"A Well Spoken and ForthrightTestimony"

I read some Orthodox testimonies recently and ran acrossed this articulate bit of testimony.....


"Doubt Unspoken

In the heights of my faith there have been strong streaks of doubt and questioning. Is the Bible really the Word of God? Did Jesus really do the things claimed for him in the Gospels? Are we completely wrong? After all, we don't hesitate to declare everyone else wrong. Some Christians, in an effort to sustain their reputation in Church, simply show unflinching doubt towards the world. When confronted by a pained Christian conscience, they simply say, "Don't worry about it. God has a wonderful plan for your life! The answers will come later." Comfort. But, as with Job's helpers, there are underlying messages. Pity that your faith is so weak. One day it may be as strong as my own.

Honest searchers, still committed to their churches, smile and carry on, finding what they can in the diet of books on offer. Some questioners, rebuffed by other believers, lose faith altogether. It is no secret, for example, that a sizeable number of secular humanists in America were once committed Southern Baptists.

This tension is also seen in our forms of church worship. Whether we realise it or not, our attitude and assumptions are lived out when we assemble. Sitting from a piano stool, leading worship, I have tried to understand what is going on. Although there is a great variety and style within Evangelical worship, whether it be Lutheran hymns or Charismatic choruses, common assumptions run throughout most of it.

In the worship of the hymn, our faith is found cerebral, celebrating the systematic theology of the Reformers in well measured stanzas, expressions that approach a reflection of the natural order of the world. The exposition of the Word of God as sung, regardless if comprehended, offers an assurance that we are squarely in the realm of Romans and thoroughly understand the mechanics of justification and sanctification.

In the worship of the chorus, the passion of our relationship with God is expressed in full rawness as we encounter the Divine. Through a liberation of the emotions we enter beyond the veil, us and God, face to face and soul to soul.

And, of course, there are mixes of these two styles which criss-cross our churches. Many examples go beyond these admitted stereotypes.

What undergirds both of these styles of worship is an assumption that we personally approach God and His Truth without veils. For the hymnodist, we sing the words of the Bible and its message, directly participating in Words of God. For the Charismatic, we directly touch and feel the presence of God through a worship of heightened emotion. Both of these forms of worship are incredibly beautiful and creative. Yet the way we do it commonly assumes, not always, but most times, an approach to God that has gone beyond the barrier experienced by other less fortunate souls. Instead of the ritual and tradition of Catholics, we know God personally. Our worship is different than anyone else because we have gone beyond the veil.

For those of us in an intense Evangelical community, to question whether our worship really is a direct connection to God or His Truth is to question the relation of the entire community to God. Rightfully so, for if an Israelite had dared challenge aspects of the liturgy surrounding the Temple, he too would have been seen as questioning the position of Israel as the people of God.
Our worshipful insistence on our personal relationship with God makes it difficult to admit we really don't know God on the level we claim. Most of us grope in the dark yet are compelled to talk about a daily walk with God that is as familiar as that with our best friends. For all our effort to know God, we often have a closer and more personal relationship with each other. But we are part of a community who confess direct access to Truth. If a person would simply be objective and honest enough with the Bible, they would see things the same way is one of our implied attitudes."

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/kalvesm1.aspx

The Benbow Inn

Stan turned me on to this place, as a potential honeymoon spot. He thinks they might carry our chocolate, and if so might "give me a good deal" (In the hospitality and food industry merchants tend to give freebies and discounts to other merchants and professionals that they do business with).

Anyway this place seems like it pretty highly rated if you read reviews from some Northern California papers and critics (like San Francisco Examiner).

http://www.benbowinn.com/benbow_inn.html

(So good it's worth quoting the whole section of this chapter) "The Composition and Structure of the Eucharistic Community as Reflections of Catholicity", John D. Zizioulas

"With such a view of the eucharistic community in the background it would have been impossible for the composition and the structure of this community to be different from what it actually was in the first two centuries. A different composition and structure would mean a different ecclesiology. It is, therefore, important for us in order to understand this ecclesiology, especially as it concerns the aspect of "catholicity" to bear in mind this composition and structure.

As a combination of the existing fragmentary liturgical evidence of the first few centuries allows us to know, the "whole Church", "dwelling in a certain city" would "come together" mainly on a Sunday to "break bread". This synaxis would be the only one in that particular place in the sense that it would include the "whole Church". This fact, which is not usually noted by historians, is of paramount ecclesiological significance, for it immediately draws the line of demarcation between the Christian and non Christian pattern of unity at the time of the early Church.

