Next Door to the Temple

Грешник · Post by **Грешник** » Wed 19 November 2003 11:46 am

Keble it seems to me you just dont get it. Yes CA is 7 hrs from me, but the distance is not an issue to me becasuse I have a way to overcome that. What would you do if the Church you went to burnt to the ground? Where would you go? I make the sacrifice because my Faith is that important to me. If getting baptized required me to stay for a week I would gladly do it. I will do whatever is needed to prove my devotion to God.

I do not see how this is such a big deal. Would you yourself go out on a limb to make things in your life right? It seems that the answer is no from the flabergastion you seem to have over the idea that someone is willing to suffer just a little bit to do what is right. This is who I am.

Juvenaly

Liudmilla · Post by **Liudmilla** » Wed 19 November 2003 2:02 pm

I commend you for the "sacrifice" you are willing to make to go to church. There are many who live around the corner and are infrequent attenders. I seem to remember a thread not long ago where everyone's distance to church was discussed. If memory serves yours is the longest any one travels. Personally I have to travel about 50 minutes every week in one direction. Some people have said I'm nuts to travel that far, but they simply don't understand. I have a friend in Florida who travels about 4 1/2 hrs to go to church. She's lucky to have made friends with people who live closer to the church, so she's able to make it a weekend trip. People who have never been deprived of the ability to attend a church have no concept of what you will do to get to one. Even if it's "hi-jacking" friends for a ride. :mrgreen:

Грешник · Post by **Грешник** » Wed 19 November 2003 2:18 pm

I guess for me it a bit more than that. Ever since my search for Truth I have been alienated (as has my fiancee) from anyone who we were friends with or were any ways close to. We have been out there on our own through this entire ordeal and it has done much for us in the way of learning to be independant and fend for ourselves. Throughout this ordear we have also done a great ammount of searching and with that comes the realization that in order to find the Church you may have to go a little out of your way. It is never just ass easy as "Oh, I am next door to the church I will just walk down the street around the corner and I am there". My whole life the churches I attended were "out of the way". Even beofre Orthodoxy when I as growing up, its been a recurrent cycle of searching equal distance equals destination. I have been raised I guess to go search out the Church, not because I love the distance and the travels, but because it is the True Church. That is why I make the trip and the sacrifice. Because if I didn't then I would not have the Faith to know that what I was doing is right.

Yes, there is a "Matthew-ite" church 2 hrs from me, there is a Byzantine Church right down the street, there is a GOA church 25 mins from me and there is an Antiochian Church 40 mins from me. All very accessible physically, but spiritually, "O so close but yet O so far".

Being a Christian is about sacrifice, it is about making the long trip rather than cutting through the woods. THAT is the essence of what Orthodoxy is. It is about knowing that no matter how far you have to go to get to where you need to be, when you get there it was all worth the time and effort. And the effort was made because it is what was required ot show both strength faith and fortitude.

Ok, I am done ranting lol

Juvenaly

Joe Zollars · Post by **Joe Zollars** » Wed 19 November 2003 2:36 pm

I still say Juvenaly is lucky to only have a 7 hour drive. I have a 10-13 hour drive (assuming that sometime in the next century my car FINALLY gets fixed good enough to take on the road) or a 36 hour bus ride each way.

Nicholas Zollars

CGW · Post by **CGW** » Wed 19 November 2003 3:32 pm

LIUDMILLA wrote:
People who have never been deprived of the ability to attend a church have no concept of what you will do to get to one.

You presume. I've had to worship in a school while our church was being enlarged, and when I travel I try, if at all possible, to find some sort of church to go to. Passing through Chicago on the train of a Sunday, I had a friend find a parish for us within walking distance of the station.

Mor Ephrem · Post by **Mor Ephrem** » Wed 19 November 2003 5:17 pm

Why not the Matthewite church that is only two hours away?

Joe Zollars · Post by **Joe Zollars** » Wed 19 November 2003 5:35 pm

I am no expert, but don't the mathewites have some serious canonical problems? I have heard of a mathewite church a couple of hours south of here down by Fr. mark's someplace, but it has been a whiel and I could be misremembering.

Nicholas Zollars