Orthodox response to Coronavirus / Great Reset

ABeast

ABeast

Robin
Enigma said:
To get this thread back on track, Fr. Peter Heers is currently doing an Orthodox Survival Course on Patreon. You can donate as little as $3 per month to get access to all of the lectures and Q&A (one per week). There are higher donation levels, but everyone gets the same content, which I thought was rather nice.

It's inspired by Fr. Seraphim Rose's Orthodox Survival Course, but it also seems to be aimed at helping people deal with the virus and other modern narratives. I haven't gone through all of the material yet but it seems pretty good so far.



www.patreon.com

Fr. Peter Heers is creating Podcasts, Lectures, Online Classes, and Books | Patreon

Become a patron of Fr. Peter Heers today: Get access to exclusive content and experiences on the world’s largest membership platform for artists and creators.
www.patreon.com www.patreon.com
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Just joined-up for the survival course. Is it all pdf or are there video lectures too? No video results on patreon search filter coming up.
 
ABeast

ABeast

Robin
placer said:
To tell both sides of the story, there is some controversy with Peter Heers. See https://orthodoxyindialogue.com/202...st-father-peter-heers-orthodox-ethos-website/
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It wouldn't be Christianity if we weren't having heated debates about the Eucharist!

What are your thoughts on the anonymous Father in his letter saying:
"Finally, and in closing, I implore you: stay away from so-called Orthodox blogs, videos and social media posts that trade in conspiracies, fear, hatred and anger, ultimately leading to schism and the loss of faith. In so many instances people who have been Orthodox a matter of months or a few years set themselves up as experts in canon law, church history and theology and seek to teach and lead others. “Armchair bishops” without the grace of the episcopacy are leading people to their spiritual ruin."
 
Roosh

Roosh

Cardinal
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placer

placer

Kingfisher
The reason why I like this forum and the reason I post here is because I think it's important to, within reason, engage in open debate. Since I am mainline Protestant and not Orthodox, I really do not have a dog in this fight. However, reading that PDF, my summary (again, as a non-Orthodox) would be this sentence in the document:
The changes in practice to receiving Holy Communion are not primarily out of fear that someone will get sick from the spoon or the Eucharist, but are aimed at trying to prevent government interference in the Church.
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To me, this looks to be a version of the Romans 13 argument: We should, when reasonable, follow the law of the land. Last time I was at a Romans Bible Study, when we were in chapter 13, the pastor flat out told us that there are times when we need to break the law to serve God. The point of disagreement looks to be how much the Orthodox Church should alter the Holy Eucharist in light of the COVID-19 laws.
 
Hermetic Seal

Hermetic Seal

Kingfisher
Gold Member
Blade Runner

Blade Runner

Pelican
The problem as I saw it was the initial response of fear and obeying earthly authorities, which continues, having a major impact on the practice of our faith, combined with really bad messaging from our "leaders." This wouldn't be quite as bad if we were truly living in a socialist or communist authoritarian country, which is actually makes this situation worse - we aren't. Thus, the way I see it we are failing according to both of the proper practice of our faith and even our secular government claims (Our Constitution and rights) and its guarantees. Both are monumentally hypocritical and we are showing massive fear on both levels. One really important thing that doesn't get any traction is that children are being locked out of the church too, and they are just as part and important as any member of the church, as they are part of the family of God. If they are around, should they be seeing us in masks and with restrictions?

As detrimental as I find these decisions and actions, I believe that reasonable accommodations can be made for everyone, but such decisions aren't even entertained as far as I can see. These would include services, that even if they require "distancing" or other suggestions to do or not do, they should not require masks or prohibit singing - and these should be provided at least once a month. My feeling is that most people would attend, to be honest. Not doing these minimal things show real concern for our earthly life and are quite shockingly demonstrating our ultimate faithlessness in hidden enemy (virus) that just is not that lethal and is clearly not by just participating in life daily or asking if anyone even knows someone who "died" from it. And quite frankly, if I hear one more sappy excuse that we should dress up in costumes so that someone who doesn't have faith feels comfortable - that small number of those people - they are the ones that need to contemplate that worry with the spiritual father, not take it out on the rest of us. Especially when all of these precautions are quite obviously nonsense.
 
