This Forum has changed!

[Philoteus]

Hi,

This could be just me, but does anyone feel that this forum has changed?

When I come into this forum, their was talk about spiritual matters and guiding each other closer to Orthodoxy. Now it it sad to see that all you ever talk about is splits between churches and politics! Their is arguing, people getting offended, others getting kicked of this forum. I just cant believe it!

What ever happened to some great members like Joanne and others, who always had something spiritual to say and it was always a pleasure to read.

Are we not supposed to help others with spiritual matters, perhaps spiritual thoughts? Why dont we have on the board index something like "Spiritual Thoughts for the Day" and so on.

I used to enjoy this forum, but sadly it looks like we have missed the mark.

I wanted to write something a very long time ago, and now months later, it is still the same thing. Church splits and so on. I mean, come on, their is so much you can say on this subject.

Let's move on. Let's bring back a clean and helpful forum. This is perhaps why their is not much happening here.

Forgive me, I dont mean to offend anyone here, I am just saying how I feel.

Thanks
Angela

This forum sure has changed Angela. In fact I was going to start a topic about this very thing till I saw your post. This used to be jumping with activity. Now? Very little activity. I noticed the change about 2 1/2 years ago when it changed hands. I don't know who "owned" it prior but now it is the voice of HOTCA and their Agents. :ohvey:

I am looking into other forums so if you or anyone know of any please put a link here.

[jgress]

Philoteus, do you have any evidence for your claim that this forum is a "voice" for HOTCA? I personally think you have no evidence that we exclude anyone on the basis of their jurisdiction. The only times we've banned members is where they were taking over threads and forcing THEIR viewpoints on everyone else, such as during the latest row over the ordination of Bp Akakije in Serbia, where I banned two very disruptive posters, one representing the "Akakijans" and one representing the "Kallinikans".

I notice that in the five years you've been a member you've only posted 25 times. So maybe the reason there is so little activity is because the members have become apathetic. I will actually admit to being slow about posting myself in recent times. If you have suggestions for the moderators on how to increase activity I think we'd all like to hear them. For my part, I think I'll start by posting a link every time there's a new item on my church's website. Of course, people from other jurisdictions are welcome to post things from their churches.

What do others think?

[Ephrem]

Maybe we should have a discussion about the purpose of this forum.

[ANGELA]

Hi Everyone.

When I posted that little piece, its that I was so frustrated with all these kinds of talks of juristictions and so on. People being banned, others getting offended, you know what I mean.

I understand of course we need to be careful as we dont want false information to be put up, after all this is an orthodox site. So its good that moderators are keeping an eye on this.

However, it is true, things were different years ago. Their were problems but dealt with swiftly and then we got back into things helping each other once again.

To be quite honest, I really dont know much about juristictions, and whats out there, the problems etc. All I see is this site going on, and on, and on about irrelevant things. I dont even know who HOCTA , Akakijans and Kallinikans are.

I am Greek Orthodox, and came to this site to gather spiritual nectar on our Orthodox Faith. Perhaps moderators should view Monachos site, which has tonnes of information and deals with people swiftly if they suspect something is not right.

We need a site that we can go into were we can help each other, get closer to our faith.

Sorry if I have upset anyone, however this need to be cleared up, otherwise not many people will tune in to this site.

Dont know, just my opinion.

Angela

[jgress]

Thank you, Angela. What do others think?

[Mark Templet]

While I can certainly understand Angela's sentiments, let me give an example of why things are the way they are:

If any one of us put on a shirt in the morning and then noticed a spot on it, we would change shirts. Why? 98% of the shirt is spot free and fine. Why do we change shirts? We do so because we know that if we walk around with a stained shirt that everyone's eye will be drawn to the spot.

In True Orthodoxy today, 98% of what we should be doing (saying our prayers, reading the Holy Scriptures, practicing humility, etc.) is forsaken for the 2% of figuring out what is wrong with each other. Now, don't misunderstand, there are some important issues at stake. If we are dedicated to the truth, then we need to determine what the truth is. For instance, either the World Orthodox churches have sacramental grace or they don't; that is a fact that must be dealt with and it will be so through heated debate. This issue and several others argued on this forum really do matter, and it is the truth that must be gotten to no matter how unpleasant it may seem.

That said, I do agree that personal attacks need to stop. We need to debate in a proper debate format -- addressing the points of the argument. I have several times tried to do this- to force an authentic debate- and it never turns out to be about that, it usually ends up useless drivel.

The moderators have done a good job with this, and until they make people address the topic and refrain from childish taunts and accusations, this will continue to be a poor avenue for constructive dialogue.

I’m sorry Angela, unfortunately the True Orthodox see spots everywhere.

[jgress]

Thank you, Fr Mark.

I think maybe another point Angela is making is that this forum has become almost exclusively a forum for discussing matters internal to True Orthodoxy, which seem to consist mainly of these administrative disputes. I admit I myself go to other forums like monachos.net to read or talk about other issues concerning the Faith. Maybe this forum would become more lively if we started bringing more of those discussions onto here. That might dispel whatever impression we give that all we care about is which bishop is canonically correct. Of course, if it becomes more lively that gives the moderators more work, but I imagine overall it would be a good thing.