Church ROCOR

[in.image.and.likeness]

Question about "the Angel of the Lord":

At my ROCOR Church there is a wall painting of Christ as the Pantocrator. Underneith there is the Theotokos, next to Her are two angels, underneith Them there is Christ as the High Priest serving communion to the Apostles.

All in all a beautiful hierarchy.

However, next to the angels it says: Angel of the Lord.

Now, we know that the OT "Angel of the Lord" theophany is Christ pre-incarnation.
Rejecting this is a herasy.
Is this depiction then a herasy as well?
Or more a reference to the notion that the hebrews were still unaware of Christ pre-incarnate?

Thanks!

 

[Funglool]

I base my rejection of the injection on the prophecies of St. Paisios and other holy elders from Athos. Not on what hierarchs say.

Many people including myself got excited over the passage on page 204 of the book Spiritual Awakening, where Saint Paisios says “And now a vaccine has been developed to combat a new disease…” but the saint was not referring to the coronavirus. Metropolitan Athansios of Limassol, who served liturgies for St. Paisios “countless times” as he said, knew the saint and his teachings well and says that he was actually talking about AIDS. Elder Christodoulos, the author of the first book about St. Paisios, made the same point. Many of those that went to the saint for counsel have been vaccinated, including the sisterhood of the monastery of St. John the Theologian, which published the very book that records the supposed prophecy. Perhaps a second look at the passage without reading covid-19 into it may lead the reader to a different conclusion from the one they had when they read it after being told that it was a prophecy about covid vaccines.

Likewise, the views being circulated of a handful of holy elders on the matter deserve objective evaluation for their pros and cons. Among valid and important points there are also errors. One holy elder called the coronavirus outbreak a “hoax”meanwhile Serbia lost its patriarch and three bishops who were disciples of St. Justin Popovich. Another said that he knows a doctor who has a perfect record in treating covid with conventional medications even though his own disciple died of coronavirus. Someone else, not an elder but considered just as authoritative, said that the coronavirus outbreak would quickly disappear after Pascha and his followers ended up having to quietly delete the “prophecy” from their FB feeds when it did not come to pass.

If the holy scriptures tell us that the Apostle Peter was mistaken about requiring the Gentiles to be circumcised and ecclesial history reminds us that some saints held theological opinions that were not accepted by the Church, then we can understand that we are not bound to unconditionally share even the perspectives of living saints in matters than are not related to the spiritual life. This does not diminish our holy elders in any way because they will always be our true and sure guides towards repentance and salvation.

 

[Eusebius Erasmus]

Many people including myself got excited over the passage on page 204 of the book Spiritual Awakening, where Saint Paisios says “And now a vaccine has been developed to combat a new disease…” but the saint was not referring to the coronavirus. Metropolitan Athansios of Limassol, who served liturgies for St. Paisios “countless times” as he said, knew the saint and his teachings well and says that he was actually talking about AIDS. Elder Christodoulos, the author of the first book about St. Paisios, made the same point. Many of those that went to the saint for counsel have been vaccinated, including the sisterhood of the monastery of St. John the Theologian, which published the very book that records the supposed prophecy. Perhaps a second look at the passage without reading covid-19 into it may lead the reader to a different conclusion from the one they had when they read it after being told that it was a prophecy about covid vaccines.

Likewise, the views being circulated of a handful of holy elders on the matter deserve objective evaluation for their pros and cons. Among valid and important points there are also errors. One holy elder called the coronavirus outbreak a “hoax”meanwhile Serbia lost its patriarch and three bishops who were disciples of St. Justin Popovich. Another said that he knows a doctor who has a perfect record in treating covid with conventional medications even though his own disciple died of coronavirus. Someone else, not an elder but considered just as authoritative, said that the coronavirus outbreak would quickly disappear after Pascha and his followers ended up having to quietly delete the “prophecy” from their FB feeds when it did not come to pass.

If the holy scriptures tell us that the Apostle Peter was mistaken about requiring the Gentiles to be circumcised and ecclesial history reminds us that some saints held theological opinions that were not accepted by the Church, then we can understand that we are not bound to unconditionally share even the perspectives of living saints in matters than are not related to the spiritual life. This does not diminish our holy elders in any way because they will always be our true and sure guides towards repentance and salvation.

Fr. Peter Heers looked into this matter, tracking down St. Paisios’s disciples. They all said that the vaccine the saint was referring is the Covid jab. The reference to AIDS is elsewhere in his writings. Nor does it make sense for this to refer to AIDS, since a successful AIDS vaccine has never been developed, nor has it been made widely mandatory, as the saint predicted the Covid jab would be.

