Dear Taylor,
Some excellent advice here.
Although she is Eastern orthodox, what Frederica Mathewes=Greene write here, will help prepare you: http://www.frederica.com/12-things/
Our Coptic brothers and sisters have done a wonderful job providing y…
Dear Mina, Dear Taylor,
Mina is right, I am indeed a member of the British Orthodox Church, which comes under the jurisdiction of Alexandria. Our Metropolitan, Abba Seraphim, is a full member of the Coptic Synod, and we have frequent meetings with …
Dear Taylor,
Your love for your great country does you credit.
No country is without its dark sides, but the USA has been, and continues to be, a unique experiment in many races and religions coming together. It is, I think I am right in saying, t…
Well said, Iqbal!
One of the great comforts and wonders of the Coptic Church is that we are part of a communion with the living and the reposed; it is not by the light of our feeble intellects, or even by own own struggling faith that we see, but w…
Dear Taylor,
God does, indeed, find us where we are - as St. Paul discovered.
This, from the Coptic Synaxarium Readings for Baunah 24, gives you an example of how remarkable He is in how, and who, He finds:
[quote]_________________________________…
No, I have not come across this one - but the story is a not unfamiliar one of a particular type. It would be good to have some detail.
What I mean by 'not unfamiliar' will be clear to anyone who visits this site http://www.answering-islam.de/Main/…
Dear Gregory,
Very many thanks for giving us the benefit of His Holiness' wisdom; words we should all attend to.
What we observe every day in the word is our 'natural' tendency to do the wrong thing if it suits us and we thing we can gain some adv…
Dear Enough,
What Orthodox11 write is so. There is another thread here (St Mary's Sinlessness, and the RCC dogma of Immaculate Conception) on this topic which goes into more detail.
It is necessary to distinguish between the Roman Catholic doctrin…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Ananias and Saphira did, as Κηφaς reminds us, attempt to deceive God; they were given the chance to repent, they rejected it, and they died. There is in that a lesson for us all.
Simon Magus did, indeed, go on …
Dear Fibo,
Thank you for starting it off.
Dear Thomas,
As I said on the other thread - welcome to the sinners' club; what matters is that we repent, ask for absolution, amend our lives and try to live in Him through the Church.
In Christ,
John
Dear Thomas,
Join the rest of us; we have all sinned, and without His love we all perish. Forgiveness is to be found in Him - and He will rejoice.
In Christ,
John
Dear Mike,
What I mean is that when you write something like but can I be sure He will give me trust in Him in time.. and how long must I wait? and how do I know whether or not He will hold it against me for not having the answers for questions tha…
I think we may in the presence of a sola scriptura understanding of Our Faith. We believe that our Faith is not defined by the Bible alone, but by the traditions of the Church out of which it arose, and is illumined by the light of its saints.
So t…
Dear Doubting Thomas,
Thank you for clarifying what you are asking; most helpful.
A famous English statesman once said: 'God is love and the world is what it is; how do you explain that?' What he was doing in this statement was drawing our attent…
Dear Mike,
Your worries are great - but as St. Isaac the Syrian wrote 'If God seems not to answer your prayer, do not worry, you are not wiser than God.'
God offers you redemption and salvation; he does not require you to pass exams or to know eve…
Dear Doubting Thomas,
I am unclear what you are asking?
You would appear to think that because bad things happen there cannot be a God. Bad things happen because we have free will and we live in a universe where we are free to react to them as we …
Dear Doubting Thomas.
Our Lord came to proclaim the New Covenant and the good news that all who believe in Him shall have eternal life.
I wonder why people who wish to question the faith seldom use the words of Our Lord or the New Testament. If wh…
Dear Coptic Boy,
Thank you for sharing that with us. As always, His Holiness shows the wisdom for which he is famed - and we would do well to heed him.
We do not deny it might happen, but neither do we take a position on it other than than adopted…
Dear Kerestina,
You make some excellent points.
T.V. is a passive medium which requires nothing from the viewer other than that they sit there and watch; there are better ways of relaxing.
It also filters into every house the viewpoint of the T.V…
You should pledge allegiance because those who don't are the same liberals that support gay marriage and the like.
That would be a bad reason for pledging allegiance; some people who do not are surely merely misguided? Let's not judge everyone - we…
They say the devil finds work for idle hands; judging by some of the things on TV, there must have been a lot of very idle hands, since much work has been found for them.
Mind you, I have a sense, from watching my own children, that they watch less…
Dear EpNomos EnTaio,
When you write There is salvation outside of the Orthodox Church, and that is of course dependent on the individual's adherence to all of Christianity's fundamental principles.
whilst tempted to agree, I wonder whether the lim…
Dear Gregory,
It is not a Catholic rite, although it is a phenomenon recognised by the Roman Catholics. The Orthodox Church has not recognised this, and, as has been stated, there are authorities in the Church who have written against it.
In Chris…
Dear Κηφᾶς, Dear Vassilios,
Dear me, that old allegation! It was made as far back as Roman times, for exactly the reason your acquaintance made it, Vassilios. Κηφᾶς has given the right answer. We do not know how the bread and wine become the body a…
Dear EpNomos EnTaio,
Yes, that would be the position taken up by many of us here; but I am a member of an Eastern Orthodox forum where the expression of that view would be met with a great deal of hostility and would be rejected. You might ask why …
Dear Vassilios,
Excellent advice. The example of John the Baptist is a good one. Our Lord Himself always stressed that He acted in the name of the Father, and He called us to obedience to God.
Personality cults are a danger in many religions - but…
Dear Taylor,
Iqbal and EpNomos EnTaio have, as always, represented the Coptic position, which is, like all the Coptic positions, Orthodox and avoids over elaboration. One big difference between the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox is that we have a…
Dear Taylor,
Again, excellent questions for us all - and it is good to be asked them.
Mina puts our position well; we believe that outside of the Church there is no salvation; that is not to say that everyone inside it is saved, or that everyone o…
Dear Mina,
Indeed, and One God and One Faith - praise the Lord!
One of the things that struck me at the Festival was how wonderfully united all six Churches were in their love of the Lord.
In Christ,
John
Dear Vassilios,
We are, of course, all sinners, and our human nature is the marred image of the God in whose image we are made; so I guess that makes even the baby in the womb a sinner. Unlike the rest of us, however, he or she does not have a lita…