Question Regarding The Holy Bible

~Anastasia~

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To be fair ... while no parish should be unwelcoming, it's not a direct ethnic correlation. I was welcomed like family in one Greek parish. Ignored and made to feel invisible in another. Welcomed warmly by Antiochians. Ignored by another set of Antiochians. Embraced by Russians. Treated with suspicion by other Russians.

Most parishes I have visited have been welcoming, and the people wonderful.

I've been told to try to understand and be charitable in case they treat me with suspicion. Some escaped their native lands and just want a safe way to carry on their faith, and have personal experience of outsiders threatening that. But it's been the exception in my experience thankfully.
 
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prodromos

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Something of interest is that traditionally there has not been a single volume called the Bible in the Orthodox Church.
The Gospels are gathered into one volume which is placed on the altar, Acts and the Epistles are another volume which sits on the chanter's stand along with the Psalter and other books containing the Old Testament.
The Bible has always been read in the context of the Liturgy
 
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GoingByzantine

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I can imagine that this priest grossly oversimplified his statement to make a blunt point. The Bible is a compilation work, it was compiled by men who judged its contents to be the "Word of God". At any point it can be added to or subtracted to by a council of the church.

Many evangelical groups treat the bible as though it fell from the sky. They read it word for word and claim to follow it's teachings to the letter, but in actuality they are applying their own interpretations to each line. That's why we have tens of thousands of denominations. That's why a huge majority of this site is filled with people squabbeling about the nuances of what this verse or that verse means. That's why our religion has fractured and allowed wolves into the pasture.

My guess is what Father was saying is this-

The founders of our church (the apostles acting through the holy spirit and on the orders of Christ) wrote the New Testament gospels and epistles. The Orthodox Church, being the inheritor of this truth and the body that compiled it into a book, in essence owns the Christian Bible. It belongs to Christian Orthodox believers. We have spent thousands of years ensuring its proper interpretation. Therefore, it is silly to insinuate that we are interpreting it inacurately, especially when those who throw that accusation against the church have no uniform or historically rooted interpretation of it themselves.
 
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AMM

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TKA - I am also a former LCMS Lutheran, though certainly not as knowledgeable about either Lutheranism or Orthodoxy as our friend GreekOrthodox. Nonetheless, if you’d like to chat with me about any of it, feel free to send me a PM or just post here
 
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SingularityOne

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This was back in late 90s to 2001. Basically our suburban parish was trying to be more "contemporary". We had praise bands and "Bible" studies on classic Scriptural classics such as "Who Moved My Cheese". One morning, the praise band finished their set with "Shine Jesus Shine" for the first half of the service and the organist started playing the Agnus Dei from the 1940 hymnal for communion. It was SO jarring that my wife and I both looked at each other, got up and never went back. I had studied the Orthodox church for my religious studies degree (I have a BS in Chemical Engineering and a BA in Religous Studies) so I suggested Orthodoxy. The first time we went we walked into this church, and my wife turned to me and said, "that's it, we're home". and we attended GO, OCA, ROCOR, and Antiochian churches. We didnt convert at this parish but a small GO parish near our house, but our journey home started here.
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St. Nicholas GOC!!! Great place.
 
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TKA_TN

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TKA - I am also a former LCMS Lutheran, though certainly not as knowledgeable about either Lutheranism or Orthodoxy as our friend GreekOrthodox. Nonetheless, if you’d like to chat with me about any of it, feel free to send me a PM or just post here

Why did you leave as well?
 
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Knee V

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That quote from the priest sounded very familiar to me, and I though it might have been a particular one that I had seen. My suspicion was correct.

It is this video here:
The quote comes in at 23:53.

This guy has made a neat series of videos visiting churches that he is not familiar with. However, I did not like this interview, and I feel that that priest was the wrong priest for him to have in the video.
 
