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Saturday Jess

05 Saturday Dec 2015

Posted by in Blogging, Faith, Persecution

≈ 12 Comments

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20121115-180317.jpgUsually, I try to select an article that goes along with what we’ve been discussing, and I’ve done that here. I also usually provide a short introduction, that I haven’t done here because the first comment on the article, from Kathleen of “Catholicism Pure & Simple” says it much better than I can, along with insight into how Jess wanted this place to be, and that we have tried to continue. Here’s Kathleen:

Jess, you are doing something very special and extremely important here; you are drawing together Christians from all denominations in inspiring and profound discussions on Faith topics. We can obviously not agree on all aspects of our beliefs, but we can exchange our views, traditions and teachings in lively conversation in an atmosphere of harmony and respect, and without any anger or self-righteousness. Really, this is absolutely amazing!

Through your gentle, respectful and sensitive personality (plus with your obvious high intelligence and vivid imagination) you are achieving something that no one else has managed to…… as far as I know anyway. Every other blog site that attempts such discussions always seems to end up in cyber-type battles and fights leaving no winners…… and a very sour tasting feeling of utter futility!

United?

So often, for me, one of the most wonderful parts of running a blog are the comments from you – they are never less than thought-provoking, and sometimes they are so profound as to make me glad to have such people with whom to converse through this strange medium.

Yesterday’s post on the ‘Beauty of holiness’ touch a chord with many, and set of some fascinating comments.  I was much struck with the conclusion to Kathleen’s comments:

I readily agree with you that in this, our secular age in the West, we live “impoverished times as Christians”…… and it is vital we should befriend our fellow Christians to stand shoulder to shoulder in the face of so many challenges of our day, rather than bicker, insult (and worse), which is what we have been doing since the times of the Reformation until fairly recently.
All denominations of true Christians hold and believe the most important thing of all: that Jesus Christ is the Saviour, the Only begotten Son of God, Who came to redeem mankind. Nothing is more important than this.

If I were able to sum up my credo it would be in these words. 

As anyone familiar with the site on which Kathleen makes such distinguished posts, Catholicism Pure & Simple, will know, she is a devout and knowledgeable Cradle Catholic, so her comments come with even more weight, as they are not the product of some casual ecumenist gust of emotion.  They were matched by words from my dear friend NEO, who commented:

Lutherans, Catholics, and Anglicans, we have all, to a great extent anyway, thrown away the reverential awe of worship. We did this with the best of intentions, to attract new congregants but, as with so many things, we didn’t think it through. When we lower ourselves to attract people, we lower the standards of Christianity. Of what use are multitudes of half-Christianized pagans to God or church?

He added:

We stress our coffee hours, our good works (which are important and are an effect of our faith) our modernity in general. And what do we get, a coffee shop filled with do-gooders. There’s nothing wrong with any of that but, it’s not who we are, we are the Church of Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord, nothing more and nothing less. Many of our Evangelical friends understand this, why can’t we?

And that, between them, sums up the place where some of us feel that real ecumenism already exists.

We are, not one of us, responsible for what divides us; we are all responsible for perpetuating it if we ‘bicker and insult’ others.

In the end it comes back, as it always must, to what Jesus told His disciples, which is why I have part of it on the masthead of this blog:

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

If we do that, then we follow Him. If we don’t, it does not matter what we say. If we do not love one another we walk in darkness.

From 14 August 2012, and as always the comments are worth reading as well.

Keep Praying for the Copts

19 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by in Church of the East, Early Church, Saints

≈ 67 Comments

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we-are-nYesterday, as most will recall, we mutually pledged to give up asperity for Lent on this blog. Today, I found myself biting my tongue (already) to keep my promise to us and to God. Here’s a bit of what Chalcedon said yesterday

In that spirit, as readers of the comments boxes will have seen, we are going to try to give up asperity for Lent – that is the blog’s collective sacrifice for Lent. because we welcome all here, there are times, and themes, which encourage a certain amount of controversy. We are going to see whether we can avoid that for the next six weeks, and, instead, encourage each other to see the image of Christ in each of us. There is not one of us without sin, and we all partake of a tendency to make up for that by pointing out the sins of others. We shall try, harder, to recall our own sinfulness, and to practice that forgiveness which God extends to all who truly repent.:

In reference to the atrocity in Libya and the Popes response i would again refer to Chalcedon in his post Pray for the Copts, adding Libya

There are reports of attacks on Copts in Suez, Fayoum, Minya, Sohag, Assiut & Beni-Suef.  This is turning into a catastrophe.  I long ago abandoned any hope that the British and American Governments would do anything to help the Copts, but now it seems that a disaster is unfolding. These Christians have borne faithful witness under centuries of persecution, and continue to do so.  May the Lord have mercy. Our Lady of Zeitoun have mercy.

We have always allowed open debate here but, we have always recognized that can cause controversy. But we have always welcomed a cross-section of all Christian denominations here as well as those attempting to learn about our Faith.

Personally, i think the Copts have a fair case to claim that we in the west have modified the Faith once received while they haven’t. Your mileage may vary of course but, anybody trying to make the point that this church which has been persecuted as long as any, is not Christian is simply out of line.

Let’s close with a bit more from Chalcedon, in a recent post:

It is far from clear, indeed so much so that I should be intrigued to see the exegesis which says it, that in wanting us to be one, Our Lord was referring to ‘petty animosities among the brethren’. Schism is not a good thing, but the Church has always been able to live with it and to work to bring erring brothers and sisters back into full communion; heresy is another matter, of course. But then it is precisely the nature and depth of the heresy which true ecumenism explores; for us simply to assume we understand what, say, the Copts mean, has turned out to be a bad assumption. Discussion with the non-Chalcedonianshas been the most fruitful area of ecumenism, although I doubt many in the West know it. It is clear enough that they never have been, as we claimed, Monophysites. When we used to hurl anathemata at them on the basis we thought they were, it achieved naught; now we have stopped doing it, they have stopped doing it to us, and we are beginning to explore how we can go forward to heal the old schism. That is worth the hours and years it has taken; in fifty years we have advanced further than we had in 1500 of behaving as QV seems to suggest we ought. For my part, I am with Einstein, in defining stupidity as doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result.

That is the meaning of my statement that there is very little point in insisting that we are THE Church. If we are, we know it, there is no need to sound like a braggart, it poisoned relations with the non-Chalcedonians in 451 and ever since, and with the Eastern Orthodox since 1054. If we are, as we should be, secure in who we are, let us behave as Christ would want. Let us listen, as he did, to the Samaritan woman, and not behave to her as the Jews would have.

I think that says it all. Anybody know a good surgeon to sew my tongue back on?