Emperor Constantine

Emperor Constantine

Kingfisher
ABeast said:
What are your thoughts on the anonymous Father in his letter saying:
"Finally, and in closing, I implore you: stay away from so-called Orthodox blogs, videos and social media posts that trade in conspiracies, fear, hatred and anger, ultimately leading to schism and the loss of faith. In so many instances people who have been Orthodox a matter of months or a few years set themselves up as experts in canon law, church history and theology and seek to teach and lead others. “Armchair bishops” without the grace of the episcopacy are leading people to their spiritual ruin."
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I think he's right. There are three important written sources of information on Orthodox theology and life:
1. The scriptures, especially the Gospels and Psalms.
2. The ecumenical councils.
3. The writings of the saints.
Modern books and blogs are most helpful for enquirers not yet familiar with Orthodoxy, less so for those who are already Orthodox and looking for spiritual guidance.

Edit: not to mention so-called Orthodox blogs are sometimes maintained by schismatics, and one must tread carefully when choosing who to listen to. With the scriptures, the councils, and the saints, there is no such worry.
 
Blade Runner

Blade Runner

Pelican
People went to blogs to try to understand the schizophrenic messaging and actions of (many of) the bishops. This is good advice but there is a general lack of awareness of what is going on here. I don't know if you saw that OCA piece put out by a priest in the diocese, but it showed a weird understanding/explained somehow that covid made the church one in exile? Odd stuff, I thought. And that's being nice.
 
Enigma

Enigma

Hummingbird
Gold Member
Emperor Constantine said:
I think he's right. There are three important written sources of information on Orthodox theology and life:
1. The scriptures, especially the Gospels and Psalms.
2. The ecumenical councils.
3. The writings of the saints.
Modern books and blogs are most helpful for enquirers not yet familiar with Orthodoxy, less so for those who are already Orthodox and looking for spiritual guidance.

Edit: not to mention so-called Orthodox blogs are sometimes maintained by schismatics, and one must tread carefully when choosing who to listen to. With the scriptures, the councils, and the saints, there is no such worry.
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As someone else already pointed out, Orthodoxy in Dialogue is run by a defrocked homosexual priest. He is himself a schismatic.

At the risk of stating the obvious, he also runs a blog. He is attacking Orthodox blogs from an "Orthodox" blog. If you look through his archives, you'll see that he considers even Fr. Josiah Trenham's views on trannies and women as too radical for him.

Meanwhile, many of the "blogs" these people like to attack, like the one run by Fr. Peter Heers, are run by members of canonical churches in good standing. Fr. Heers even taught at seminaries, like St. Vladimir's.

To repeat, you have an "Orthodox" blog run by a defrocked schismatic, constantly attacking canonical blogs for supposedly sowing division. It's completely absurd.

And there are plenty of saints whose writings would fall under the "conspiracy" and "fear" buzz words pushed by these people. Saint Paisios, for instance, talked about vaccines, secret societies, Zionism, etc. He only reposed in 1994.

To be clear, I agree that people shouldn't get all of their information from blogs; but ironically, it's the people warning about "dangerous" blogs that are the ones that should be most avoided, as they promote obvious heresy.

Things like toll houses, conspiracies, etc. are controversial, but they're debatable and have a basis in the writings of the saints. Things like Origen, homosexuality, BLM, etc. are cut and dry condemned by the Church.
 
Blade Runner

Blade Runner

Pelican
Are there any thoughts about how things might change or are we just waiting this out into oblivion? It's hard to find "common ground" when so many of the things going on in society, that are now influencing the church and its leaders, are so clearly confused and divisive.
 
ABeast

ABeast

Robin
Blade Runner said:
Are there any thoughts about how things might change or are we just waiting this out into oblivion? It's hard to find "common ground" when so many of the things going on in society, that are now influencing the church and its leaders, are so clearly confused and divisive.
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Do you mean how to make things change or just the general trends that are coming?
 
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