 

[Aboulia]

I must confess that I see a significant disconnect between what the Rocorsphere presents as Orthodox teaching compared with what their God-appointed bishops actually teach and I wonder if the Church Abroad is being misappropriated by those who however well intentioned, are seeking to enlist it in their political struggles.

Here are some contemporary examples of what I mean:

+On Vaccines: The first hierarch, Metropolitan Hilarion, has publicly stated that he and “many others” have been vaccinated. Among these others are members of highly regarded monastic communities and presumably other members of the episcopate as well.

Conclusion: While vaccination has been called everything from a death wish to an initiation into demonic possession, we can see that the first hierarch and others remain physically and spiritually intact so maybe it is not the initiation into the new world order that the overblown rhetoric has made it out to be.

+On Religious Exemptions for Vaccination: The Abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery, Bishop Luke of Syracuse counselled that the vaccines bear no spiritual significance.

Conclusion: If vaccines bear no spiritual significance then they are not a religious matter, so logically, there is no reason to provide religious exemption letters.

+On the possibility of contracting disease in church: In a panel discussion led by Fr. Josiah Trenham, Rocor’s hierarch in Europe, bishop Irinee, called the notion that one cannot get sick “mindless fanaticism” and “lack of faith.”

Conclusion: To understand that one can potentially get sick in church does not abolish the sanctity of that holy space. On the contrary, making up a theory that there is no corruption in the temple implies a lack faith. And by extension, at least some form of adherence to health and safety protocols in church is valid.

All this would seem to undercut the confession of faith of the Rocorsphere in the coronavirus age and put it at odds with its bishops. This is serious business and both sides cannot be right. I know which side I will defer to!

The Orthodox are to be the rational faith, and it is entirely irrational to condone an experimental medical treatment that there is no open discourse on, no alternatives are discussed, and dissenting voices are silenced. Medical treatment begins from the ground of doing no harm. Since long term studies cannot possibly have been done, then this claim cannot be made. Since this claim cannot be made, it is entirely unjust to go along with it. So it cannot be said that the vaccines bear no spiritual significance, as body and spirit are intertwined in the human condition so what you do to your body at any level affects your spirit. If you inject your body with unknown, untested chemicals, it may affect you spiritually. To affirm in the negative is either grossly negligent or has caved to the powers that be, in which his "counsel" is to be ignored.

Any Orthodox hierarch worthy of his position will oppose all coercive experimental measures, since it has become akin to "sacrifice to the Gods or face punishment". The martyrs died to uphold the truth, opposing unjust irrational dictates, and it is spitting on their memory to condone similar actions. The Orthodox faith pulls no punches about the reality of our situation in the fallen world, and is the best guide to life. We do not put blind trust in bishops, grace does not come from clergy, we are not Roman Catholics.

 

[josemiguel]

The Abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery, Bishop Luke of Syracuse counselled that the vaccines bear no spiritual significance

Anything one claims has no spiritual significance is automatically ceded to the devil

All this would seem to undercut the confession of faith of the Rocorsphere in the coronavirus age and put it at odds with its bishops.

The bishops in the west are far more modernist than the average lay person from what I've seen. I think it is an artifact of boomerism. The gen X clergy and monks are far more traditional minded. If Case Nightmare Kitty is the end of the !vax, we are about to have a Patristically-minded episcopate. We've had saints warn that we'd live in a time where we'd have to be more dependent on the clergy that have passed than the ones living.

 

[Funglool]

Fr. Peter Heers looked into this matter, tracking down St. Paisios’s disciples. They all said that the vaccine the saint was referring is the Covid jab. The reference to AIDS is elsewhere in his writings. Nor does it make sense for this to refer to AIDS, since a successful AIDS vaccine has never been developed, nor has it been made widely mandatory, as the saint predicted the Covid jab would be.

I recall Fr. Peter saying that he knows the fathers and their thinking well at the Cell of the Resurrection in Kapsala on Mount Athos. He may have some others in mind too. But there are other disciples of St. Paisios that see things differently with the most glaring example being the eldress and the sisterhood of the monastery that published the actual book that we are talking about. I could also add to the list one of Saint Paisios’ closest spiritual children, hieromonk Paisios, the spiritual father at the monastery of St. Hilarion in Northern Greece. So there is not a consensus among the disciples of Saint Paisios.

Here’s the passage again in full:

“Tons of fish have been marked and are being observed through satellites to study their migration patterns. And now a vaccine has been developed to combat a new disease, which will be obligatory and those taking it will be marked.”

