Dear Orthodox11,
I promised to say something on the branch theory and on the difference between that and the speculative thoughts in one of the earlier posts, and having a little time unexpectedly, I thought I'd do so now.
The 'branch theory' posi…
Praying the Rosary is one of the ways in which Christianity in the west developed in the period following the schism of 1054. It is not part of our tradition, and whilst perfectly appropriate practice for Catholics, is, as has been said previously, …
Dear Coptic Youth,
The advice our brothers in Christ have given you is correct. What can you do? You can, in the way you live your life, witness to the Risen Lord. So often Christians miss this very practical example of how to evangelize.
If she, …
Dear Iqbal,
First, best of luck with the exams.
When you write
I take this to imply that you believe my responses to be simplistic. Which is fine. They are meant to be, precisely because I think this is really a very simple matter that you are unn…
Dear Iqbal,
Of course, and I am not disagreeing with what you say at all. But if (and this happens fairly frequently) someone says 'I understand your own convictions, but here am I looking at 3 Apostolic Churches, why do you say that I should look …
Dear Orthodox11,
I do hope that nothing I have written suggests that I hold the view that
such dialogue, and unity of men, becomes a justification for ignoring or changing what one holds to be true
Of course
honest schism is preferable to false un…
Dear Iqbal,
I am in total agreement with what you (and Orthodox11) write.
I suspect that I am being unclear about what I doing, which is neither aimed at converting anyone, nor yet at establishing some objective standard; indeed, my belief that ne…
Dear Iqbal, Dear Orthodox11,
[quote author=Iqbal link=topic=5542.msg79067#msg79067 date=1194193688]
Don't you think it'd be more edifying to just focus on the salvation we know we presently experience in our own Church, do our best, according to the…
Dear Orthodox11,
I hope that my last post was not too heterodox! It does have a patristic precedent, of course - Origen's pre-Cyprian concept of the Church as embracing the whole human family called to salvation through Our Lord's sacrifice.
Cypri…
Dear Orthodox11,
Of course what I write is my own view, and in no way should be taken as anything more!
This is an interesting discussion, and I'd like to take the time your well posed questions deserve.
Perhaps the place to start is with the que…
Dear Orthodox11,
The problem with Patristic witness on this one is that none of it deals with a situation analogous to the one we live with today. All the usual texts our Churches quote at each other to prove their own case are used by us all - whi…
[quote author=aidan link=topic=5542.msg78881#msg78881 date=1193692121]
This discussion could proceed forever but there is one point I would like to remind everyone about. There is One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church, not several. If the Coptic c…
As ever, Κηφᾶς helps us towards a deeper understanding of things.
If you think about it for a moment, each of us is going to say that his/her Church is THE Church, and we are each going to use a remarkably similar set of arguments which convince on…
Dear QT,
It would be very interesting to hear the answer.
I suspect it has something to do with the Incarnation, which does change everything, surely? With the Incarnate Word having died and risen for our salvation there is now a better way for us…
Dear Aidan,
Two interesting points - both the ethnicity of the Orthodox and the want of asceticism in the RC Church.
I wonder if the latter is true in other parts of the world? The former certainly seems to be.
It would be so good if the Apostoli…
Surely Orthodox11, as usual, makes an excellent point?
I sometimes wonder whether the Orthodox Churches have any idea of what it is like to have taken the Faith to all parts of this world?
The notion that the Church can always be kept away from th…
Dear Bigeee,
Yes, but every case is different, and part of one's conversion is having faith - including the faith that the priest, who has much experience here, is the best judge of when the right time is. It could be six months, sixteen months or …
[quote author=QT_PA_2T link=topic=5864.msg78761#msg78761 date=1193235705]
My questions are as follows:
a) If you are going into war to kill a nation, then how would you know if a woman is a virgin or not?
b) Why is killing allowed here in cases of…
Dear Stavro,
You make an excellent point; it is those theological errors which risk the souls of others, and against which the Church is now, I think, warning.
In Christ,
Anglian
What an enlightening, and edifying discussion.
2_liv_is_Christ is quite correct, and Ophadece and Thomas have provided us with a wonderful example of how Christians can diverge in opinion but come back to each other in love and understanding; here …
Dear Thomas, Dear QT,
Good points, and I hope people see the difference between this and things like insurance. The latter is not gambling, it is providing for your dependents in case anything happens to you - and you pay for it. In that sense it i…
Dear Servant,
Good points. We don't know how He created the universe, and it would not be at all surprising if scientists were to discover traces of His handiwork - what else would you expect? Of course atheists are not going to admit that - but su…
Dear Thomas,
Clearly there could have been no requirement about bishops being monks before the development of monasticism, so any example from Apostolic times cannot speak to this one. What we do know is that since the fifth century it has been the…
Iqbal is surely right here.
One of the delusions of nineteenth century western liberals was that it would be perfectly possible to live a virtuous life in a virtuous society by following the moral precepts of Christianity without the sacramental el…
We might note here that the OT shows what happens to a people which falls away from the word of the Lord, so it should not surprise us that there is much there which shows the consequences of our disobedience to the Lord.
The NT is the story of the…
I'm glad that we have cleared up the Christology - as far as we can.
Union is a different matter. Long divisions cannot be healed overnight, and even if we can all agree that we confess the same Christology, there are, as Orthodox11 says, many othe…
[quote author=ophadece link=topic=5732.msg77353#msg77353 date=1190368379]
Dear all,
I am sorry if I sound a bit closed-minded here, but I have asked this question many times and didn't find a convincing answer. Please, can someone help me?
The quest…