Coming together in brotherly love was certainly not a Christian innovation. In the Roman empire it was so common to form associations that there was need to form special laws concerning such associations signified under under the name of collegia. The brotherly love which prevailed among the members of them of the collegia was so strong and organized that each one of them would contribute monthly to a common fund and would address the others members by the title "brethren" (fratres, sodales. socii). Apart from the pagans, the Jews who lived in the Roman Empire were also organized into special communities with an athnarch and their brotherly love was so strong that in special groups like the Essenes, it was based on principles of common property. To speak, therefore, of the unity of the early Christians in termsof brotherly love would be to miss the unique point of this unity and perhaps even to expose the comparison from which it would certainly not gain much especially in light of such evidence as that provided by texts like Gal. 5:5, 1 Cor. 11:21, etc. !

Zizioulous nuggets 2) The "Catholic" nature of the Church (meaning both the overall "Universal" Church and simultaneous a local body of believers)


"Already in the book of the Didache in the later first or early second century the idea was clearly expressed that in the celebration of the eucharist the Church experiences that which is promised for the Parousia, namely the eschatalogical unity of all in Christ: "Just as this loaf was scattered all over the mountains and having been made one, so let the Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth in your Kingdom." This conviction was not irrelevant in the application of the term "catholic Church" to the local community. It was a clear indication that, although the catholicity of the Church is ultimately an eschatological reality, it's nature is revealed and realistically apprehended here and now in the eucharist. The eucharist understood primarily not as a thing and an objectified means of grace but as an act and a synaxis of the local Church, a "catholic" act of a "catholic" Church, can, therefore, be of importance in any attempt to understand the catholicity of the Church.

Zizioulous nuggets 1) The difference between "the individual" and "the personal"

You know "Being as Communion" was somewhat hard to to get into, but on the other hand not as bad as as some other Orthodox writers, most notably stuff written by Orlapubs / "Orchid Land Publications". And boy is it starting to get good (once I got to chapter 3)! So I'm going to start offering up some nuggets of interesting things mentioned in the book.


"There is no charismata that can be possesed individually and yet there is no charisma which can be conceived or operated but by individuals. How can this be understood?


Here I think we must seek illumination from a fundamental distinction between the individual and the personal. The distinction has already been made by more than one philosophy but it has been seldom applied to theological problems such as presented by Ecclesiolgy. And yet the paradox of the incorporation of the "many" into the "one" on which the eucharistic community, as we have seen, and perhaps the entire mystery of the Church are based can only be understood in the categories of personal existence. The individual represents a category that represents seperation and division. "Individuality makes its appearance by its differentiation from other individualities." The person represents a category that presupposes unity with other persons. The eucharistic community, and the Church in general, as a communion (koinonia) can only be understood in the categories of personal existence.

Currently reading "Being as Communion"

I am currently reading my roomates recently purchased "Being as Communion", John Zizioulas’


This book played a profound role in the life of Clark Carlton in his testimony "From First Baptist to the First Century:A Spiritual Journey" "Without question, however, the single most important book involved in my conversion to Holy Orthodoxy was John Zizioulas’ Being as Communion.11 This is also probably the most difficult book I have ever read. I had to read the first chapter three times before I even began to understand it. And yet, as I began to get a handle on what Zizioulas was saying, I realized that if he was even partially correct, I could no longer remain a Protestant-much less a free-church Baptist."


http://holytrinity.ok.goarch.org/Interesting%20Stuff/tca_carltonfirstbaptist.htm


That testimony itself I think provides a great "Cliff notes" to the book. I would relate to what the previous author mentioned about this book and describe it as being "more profound in it implications than its execution" (It is not one of the thought provoking easy reads that Kallistos Ware and other contemporary Orthodox writers have been spoiling us with the last few decades).


John Zizioulas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Zizioulas

Paradosis reviews a "Heretics Guide to Eternity"


As Gina mentioned on an ooze discussion board, the Orthodox Blogger, Paradosis was asked to review postmodern (evangelical) Church leader, Spencer Burke (of theooze fame) new book. And the review sounds promising (although not altogether suprising). Anyway he just started doing it, so I invite you to read along with me the next few weeks.

http://paradosis.blogspot.com/2006/08/off-cuff-initial-book-reveiw-not-too.html#comments

First Celebrity endorsement of Holy Chocolate, Natalie Cole
I don't have a full quote yet but one statement was "I just love Holy Chocolate!"

(This is the first fruit of a PR firm Fr. Stan hired a few months back we sent out celebrity gift packs over a month ago)


http://www.cbn.com/cbnmusic/interviews/700club_nataliecole.aspx

Bill's Church thang

A hometown friend, William Squier, has been working on a church web content manager to sell to churches (I think with some other services) with my other hometown friend (Fr.) Stan Smith.

And so far this is what they got

http://70.87.90.226/~demo/

I've been thinking the last few months of having an unofficial St. George Coptic web site. And of course even maybe doing an "ooze" alternative site a few months ago. Anyway I think this really would give me a lot of what I would want. I've really wanted an easy access way of posting sermons, music, video etc. from church and making it available on the web. Anyway take a look!