PLEASE - RESPONSES FROM ORTHODOX BELIEVERS ONLY! THANK YOU!

I have composed a letter to my priest and wonder if I should go ahead and give it to him? Here is the letter:

Dear Fr. David -

I have labored over whether or not to write this letter for several weeks now. After consulting with an old friend of mine, Fr. Seraphim Reynolds, who I know from my time at St. Ann’s BCC, and being encouraged by him to pursue this course of action, I am writing to inform you of my desire to be a deacon in the Orthodox Church. The impetus for this letter was the plea from Fr. John Parker for more clergy in the Orthodox Church. After his visit with us, I spoke with him at length regarding my age and other concerns I have. He encouraged me to inform you of my desire.

This desire is not without precedent. I attended the diaconal training classes at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Pittsburgh for three years before problems arose with the priest who had been placed in charge of our parish. I believe that some back story is in order here.

Three years after my conversion from Protestantism to the Byzantine Catholic Church, our priest, +Fr. Michael Shear, announced one day after Divine Liturgy that there was a serious lack of altar servers and invited any older men who would like to serve to meet him in the sacristy. I served St. Ann’s for many years and found the experience of being more deeply involved in the Liturgy to be a tremendous blessing. During that time, having a desire for yet further involvement in the Liturgy, I responded to the reopening of the diaconal training program in the Reuthen Eparchy, but I was advised against it by my spiritual director at the time. He felt that I was still very Protestant in my understanding and felt I should wait for a while.

Sadly, +Fr. Michael passed away from cancer a few years after inviting me to the altar with him. In 2010, it was announced that a new class for deacons was starting up at Sts. C & M. I applied, was interviewed, and through the encouragement of our new pastor, was accepted into the class. For the next three years I attended the summer classes. I made good grades and was looking forward to the day that I could serve as a deacon in our parish.

Unfortunately, that was not to be. Fr. Michael’s replacement was hounded out of our parish because he was a Roman Catholic bi-ritual priest who was learning the Eastern Catholic Liturgy, and some people were violently opposed to him as a Jesuit priest. The priest who replaced him was a disaster. I do not say this lightly. Imagine, if you will, him coming into the altar area to the side altar, dressed in street clothes, without even an Epitrachelion, taking out a bag of bread cubes, dumping them on the discos, and making the sign of the cross over them with his hand in the Latin position, and then leaving. This was his “Proskemedia” and I was scandalized! I am not interested in trashing this man, nor do I have a vendetta against him, therefore I will only say that this was the worst of many problems he brought to the parish with him. His actions were the cause of people leaving the parish and going across the street to Christ the Savior Orthodox. He was also the reason that I was dismissed from the diaconal program after my third year. A comment I made about him “Latinizing” the church got back to him and we had a loud argument in the parish hall one afternoon after Liturgy. He proceeded to contact the bishop and remove his support for my studies. I was never contacted by the bishop to ask my side of the story. A few years later I heard he was quietly removed from the parish after a nasty scandal. That is all I feel I should say about the matter.

When I came to St. Mary’s, Fr. Deacon Nicholas knew all about my background. In his gracious manner, he asked if I wanted him to inform you of my background. At the time, I felt that the best thing for me to do would be to sit in the back, absorb the Liturgy, the teaching, and everything else I could in order to become Orthodox in a proper manner. I did not want to be one of those converts - God bless them - who come into a parish and, having studied intensely for a few years, go about acting as if they know Orthodoxy perfectly. Therefore, I asked Fr. Deacon Nicholas for silence on the matter. However, after Fr. Parker’s plea for more clergy, and after prayer and consideration, I feel that I should at least make my background and desire known to you.

It is my hope that you will take this matter to sincere prayer and reflection. My desire is to serve the Lord where He wants me. Thus, I have been very blessed and happy to sing in the choir, since I did not request this but was rather offered the opportunity. In my personal prayers at home, I have also told our Lord that wherever He wants me is fine with me. If I am to be a choir singer the rest of my life, that is the best thing for me, since it is His will.

I guess the point of this letter is to say that in response to Fr. Parker’s plea, I am simply raising my hand and saying, “I’d like to, if the Lord will have me.” Thank you for your consideration of this request and your prayers and reflection on it.

Sincerely yours in Christ,


Edward

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Part of me says to at least indicate my interest in the diaconate and part of me can find a dozen reasons I should destroy the letter and forget about it. One thing that makes me hesitant is thinking that perhaps I should just commit this desire to prayer before the Lord and ask Him that if it is His will, for Him to put the idea of asking me to be a deacon in Fr. David's mind. Is there anything wrong with thinking that way? My friend, Fr. Seraphim, never asked to be a priest, but was approached without asking about it, starting with his ordination to the diaconate. Part of me says this would be a good way to be sure that it is God's will for me. I have been praying about it and doing just that. What do you think?

