tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25740524.post3287859764471215890..comments2024-03-11T13:16:19.098-04:00Comments on Ad Orientem: Facing possible schism, Methodists reject liberal assualt on moralsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25740524.post-53010033419046411052019-03-02T08:20:34.237-05:002019-03-02T08:20:34.237-05:00So. a headline in this morning's local paper g...So. a headline in this morning's local paper goes " 'We are not happy with the church.' Some Methodists in area vow to oppose result of vote on gay marriage, clergy". Scott Miller, president of Virginia Wesleyan University, is throwing away the book that guides UMC. Apparently, his colleagues who run the 93 UMC colleges & universities across the country are also opposed to the church's recent ruling.<br /><br />And, so it goes.unreconstructed rebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11550310406767475723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25740524.post-53764638634721950592019-03-01T07:08:51.671-05:002019-03-01T07:08:51.671-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.BorisJojicjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02796218761394313699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25740524.post-35978115885284746012019-03-01T02:15:24.516-05:002019-03-01T02:15:24.516-05:00Orthodoxy does have its problems, and yes we have ...Orthodoxy does have its problems, and yes we have some within the Church that would like to remake the gospel to fit their image and likeness. However they have many more hurdles to jump because there is always the consensus factor that does not support the liberal agenda. We see it being played out in Ukraine even as we speak. The false Nationalistic Church of Ukraine has the liberal agenda as part of its goal. Why else would politicians from Ukraine, USA, and Turkey invest so much time and effort. By the way, I am a convert to the Orthodox Faith, and am secure in the teachings and practices of the Faith, even though there are some definite problems: however I would not trade those problems for the ones that I see emerging in all other Christians confessions. How Christ will rescue all His Faithful ones as the time of Anti-Christ and Anti Gospel sweeps over the Churches of the future remains to be seen. I have read the end of the bible and Christ does conquer and protects His little ones.Archimandrite Gregoryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09894842027467584759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25740524.post-58001253628923976402019-03-01T01:59:18.839-05:002019-03-01T01:59:18.839-05:00Yup. Since these people believe that there is not...Yup. Since these people believe that there is not only one right answer, there's only one <b><i>conceivable</i></b> answer, they're not going anywhere any time soon. Watch for the illegal but "prophetic" gay ordination/wedding/both sooner rather than later.Christopher Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16295360604446048139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25740524.post-86138657057698570372019-02-28T12:53:50.475-05:002019-02-28T12:53:50.475-05:00Just now, I consider myself a Christian, but witho...<i>Just now, I consider myself a Christian, but without loyalty to any particular denomination. Reform theology I find small minded. Rome has a lot to answer for. I am fascinated by the Eastern Church's theology, but find it's governance to be a bit of a mess. Still looking around.</i><br /><br />Bruce Charlton had some interesting thoughts on this. He took a stab at Orthodoxy and concluded that no Christian for the last several centuries has experienced the Church <i>qua</i> Church, that is, the Church as the august, potent institution which existed from the Apostolic Fathers to the Renaissance. Having seen the byzantine, dysfunctional ecclesiology and ethnic insularity in Orthodoxy, he concluded that Orthodox conversion is basically LARPing and Christianity is between the individual and God--the Church doesn't really survive in its current form.<br /><br />This contradicts the Lord's own words, but he's right so far as it goes: the Church simply does not occupy the same space in society, nor even the same mental space in its adherents, and in a world of post-scarcity, I don't think it ever will. No Christian alive today experiences the Church as the Apostles, the Apostolic Fathers, or even the Tsarist Russians ever did. I think that realization drove Charlton half-crazy. Of course, it's also hard to see the extremely prickly Bruce Charlton making it through a single coffee hour.<br /><br />So if we reject Bruce's individualistic approach, the question becomes where is the Church? I say Orthodoxy is the true expression of the Faith, but even as an adherent I recognize we don't make it easy to convince people.<br /><br />The other thing I see consistently and across time and history is that people yearn for the Faith expressed in their own human culture. The English like an "English" church, the Romanians a "Romanian," the Ethiopians an "Ethiopian" and on and on. But the official line is that there is a platonic, universalist form superseding all temporal ethnicity, supported by St. Paul's terribly misconstrued and completely ignored dictum: "in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek".<br /><br />This idealistic vision has proven impossible, but the hierarchy still clings to it, as if there's still an Empire around homogenizing everybody into Greco-Roman culture. (And good luck explaining my own Antiochian jurisdiction to you). <br /><br />God bless you in your search. We are on terra nova, and I have no answers and apparently neither do our bishops.The Anti-Gnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04386593803225823789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25740524.post-86658812257615843212019-02-27T18:36:04.439-05:002019-02-27T18:36:04.439-05:00May God help you in your search!May God help you in your search!BorisJojicjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02796218761394313699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25740524.post-84820100422223755232019-02-27T10:40:18.202-05:002019-02-27T10:40:18.202-05:00Briefly. I spent some time with a Methodist Churc...Briefly. I spent some time with a Methodist Church after leaving the Episcopal Church when it became clear that there was no longer room for folk like me.<br /><br />Just now, I consider myself a Christian, but without loyalty to any particular denomination. Reform theology I find small minded. Rome has a lot to answer for. I am fascinated by the Eastern Church's theology, but find it's governance to be a bit of a mess. Still looking around.unreconstructed rebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11550310406767475723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25740524.post-86679627358105897392019-02-27T09:10:49.454-05:002019-02-27T09:10:49.454-05:00Reb, are you a Methodist yourself? My American anc...Reb, are you a Methodist yourself? My American ancestors were both Southerners and Methodists.BorisJojicjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02796218761394313699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25740524.post-2246488725601418632019-02-27T09:07:02.779-05:002019-02-27T09:07:02.779-05:00Christ prayed that we may all be one, but not unit...Christ prayed that we may all be one, but not unity at any cost. Sometimes we must go our separate ways whenever the Unity of the Faith is at risk. We some of this in our own Orthodox world departures from the Faith on the part of the so-called progressives.<br />Archimandrite Gregoryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09894842027467584759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25740524.post-77257969494885910182019-02-27T07:22:20.777-05:002019-02-27T07:22:20.777-05:00Do not make the mistake of thinking that the revis...Do not make the mistake of thinking that the revisionists have been defeated. It took them a while to take out the Episcopal Church, but they never give up.unreconstructed rebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11550310406767475723noreply@blogger.com