St Pauls' baggage

[TomS]

Surely you do not consider the Sacred Scriptures to be errant, do you?

Yes, taken as a WHOLE the bible IS sacred scripture, but even the church will admit that it is not to be taken literally, right?

As a WHOLE St. Pauls writings may be sacred, but his ideas on women were formed by his Orthodox Jewish background and I believe are inconsistent with the inclusiveness of our Lord.

No, where did you read that the Church teaches this?

Father Bless! Forgive me Father, but this is what I was told by my Priest in the catechumen class that I attended at my GOA church. I am not mistaken on this, because I remember thinking that it was so different from the Fundamentalist Protestants who take every word in scripture literally. It reminded me very much of the Anglican church.

[TomS]

Tom, I would be very interested to know what your spiritual father at the GOA says about all of this...if that's something you can share.

Actually, so would I OOD.

I am going to try to see him next week. But it is almost impossible to get a meeting with him. He is always very busy.

I was talking to a guy in our choir last week who is considering becoming a Priest. Even HE said that to get a meeting with Father was almost impossible, and when he finaly DID get a meeting, Father cut it to about 10 minutes and seemed preoccupied the whole time. Finally Father told him to attend the INTRODUCTION TO ORTHODOXY classes this Feb and then come talk to him after that!

I mean this is a Greek who has grown UP in the church.

Very disconcerting to me.

[尼古拉前执事]

That is very sad Tom, when one is given a flock, he is entrusted with the health of each and every one of his sheep. With a priest, his first priority is the spiritual health of his flock.

Sending someone, that wants to be a priest, to a catechism class that appears to be weak at best, does not seem to be the prudent thing.

Generally GOA priests do not have a secular job to support themselves, while most other priests have to. Yet he still cannot give 10 minutes to someone with questions. What could possibly be more important and keeping him so busy al the time?

Perhaps it is time to look elsewhere, to an Orthodox priest that has time for his sheep?

[OrthodoxyOrDeath]

TomS,

I am going to try to see him next week. But it is almost impossible to get a meeting with him. He is always very busy.

Couldn't you talk to him after confession one week?

I was talking to a guy in our choir last week who is considering becoming a Priest.

In the Orthodox Church, one does not decide to become a priest - you are chosen. But either way, if your friend has reached such a state of spiritual healing that he thinks he can become a priest, I would think he has regularly confessed. So why is it that he says it is "impossible" to see the priest?

If this is true Tom, that you can never see your priest because he has 1000 families packed into the church as a result of not really setting any expectations from any of them, and perhaps it is more about a gathering of Greeks than about a gathering of Orthodox, this alone is reason enough to RUN! And RUN like the wind!

[TomS]

Couldn't you talk to him after confession one week?

Confession is not offered weekly. In fact it is formally only offered once a year; at the beginning of Great Lent.

In the Orthodox Church, one does not decide to become a priest - you are chosen.

You know what I meant.

But either way, if your friend has reached such a state of spiritual healing that he thinks he can become a priest, I would think he has regularly confessed. So why is it that he says it is "impossible" to see the priest?

See above. People at my church don't go to confession.

... perhaps it is more about a gathering of Greeks than about a gathering of Orthodox, this alone is reason enough to RUN! And RUN like the wind!

Well DUH! I mean they ARE Greek!

It is not so easy to "Run", my wife was brought up in this Church

[OrthodoxyOrDeath]

Tom,

It is not so easy to "Run", my wife was brought up in this Church

And how ironic that would be if you turned out to be truly Orthodox and your wife, well, just Greek. Run Tom! Run! And if your wife won't, then drop her off and keep driving to an Orthodox Church, even if its across state lines. Pack and move, you are in the spiritual version of IRAQ with a big American flag on your back.

I was once in the GOA and I know exactly what you are dealing with. I asked if you could share with us what your priest told you because I knew in all likelihood there would be no such conversation. You would think at $125,000/yr these "priests" would have the time to confess people more than once a year. Yet strangley enough, they find the time to commune everyone on Sunday, even if they don't know their name.

Run!

[Protopriest Dionysi]

Confession is not offered weekly. In fact it is formally only offered once a year; at the beginning of Great Lent.

This is truly sad and not an Orthodox tradition. There have been times where people have not gone to confession frequently, but this should never be because the Church is not "there for it". Think of the people that die in a year and with out confession, not because they were not able to on their own accord (distance ect..), but because it is not "offered". How can one look at this and call it Orthodoxy.

In Christ,
Priest Dionysi