I hope someone here has some wisdom for me in this matter.

Thank you for your responses.

Well this is cool

Anything but God, is talked about. Some just want to know you, so they ask ??, about your past life. I have heard about bodily functions & I don't think that has anything to do, with our prayer meetings. If this happens again, I'm not going anymore.

"Donald Trump’s joint fundraising committee raised $53.9 million during the first half of this year for his presidential campaign — an enviable haul that speaks to the enthusiasm of his donors and dwarfs the sums raised by his GOP rivals.

But Trump’s political committees are burning through cash as he grapples with his mounting legal bills, according to campaign disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission Monday night.

Trump’s Save America leadership PAC, which had more than $100 million at the beginning of last year, now has about $3.6 million in cash on hand after it became the vehicle used to pay millions of dollars in legal bills for the former president, his aides and his associates. As Trump fights federal and state investigations, his advisers have told The Washington Post that the PAC has been handling the legal bills for almost anyone drawn into the investigations if they ask Trump and his advisers for help."

After all of this why do you still hang onto trump? If you give me a list i will add a poll

Is it true in baseball. That if the ball hits the emblem on a bat the bat will split in half?

>> A grand jury has indicted former president Donald Trump for a raft of alleged crimes stemming form his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Trump’s legal team was notified Tuesday that the former president had been indicted, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the indictment had not yet been made public. <<
Article gifted.

Newsflash just on TV. 2 more added also.

I don't know how any Christian can support what the Missouri Democratic Party posted there in Twitter.

duplicate

Well, well, well.....you mean my hot water heater isn't causing all this climate change after all???

No one was injured at the school.

School officials gave police a photo and a description of the suspect’s maroon colored Dodge Ram pickup truck.

A short time later, Memphis police officers found a vehicle matching the description and stopped the driver. The suspect got out of the truck with a gun in his hand and was shot by an officer, Crowe said.

The suspect was taken to a local hospital and is in critical condition.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
— 1 Corinthians 15:22-26

Paul is clear that Jesus is reigning, and will reign until all of His enemies are His footstool. Then He returns.

It’s that simple.

Is it just here or is it possible there is a person that can predict the weather in your part of the world?
,Ours are good at predicting the rain if they're standing in it,,.it's frustrating year after year.
Is it that difficult?

I would like to see a forum or thread dedicated to cabbages and kings.... IOW just any brain airings one might have.

For instance, I would like to be able to look for old friends from the former GC forum that may have gotten here at last, and I see no other area appropriate

A nurse and her child, working with a Christian aid group in Haiti was kidnapped and is being held for ransom money. The security situation in Port-au-Prince has continued to deteriorate, with armed gangs and for-profit kidnapping schemes being rampant, and clashes with police are frequent:

Overshoot: Why It’s Already Too Late To Save Civilization

Thoughts?

I'm not trying to re-hash my old thread so I thought I would try and do it more directly through questions and get your guys actual opinions & reasoning rather than writing a bunch of posts that amount to epistemological essays. Don't get me wrong, I'll still object and expect you guys to do the same for mine and other people's arguments; but this time I'll try and do it with more of a leaning towards discussion.
Try to keep mocking to a minimum, it serves nobody and only degrades your own arguments. Therein, it's ok to say "I don't know" or "good point" to one another; but in the same token it's ok to doggedly pursue your point or points if you think the other person is missing it or are mistaken. It's ok if the thread narrows down or veers off a bit into other topics like subjective morality, subjective truth (it doesn't exist ) and other areas but just try not to derail it entirely and keep it within the parameters of what the thread is about as much as you can. Now to the thread:

1. Why is your conception of what's right and wrong authoritative over another person's?
2. How do you impart value to behaviour without question begging and assuming that human life or its continuance is of inherent value?
3. How do you impart value without assuming that it's true that certain stimulus is good and certain stimulus is bad?
4. What's your standard that allows you to evaluate and impart value (i.e. it's true compassion is good & it's true torturing innocent people is bad)?
5. Why is this standard authoritative over another person's?