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GoingByzantine

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This video more or less confirms my suspicions. By the look of it, father is grossly oversimplifying his position in an effort to codeshift and relate to the evangelical host of this program. I do not know this priest personally, but I definitely note that he seems to be shifting his tone to match the casual tone of his guest.

I honestly do suspect that the priest is making a point that the NT of the Bible was written by the apostles, compiled by the early church fathers, interpreted by the church for thousands of years and because of these truths, it is in essence "our book".

If this is what his supposition truly is, then I agree with him. It definitely makes sense, why should our church throw out thousands of years of theological buildup and interpretation to please the views of the modern world?
 
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~Anastasia~

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That quote from the priest sounded very familiar to me, and I though it might have been a particular one that I had seen. My suspicion was correct.

It is this video here:
The quote comes in at 23:53.

This guy has made a neat series of videos visiting churches that he is not familiar with. However, I did not like this interview, and I feel that that priest was the wrong priest for him to have in the video.
Ah .... I just discovered that series the other day. I stumbled across the Catholic interview, which taught me a few things I didn't know and my take-away was that we shared a few more things - encouraging - but some visual aspects that gave me the immediate impression we might share more led to finding that in those too we have foundational differences. Anyway.

The Anglican one started to play and I thought I'd look and see if there was an Orthodox one, since he mentioned Orthodoxy in the beginning of the Catholic one.

I'm disappointed to hear it might not have gone well. :(
 
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Moses Medina

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Hello! I know this isnt an aswer to your question but many Lutherans who have left find Antioch, OCA and ROCOR to best at home. I can say full assuredly that all Jurisdictions of Orthodoxy are in one accord.

However the style of chant is what the Lutherans find to be best in those 3.
 
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GoingByzantine

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ROCOR and Antioch also have a Western Rite.

Those parishes can be harder to find even on the bishop's conference website. Visit the official ROCOR Western Rite and Antioch Western Rite websites for more information.
 
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AMM

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Why did you leave as well?
A mixture of things. It was both a slow and sudden process. But some of the issues related to invocation of the saints and the filioque. (Though monasticism and ecclesiology also played a part.) The culminating thing was a realization, that as I had been asking for the Holy Spirit (Lk 11:13) I had been growing more in line with Orthodoxy
 
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AMM

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Hello! I know this isnt an aswer to your question but many Lutherans who have left find Antioch, OCA and ROCOR to best at home. I can say full assuredly that all Jurisdictions of Orthodoxy are in one accord.

However the style of chant is what the Lutherans find to be best in those 3.

ROCOR and Antioch also have a Western Rite.

Those parishes can be harder to find even on the bishop's conference website. Visit the official ROCOR Western Rite and Antioch Western Rite websites for more information.
Fwiw I was received at an Antiochian church, often also attended an OCA church, and now I'm going to a UOCUSA (Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA, under the Ecumenical Patriarch). All have been lovely. I've also been to two different Antiochian Western Rite parishes and I do really enjoy them, since the liturgy is more familiar and "home" to me. The Byzantine liturgy is one I absolutely love - don't get me wrong - and as I'm going more it's becoming more familiar to me. But I think the western rite will always have a special place in my heart
 
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“Paisios”

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Thank you. There’s only a Greek Orthodox in my city, so I’m limited in my options. There might be one other (not sure if Greek or other) but looks like it may have 50 members.

I’ve downloaded the Greek Orthodox app and am preparing to keep the fasts slowly. Started with the Eucharist Fast. Working my way on the Wednesday and Friday ones.
The only parishes near me are Greek Orthodox, so it was a Greek Orthodox priest with whom I first met. He is a busy man, but was very helpful and willing to meet with me and answer questions. I corresponded a lot by e-mail, and there were perhaps several occasions when I had to be “persistent” before getting a response, but ~15 months after my first contact with him (and no intention to convert), he baptized me into the Orthodox Church. Don’t give up.

I did a lot of reading and asked a lot of questions here as well.
 
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