Bear in mind that Saint Paisios was speaking in the 1980s. When was the vaccine developed to combat the new disease that appeared? The saint says “now,” so sometime in the 1980s. A couple of sentences further down St. Paisios says “My thinking tells me that this is the system through which the Antichrist has chosen to take over the world…” He was sharing his own thoughts on the subject, which everyone is free do, and not necessarily prophesying.

 

[Eusebius Erasmus]

I recall Fr. Peter saying that he knows the fathers and their thinking well at the Cell of the Resurrection in Kapsala on Mount Athos. He may have some others in mind too. But there are other disciples of St. Paisios that see things differently with the most glaring example being the eldress and the sisterhood of the monastery that published the actual book that we are talking about. I could also add to the list one of Saint Paisios’ closest spiritual children, hieromonk Paisios, the spiritual father at the monastery of St. Hilarion in Northern Greece. So there is not a consensus among the disciples of Saint Paisios.

Here’s the passage again in full:

“Tons of fish have been marked and are being observed through satellites to study their migration patterns. And now a vaccine has been developed to combat a new disease, which will be obligatory and those taking it will be marked.”

Bear in mind that Saint Paisios was speaking in the 1980s. When was the vaccine developed to combat the new disease that appeared? The saint says “now,” so sometime in the 1980s. A couple of sentences further down St. Paisios says “My thinking tells me that this is the system through which the Antichrist has chosen to take over the world…” He was sharing his own thoughts on the subject, which everyone is free do, and not necessarily prophesying.

I trust Fr. Peter Heers on this issue, since he is not only an expert, but is also connected to holy men of Greece. However, if you have sources on the eldress and Paisios of Hilarion, then please link to them here. The plurality of Paisios’s disciples agree with Fr. Peter’s interpretation, and a publication house full of nuns doesn’t supersede Paisios’s direct disciples.

Again, it is unlikely from context that St. Paisios was referring to AIDS, since he goes on to say that this vaccine would be ‘obligatory.’ No AIDS vaccine has ever been developed and certainly none has been made ‘obligatory.’

When the saint refers to his own ‘thinking,’ this is later on in the passage when he discusses the full Beast system, not the vaccine per se:

now a vaccine has been developed to combat a new disease, which will be obligatory and those taking it will be marked… Later on, anyone who is not marked with the number 666 will not be able to either buy or sell, to get a loan, to get a job, and so forth. My thinking tells me that this is the system through which the Antichrist has chosen to take over the whole world, and people who are not part of this system won’t be able to find work and so on.

The reference to ‘now’ is not as clear as you make it: read the Apocalypse of John and see how much of the ancient Greek prophecy is put forward in the present tense, even though it clearly relates to the future.

It is obvious from those who knew him that Paisios had gifts of clairvoyance, healing, and prophecy.

We know the Covid jab, then, is a prophecy of St. Paisios, and the faithful shouldn’t take it.

 

[Lawrence87]

I agree with @Eusebius Erasmus AIDS only affects a minority of the population, and thus does not require that everyone be vaccinated, even if there were such a vaccination. So it wouldn't make sense given he appears to be proposing a vaccine mandatory for everyone. The AIDS virus clearly doesn't fit the bill as a candidate for what he is talking about.

 

[Faithwrestler]

I hope this is the right place for my story/question, because although it deals with covid, at its core it is actually a question about how to act as an Orthodox Christian in church in these times.

But if there is a forum more suitable for this, please let me know and I will move it there.

- - -

I am a catechumen in the ROCOR in Germany. I commute for 2 hours to attend church.

The priest has given me the permission to join via confession (baptised RC as a child).
This is of great significance to me for I have accumulated a lot of sin in my former un-Christian life.

In Germany the churches abide by the cov measures which means disinfecting the spoon after each person, distance, marked paths on the floor, and: mask-wearing during liturgy.
When I first saw the priest wearing one while serving the Eucharist, my heart almost broke.

I wear it on my chin and focus on prayer and the iconostasis to try to distract myself from the shame I feel. So far noone said anything.
I told myself: Maybe this is what you have to endure after a life of sin to join the Church of Christ and start to heal your soul.

So my plan was to go to confession, to finally receive communion, and then to not return as long as this charade goes on - while searching for ways to receive it without a mask (almost impossible in Germany).

But my patience was weak and last Sunday I „snapped“.
The day and the night before was full of demonic attacks, so on the way to church I felt unusually weak, empty, and despondent - knowing full well it’s a sin to give in to these feelings.