I'll just post a couple of examples to avoid some early arguments & mistakes:

"Evolution determines why anything we think is good, is good; therefore, that which propagates our genes the best, is that which is good"
This is to suffer the same problem of lacking a justification for an authoritative standard which confers values independent of a person's belief (i.e. #2 & #5). To simplify the previous statement; a society that succeeds through rape and considers rape good would have the same justification for the truthfulness of its morals as you would if you exist in a society that succeeds through compassion and sees rape as abhorrent. To make comparisons between the actions of rape and compassion is to ascribe value through the use of an authoritative standard that exists independent of the opposing societies beliefs about what is good (a standard that fails to be established in a secular paradigm).

"Evolution has determined what we think is moral"
The existence of the morals brought about by evolution is not a justification for why I (or anyone) need to follow them (i.e. #1, #5).

"Why not just treat each other how we ourselves want to be treated?"
All Christians agree with this in accordance with Christian Theistic Theology & Epistemology. Yahweh is why truth is considered the truth within our framework of belief; He alone is self-existent and is the unmoved mover that is the justification for the existence & sustained existence of any thing, including immaterial morals. Notwithstanding evil, which is characterised as that which is not of Yahweh and therein by nature/necessity was created and is sustained by His creatures through rebellion & disobedience. The problem is the secular framework; within it morals are not inherently true so please don't treat them as such. Within a secular paradigm specific morals and their reasons to follow them need to be established as real and true (i.e. #1, #2, #3, #4 & #5).

If you want to dig down into specific reasoning or see it extrapolated, here are a some good posts from the old thread that also include the opposing views. For consent reasons I'll link only my posts but they are in nature responses so they include the opponents response too:
The old thread
Subjective morality (Main)
Subjective morality (peripheral 1)
Subjective morality (peripheral 2)
Subjective morality (peripheral 3)
Subjective truth doesn't exist
It's ok to dust off your sandals and move on

Edit: For clarity's sake; any appeal to an authoritative use of morality either through disagreement (saying a certain moral stance is wrong) or agreement (affirming the truth of the presuppositions used to establish a moral stance) is to require a transcendent justification (i.e. one that is independent of either parties' beliefs) for the propositions' truthfulness. Either through an appeal to a standard by which to evaluate specific behaviours or to the truth of the presuppositions used to establish any kind of moral reasoning. Hence the thread title of "Establishing" and the use of the word 'transcendent'.

Please try your best to treat each other and the arguments with charity. God bless .
"Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another."-Proverbs 27:17

A federal appeals court is allowing Kentucky to enforce a recently enacted ban on gender-transition care for young transgender people while the issue is being litigated.

The Kentucky law, enacted this year over the veto of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, prevents transgender minors from accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapy.

At least 20 states have now enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.


Glory to our heavenly father.

Hi,

I've just moved to Salisbury from Guildford. My faith journey has been rather a rocky one. I must have been to hundreds of churches during my life so far but it hasn't really done me much good. I've always thought if you don't meet with God in church, there is no point in going. My opinion hasn't changed. I've been to a few churches in Salisbury, but it's the same old deal. Still, if anyone feels like meeting up, this is where I am!

Jonathan

Hey everyone! My name reflects my affinity for classic rock, but also my love for the true King, who is Christ, who shed His crimson blood for our salvation.
Hoping to share in good conversation, but also to have some questions answered
See you all in the chats

Overshoot: Why It’s Already Too Late To Save Civilization

Thoughts?

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Seriously at this point there is nothing much to say that hasn't been said. The western "progressive" are racists. Being a person who most align with classical liberalism (not the modern far-left liberalism), I find this raise of open hostility towards the white people sickening. The same kind of feeling I felt when the other minorities (especially the blacks) were the targets in decades past.

Imagine that the course replaces the word whiteness with blackness or yellowness or brownness? The notion that a person's ethnicity or genetic makeup is inherently negative is the thinking of a racist.

This idea you can solve racism with racism is moronic. IMHO this is not about solving racism but revenge. This movement uses guilt as a tool to oppress and be hostile toward those whom they perceived to have wronged them - the whites. The problem with this is the collectiveness of the action. Now anything white is consider detestable. I have read that even exercising is a white supremist activity. The problem is not people having the freedom to write nonsense, the problem is the proliferation of such view points in mainstream society. In schools, in workplace, in enforcement even in unfortunately places of worship.

The frequency of this is also on the rise. From fringe to forefront. And the largest group of people perpetrating this are the progressives. And this is not even a contested fact. Every single video or news article I have the misfortune to consume, displayed a left leaning ideolog. Western left leaning ideologs. The same group of people who champion inclusivity and diversity - only in name not in act. The fruits of their ideology are very apparent and not anecdotal.

