On a side note has anyone heard about this thing called clericalism? It's apparently just as much a distortion as congregationalism (to claim that we don't need priests or that priests must do what the masses dictate).
Fr Alexander says:
"A false …
These are good observations Remnkemi.
Another form of "simple is better" can be a slight variation: "Taeta and Gido don't know the hymns and they are not shamas kabeer...But they are simple and therefore saintly."
Or "Taeta and Gido are not theol…
Here are videos of what looks like other Orthodox Missions in North America.
They look like they pray in English but I wonder if these Churches can be helped with some more modern worship music and by what is mentioned in the Lucado & Warren q…
Haven't we heard all our Abounas teach these essential truths? Simple is better. Taeta and Gido didn't have university and are saintly. Learning makes you proud. So what if some abounas are using different material? Our Abounas are smart and very qu…
Hi everyone, since this thread is about mission, does it really matter what material what our Abounas use or base their sermons on? If the end goal is to bring people to Christ and show them that they can have a personal relationship with God does i…
And here's a nice quote by Mother Gabriella
"Once when I was there where I was, some foreign missionary came and said to me, "You may be a good woman, but you’re not a good Christian."
I said, "Why?"
"Because you have been here so long and you only …
And also to balance out the above statements:
"Unless you love, the poor will never forgive you for the bread you give them." St. Vincent de Paul, quoted in Fr Walter J. Burghardt's "Love is a Flame of the Lord: More Homilies on the Just Word" (Mah…
Hi minasoliman that's a good point about Lilian Thrasher, works of mercy of the like can sometimes reveal the kenosis and love that suffers much. Memory Eternal.
Recently on CNN there was a very fascinating segment on al-Noor Orphanage in Iraq tha…
Hi ReturnOrthodoxy these are very good points about mission. Isn't the job of the Church to make us the Body of Christ? To heal, to transform us, to restore us to Beauty, to make saints, to make us truly human ie. Deification?
Sometimes I wonder if…
Sometimes we also tend to see Mission as activity....as doing...as numbers...as feel good experience...as social service that ends when my last sandwich is given out...or some anxious fulfillment of a moral checklist...
Perhaps we have yet to embrac…
So what you're all saying is...
and
or maybe...
:P :P :P
All joking aside I think all our Abounas need prayers and many of them are doing their best to help their Churches in the best way they know and with whatever resources they have. It is som…
EsmoEpchois do you mean missionary in that the Church would speak truth, love and sound teaching and that by being love incarnate would transfigure the neighbourhood and pray for the life of the world?
Like Sayedna says:
"The aim of mission can'…
If you do a Google Search for Coptic Missions these Church Websites show up:
http://www.stmarkdc.org/mlchttp://www.h2.dion.ne.jp/~coptic/http://www.stverenaschurch.org/fiji-mission.htmlhttp://www.copticmexico.org/http://www.copticmission.org/http://…
Here's St Gregory on beauty:
For this is the safest way to protect the good thing you enjoy: by realizing how much your Creator has honored you above all other creatures. He did not make the heavens in His image, nor the moon, nor the sun, nor the b…
Hi this might sound obvious to some but are there theological reasons for praying in Coptic or Arabic or English or Spanish?
Elsewhere on the forum some have pointed out that both Coptic and Greek seem to have layers of meanings for certain words a…
To continue the discussion does anyone happen to have evidence that shows or suggest that projector screens are of benefit? Or that they enhance beauty?
Hi Rem, Amoussa, Mabsoota, Ophadece, Coptic Deacon and everyone, maybe one day the influence (for better or worse) of projector screens and books on Orthodox liturgical life will be the topic of someone's research paper :p
I'm not sure we can say "no screens" = "no technology" or "no electricity". What is being raised is how they are used and their effect on liturgics.
The following is not a perfect comparison but say one says "guns are bad." One may counter by claim…
I hope this following quote doesn't move the thread off topic but St John Chrysostom says something quote wonderful in relation to Icons/Persons in an exhortation to Catechumens:
" Then, as in the case of painters, so let it now be the case for you.…
But obscuring can also lead to destruction...
“It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.” C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
The Fall didn't destroy with im…
I think what both blog articles seem to be addressing (especially the first one in the thread) is the way liturgy is encountered. There seems to be a very modern phenomenon concerning a preoccupation with text and cognition (text as the primary sour…