On the way to church and during the liturgy snippets from talks by Roosh, Brother Augustine, Fr Heers on the topic of masks in church were almost haunting me: „Fear in the Holy Temple is unorthodox“.
The mask is a symbol of (manufactured) fear, a fear I don’t share and of which I know the evil roots.

The notion that this would be my final visit slowly started to take shape in my mind. Maybe the actual sacrifice was not the mask, but the fact that I would not be able to go to confession soon, and thus not be able to join in the way I had planned. (It was the Sunday after the feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross)

When I entered the church, masked, and crossed myself bowing in front of the icons, a sorrowful joy came over me, and I knew, healing is right here. I calmed down.

In the middle of the liturgy I spotted a man on the other side of the church without a mask, I didn't know why he wasn't wearing one and I didn't care. As if I needed this sign I took my mask off, or more precisely, I ripped it off, praising the Lord, asking for forgiveness and mercy, but doing so unmasked, showing Him my face.

At the end of the liturgy, people cued to venerate the cross, a „security“ guy spotted me and immediately told me to put a mask on. It got tense for a moment. I refused and said that this is a lie, that I will not cover my face anymore in the House of God, but that I don’t want to cause trouble and will leave if he tells me to.

Here is where things started to get… unexpected.

He said that he had sympathy for my stance and that St Paul said not to fight among brothers in Christ, but that this church really can’t risk fines, and controls do occur (the police once came into the church screaming at people because they mistook lighting candles and praying alone in front of icons for a full liturgy..!).

However, he - btw his name is Paul (!) - didn’t want me to leave and asked me to wait by the side until the cue went away.
He waited with me and we talked about fairness towards our brothers and sisters in the church, and about whether my action was motivated by pride.
Then, to my surprise, he offered me to tell everyone that I had an exemption (which I don’t have) so I could attend unmasked without irritating the others.

Further he said that he was going to a far away monastery for a couple of days, the monastery which the priest advised me to go to as well but which I couldn’t visit because I don’t own a car, and he offered me to go with him.

So there I was, rebelling in church, being confronted by Paul, and in the end being offered things I wanted…

A few days later Paul called me to tell me that he was able to catch a monk from the monastery on the phone at first try, something that, he marveled, was almost impossible because the monks are rarely in the room where the phone is, so it normally takes days to finally catch someone.

He went on to say that although the monastery website states that masks are mandatory, they don't make anyone wear one.
Therefore, however, they don’t allow confessions out of fear of contagion.

So again, here I am, grateful to God allowing me to experience His love through others despite my rebellious act, without which I would not have experienced it..! Opening doors (exemption, monastery), closing others (confession).

Was it right what I did?

The heavy weight I felt for months, which I attributed to doubts in faith, had lifted on that day.
It was the mask, I tell myself. I made up my mind, I would avoid church and retreat online (I know Fr Heers warns about that) and finally join a forum I knew about... (-;

So now, theoratically, I can attend church mask-free.
But I can’t ignore my conflict of conscience:

The mask is a lie.
My exemption would be a lie as well.

I want to go to confession and become Orthodox at last. But I would have to partake either in the lie about my exemption or in the lie of wearing a mask in that Church, and by doing so I would go back on my „rebellion“.

What can I do?
There are no known alternatives in Germany, like I said, masks everywhere.

Also: I would like to have a based priest as my confession witness and maybe as a spiritual father later on, instead of the vaxed ones… is this the sin of pride on my side?

Thank you for reading if you did.
Have a blessed day/night.
Greetings from Weimar Germany, the sequel.

IC

Good story! Bold like the Lion of Judah!

God bless,

Tom

 

[Faithwrestler]

That's quite sad. I really liked some of his writings. But I'm curious what it was that he wrote to provoke this - I can't find it anywhere.

I’ve attended his church a few times and have been counselled by him. He’s a very good priest, lovely family too!

Word on the streets of orthodox Colchester is the ROCOR bishop had been abusing his power and meddling in parishes he shouldn’t. But I don’t know who to believe.

I’ll be honest, the closer I get to Orthodoxy the more I sense the mystery element is a smokescreen/has allowed for anarchy.

Also, an observation I’d made online that once you convert to orthodoxy you don’t convert anywhere else has been proven to be false irl. Perhaps this is only in the Greek church but in my catechumen class I was told l some people are received and then weeks later renounce their membership and return to baptist/Catholicism. I even know a godly former-nun (returned to lay life to care for her parents) who basically just attends Protestant services.

For those interested I attend the Antiochian/Greek parish of St Martin’s in Colchester. I feel The Holy Spirit to be more present here than in the Russian church in my town.