Are there extremes in the western right? Yes there are. Like the mirror image to their counterpart. Difference is in the number and level of infiltration into general society. By the way it is going America will always have racial problem. No one is interested in ending the cycle of hatred. Too preoccupied in getting revenge - to ensure the other side suffer as much as possible for a collective "crime". People who rather punish than forgive. To hold on to past baggage than let go to move forward.

Evil has no preferences, it will gladly latch on to whomever are willing. Evil give joy and pleasantness to those who would nurture it so it will be harder to abandon every passing moment. Evil distains self-reflection in fear that it may be seen for what it is. Evil is self-righteousness guised as righteousness. Upon maturity evil becomes you. No longer an aspect but a total.

I work for a great company and love my job, but over the last 3-4 months I feel like I'm being forced into a leadership role which I do not want. I have been a Staff Engineer at an automotive manufacturer for about the last 2 years. Before that I was a project engineer, and before that a manufacturing engineer (all at the same company). I've had great managers who have not only been excellent leaders, but they have recognized my hard work and promoted me throughout the years; and for that I'm grateful.

About 3-4 months ago, one of our managers was promoted, which led to me being appointed as the 'interim' engineering manager. I'm fine with filling in temporarily, but becoming a manager has never been part the career path which I had planned for myself. It's far too political for me, and although I feel like I can relate to people and lead people very well (although not as good as the former engineering manager), it's just not where my passions lie - I'm much more interested in the technical side of engineering. My current (or maybe former role) as the Staff Engineer was to lead the (much smaller) projects team, and also to help out the production engineers when needed - and I feel like it is a role that fit my passions and personality very well.

Since being appointed as the 'interim' engineering manager, it's pretty much been implied that the role is mine permanently if I want it... but in my heart I just don't. The biggest drawbacks for me are:

1. You can't ever truly walk away from work... ever. The exception to this is when you are on vacation. But other than that, when you go home your phone is with you at all times, and for the most part you're expected to answer it.
2. If a major piece of production equipment is down, it pretty much dominates your life until it is back up and running again.
3. You are now responsible for the entire engineering team... including all of their successes, and all of their failures. I'm a very independent person. I'm more than willing to help others, but that's it... I help them or give my advice, then walk away and what they do with it after that is their choice, and (for the most part) of no consequence to me.
4. I'm a pretty hands-on / 'go out and just do it' person... and management roles just aren't like that. You delegate to people and politic in meetings, and that's it. Which leads me to my 5th point...
5. I (for the most part) hate meetings! I think they are definitely essential, but so many people within my organization come to them unprepared or use them to talk about things that just don't matter, that the majority of them end up being a waste of time. Yes I schedule meetings when I think they are essential; but in my old role, they are a very small part of my day. Managers live in meetings, and I can't stand it.

So there's a bunch of negatives for me.... and the only positives are:

1. Higher salary. (I don't know how much higher, but I have a rough idea). A higher salary would provide (perhaps) a better future for my family - but personally I think that the stresses associated with the manager role outweigh that benefit. And if I want more money in my current position, there is voluntary overtime available on weekends. As a manager, I would no longer be eligible for OT.
2. More control over my own destiny (maybe). If I pass up the manager role and end up with a manager who delegates everything to me anyway, I'm stuck with (at least some of) the responsibilities of a manager, but with none of the monetary benefits.

But those aren't even the biggest negatives. Today, after 3-4 months of pondering this decision, my manager came to me and told me that due to cost cutting measures, the headcount of our department must stay the same. Since I am (by management's perception, it sounds like) the only person within the department who is qualified to be the next engineering manager, I can get promoted into that position, our headcount will then stay the same, and everyone in the department will keep their position / job. If I turn down the position, they will then have to hire a manager from outside the department (or perhaps outside the company), that will increase the headcount of our department by 1, which will require us to let someone go (or best case, maybe we can move them to another department). What?!

So basically, either I take the management position that I don't want, or someone could lose their job. What kind of a decision is that? I've prayed about this for months, asking God to make it clear what His will is for me. Despite all the prayers, I still don't have a firm conviction. In the absence of all other external factors (salary, pressure / perceived pressure from upper management, fear of retribution if I don't take the position), I would choose to not take the promotion, and to stay the Staff Engineer. But, after learning that someone else could loose their job if I don't take the position, my thoughts were "Ok... maybe this is God's way of saying I really need to do this, and it won't be as bad as I think it will. Or even if it is that bad, this is God's will for me, and there will be other benefits (for my family, co-workers and whatnot) that make it worth it in the long run."

So where is God in this decision? Maybe someone else can offer some advice or perspective that I am not seeing?

Thanks,
Mark