faith and is completely unavoidable. If you want Christian contemporary music in the life of an Orthodox parish, it will have to be during the week and in your small group or bible study group or at a teen Soyo gathering. You simply will never see "praise" choruses at The Divine Liturgy. It's not gonna happen, nor should it.
I'm a proponent of the Orthodox "Western Rite." The Eastern Rite is very deep and very beautiful, but for many from western church backgrounds, joining an Eastern Rite parish means giving up a lot of things, especially hymns known since childhood.
At a Western Rite parish, you have your choice of the Liturgy of Saint Gregory, which mirrors the Roman Catholic liturgy, or the Liturgy of Saint Tikhon, which is similar to Anglican worship.
At a Western Orthodox Church, the music during the service will range from Anglican Plainchant, Gregorian Chant, Anthems and Great Hymns of the Faith. At Saint Marks, for example, we've sung hymns composed by John and Charles Wesley and Isaac Watts. There is one word for the music at Saint Marks: Glorious!
A Western Rite mission can especially appeal to people from the following backgrounds: Anglican, Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran and Catholic. It is also hoped that the mission will reach unchurched people by becoming a community of love patterned after the love of the Blessed Trinity.
Setting up this blog is one step in a long journey. This endeavor will go a long way towards proving that you don't have to be a Bishop, Priest or Deacon to facilitate the planting of an Orthodox church. The Church needs more laymen to help spread the blessings of Holy Orthodoxy.
Stay tuned as I continue to post to this new blog.
Christ is in our midst!
Colmcille Silouan
Various Eastern Orthodox subjects will be covered in this blog, along with the progress of the Orthodox Mission in Parker.
My Orthodox name is Colmcille Siluoan, after Saints Colmcille (Columba) and Saint Siluoan the Athonite. My home parish is Saint Marks Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, located in Denver, Colorado.
I have a wife, a four-year-old son, and a 20-month-old daughter. I live on the northern border of Parker in unincorporated Englewood in the South Creek subdivision. When I was a child, my father and mother had a ranch in Parker. When they divorced, we were forced to leave the ranch. But I've always considered Parker to be my true home in this world.
The first step in planting an Orthodox mission is, of course, to begin a home Bible Study. This has already happened. The study is covering the books of 1st and 2nd Corinthians and the Study Guide is by Orthodox Priest Fr. Lawrence R. Farley. The title of the book is Straight from the Heart. Attendance has been sporadic, but we have at least one regular attender, a catechuman at Saint Marks.
The Bible Study resumes after Great Lent.
I'm currently reading the excellent book The Enlargement of the Heart, by Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou. Some other recent Christian books I've read are the works of John Eldredge (The Sacred Romance, Wild at Heart, The Journey of Desire, and Waking the Dead), The book Shattered Dreams by Dr. Larry Crabb, and The End of the Church by Dr. Ephraim Radner.
As far as fictional books go, I love the books by Stephen Lawhead: The Pendragon Cycle, Byzantium, The Silver Hand, etc. I also am a devote of science fiction.
I'm a sports fan as well, and my favorite sports are NHL Hockey and NLL Lacrosse. GO AVALANCHE and MAMMOTH!!
My fondest dream is to see a thriving Orthodox parish take root in Parker. I hope this parish can become a true "Fellowship of the Heart" as John Eldredge has mentioned in his books.
Just because a parish is Orthodox it doesn't automaticaly preclude heartfelt and fervent piety. Orthodox don't have to be "The Frozen Chosen" of this world. My patron saint, Fr. Silouan, was one of the most warm-hearted saints who has graced The Church. There is every reason to emulate his piety and not run from such an example.
Of course, any Orthodox Parish will be traditional in worship style. This is part of the deposit of faith and is completely unavoidable. If you want Christian contemporary music in the life of an Orthodox parish, it will have to be during the week and in your small group or bible study group or at a teen Soyo gathering. You simply will never see "praise" choruses at The Divine Liturgy. It's not gonna happen, nor should it.
I'm a proponent of the Orthodox "Western Rite." The Eastern Rite is very deep and very beautiful, but for many from western church backgrounds, joining an Eastern Rite parish means giving up a lot of things, especially hymns known since childhood.
At a Western Rite parish, you have your choice of the Liturgy of Saint Gregory, which mirrors the Roman Catholic liturgy, or the Liturgy of Saint Tikhon, which is similar to Anglican worship.
At a Western Orthodox Church, the music during the service will range from Anglican Plainchant, Gregorian Chant, Anthems and Great Hymns of the Faith. At Saint Marks, for example, we've sung hymns composed by John and Charles Wesley and Isaac Watts. There is one word for the music at Saint Marks: Glorious!
A Western Rite mission can especially appeal to people from the following backgrounds: Anglican, Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran and Catholic. It is also hoped that the mission will reach unchurched people by becoming a community of love patterned after the love of the Blessed Trinity.
Setting up this blog is one step in a long journey. This endeavor will go a long way towards proving that you don't have to be a Bishop, Priest or Deacon to facilitate the planting of an Orthodox church. The Church needs more laymen to help spread the blessings of Holy Orthodoxy.
Stay tuned as I continue to post to this new blog.
Christ is in our midst!
Colmcille Silouan
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