Recent content by hopeforhappiness

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    How has Equality, Diversity and Inclusion affected your church?

    I just wonder whether this whole thing is a way of us avoiding persecution, by emptying all the ministries in the church and our church of the gospel challenge. Is it just a grifting scam for the world, or is it something significantly more dangerous for the world and for us.
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    Easter Sunday - Resurrection

    I wonder why our church took communion today. We should have focused far more on resurrection. What does this mean for ourselves, our own resurrection? Our future hope? We should all have left the church filled with hope and anticipation. Instead resurrection was tagged onto Jesus's sacrifice...
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    I don't think I can carry on at my church with integrity

    Well, we moved to a village and we really wanted not to have to travel. I said to my wife that I would have preferred to go to the Anglican church. After all, there is a liturgy which is used that is at least historically orthodox. But to do that now would be very awkward. The two leaders have a...
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    I don't think I can carry on at my church with integrity

    This is what they want Methodism to be... In an age of twisted values we have lost the truth we need; in sophisticated language we have justified our greed; by our struggle for possessions we have robbed the poor and weak – hear our cry and heal our nation: your forgiveness, Lord, we seek. 2...
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    Should believers learn to communicate with the indwelling Christ ?

    And yet the leader wonders why there is so little life or enthousiasm in the church. They are too old to be social activists. And to believe that individuals need changing from within by spiritual renewal, constructing good relationships, marriages, families and future generations rather than...
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    I don't think I can carry on at my church with integrity

    And yet, the hierarchy has posited that the Methodism is "going back to its roots". Oh yeah? When there is no call to repentance, when God's only character is one of love, that Christ's death means nothing more than an accident.
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    Should believers learn to communicate with the indwelling Christ ?

    This was the first week of Lent at my local methodist church. It seems that the work of Christ in atonement and salvation has almost completely given way to calls for social justice activism. SJ hymns like "In an Age of Twisted Values" (which we sang) just make me very uncomfortable indeed...
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    I don't think I can carry on at my church with integrity

    This was the first week of Lent at my local methodist church. It seems that the work of Christ in atonement and salvation has almost completely given way to calls for social justice activism. SJ hymns like "In an Age of Twisted Values" (which we sang) just make me very uncomfortable indeed...
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    So is it generally Methodist leaders' belief to call what's happening in Gaza, Genocide?

    A service focused this morning on the plight of the Palestinians. A Palestinian Methodist leader on video used the words genocide referring to the current action by the Israelis. This was just accepted by the service leader. Indeed, she only referred to October 7th once as a burning down of...
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    Our Deaconess is so political but it is impossible to discuss this with her.

    This issue affects so many areas of church life. The only thing that matters to her is that "God is Love", so basically our new revamped bible study is based on Seasons of My Soul, all self-reflective, emotional, psychological and with NO atonement or even Christ. She admitted after the first...
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    Is (my) depression Godly?

    The way I feel is very strange. I feel that this world is becoming greyer and distant, and the suffering are in that sad soup and I still need to reach out to them. I feel the door into eternity has opened much wider and I am looking through it to a clean, restful, joyful place where I truly...
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    Can someone briefly explain what's going on in Orthodoxy?

    I think I would like them to discuss the stresses that they are under (or not) because of past schisms in Orthodoxy and certainly what has happened in the Ukraine with both branches of the Orthodox church there loosening or breaking ties to Moscow. I'd like to know so that when fellowship is...
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    Can someone briefly explain what's going on in Orthodoxy?

    The reason why I am asking is that I have dear friends in Central Asia who are Orthodox, in loyalty to the Moscow patriachate. Things were always respectful but non-compromising with me, a protestant in our admittedly shallow discussions. I did hear that they don't believe all orthodox...
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    Is (my) depression Godly?

    Paul talks about a godly conviction that leads to reconciliation with God. I am sure that there is an element of this in my current state, as I consider a lifetime of missed opportunities and taking the line of least resistance. But I think it's more than this and I am trying to work it through...
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    Well, that was a weird interpretation of the parable of the sower....

    Hi there, you have brought up the issue of hermeneutic. Can we just feed back into the text a novel idea, when centuries of interpretors have never found such a thing? Or, as I suspect, this particular guy feels he has to be original. It all seemed a bit 'look at me' stuff especially as no-one...