God bless you all,

Tom

 

[Funglool_2]

You banned me? Why would you do that?

 

[in.image.and.likeness]

Good story! Bold like the Lion of Judah!

God bless,

Tom

Thank you, Tom!
However I still don't know what's the right thing to do, lie about the examption or lie by wearing the mask.. well.
God bless!

 

[in.image.and.likeness]

Many people including myself got excited over the passage on page 204 of the book Spiritual Awakening, where Saint Paisios says “And now a vaccine has been developed to combat a new disease…” but the saint was not referring to the coronavirus. Metropolitan Athansios of Limassol, who served liturgies for St. Paisios “countless times” as he said, knew the saint and his teachings well and says that he was actually talking about AIDS. Elder Christodoulos, the author of the first book about St. Paisios, made the same point. Many of those that went to the saint for counsel have been vaccinated, including the sisterhood of the monastery of St. John the Theologian, which published the very book that records the supposed prophecy. Perhaps a second look at the passage without reading covid-19 into it may lead the reader to a different conclusion from the one they had when they read it after being told that it was a prophecy about covid vaccines.

Likewise, the views being circulated of a handful of holy elders on the matter deserve objective evaluation for their pros and cons. Among valid and important points there are also errors. One holy elder called the coronavirus outbreak a “hoax”meanwhile Serbia lost its patriarch and three bishops who were disciples of St. Justin Popovich. Another said that he knows a doctor who has a perfect record in treating covid with conventional medications even though his own disciple died of coronavirus. Someone else, not an elder but considered just as authoritative, said that the coronavirus outbreak would quickly disappear after Pascha and his followers ended up having to quietly delete the “prophecy” from their FB feeds when it did not come to pass.

If the holy scriptures tell us that the Apostle Peter was mistaken about requiring the Gentiles to be circumcised and ecclesial history reminds us that some saints held theological opinions that were not accepted by the Church, then we can understand that we are not bound to unconditionally share even the perspectives of living saints in matters than are not related to the spiritual life. This does not diminish our holy elders in any way because they will always be our true and sure guides towards repentance and salvation.

Just wanted to comment on your well meaning post with additional thoughts (beyond the focus on St Paisios as well).

1.
when people close to St Paisios got vaxed, does it insinuate that they trust the vax to not be the mark he was talking about? yes.

does it mean that they interpreted him correctly? no.
does it automatically mean that they are honest or good-willed? no. (bad actors in the Church obviously exist)
does it mean that the vax and the circumstances of its production and implementation is less suspicious? no.
does it change the totalitarian coercive nature of how things went and are still going? no.
does it deminish the obvious links to the known agendas? no.
does it mean that everyone who takes the is furthering the elite’s totalitarian plan of transhumanism and technocracy? yes.
does it therefore mean that to take the vax is morally wrong? yes, since morality comes from God and transhumanism is against God.

2.
people calling cov a hoax is to be viewed in context of the PLANdemic aka non-existant pandemic. cov is portrayed as a deadly rapidly spreading, highly contageous, unpredictable disease threatening the national medical systems in the whole world and thus serving as the justification for all measures to prevent said collapse and human catastrophe.
since cov objectively does not meet this criteria, it is fair to call it a hoax.

also:
any argument about someone „dying from“ or „getting“ the cov has no weight since this virus has never been isolated, which is one precondition to prove that a virus exists, hence it has never been scientifically proven to be what it is reported to be.
what we can by now reasonably say is that it is the normal „strong“ flu that can cause existing (undiagnosed and unknown) preconditions to lead to disease or death - as the flu does and always did.

another reasonable assertion is that of an artificial „booster“ in the form of something resembling a bio-weapon. but we don’t need to go that far.
it suffices to realize the detrimental effects of terror, stress, fear, social distancing, mask wearing, spiritual degradation, 5G and the overall enormous toxicity of contemporary life (food, air, water, chemicals, electro-magnetism, fine particles, lack of movement, porn, psy-ops) to accumulate and manifest into all kinds of diseases.
that’s actually how sickness works.

and:
the three postulates of Robert Koch to prove the contagion of viruses were actually never met by Koch himself in his founding experiments, see also Louis Pasteur for the lack of proof for the theory that germs and microbes cause disease - (two major science frauds). The rival theory was the terrain-theory (disease caused by toxicity not germs) which due to the cov narrative is getting more attention now.

so:
people dying from the flu means nothing in this context.

3.
A Doctor having a cure and his disciple dying „from the rona“ is a vage statement.
Did you mean to say that he got sick and the cure did not work on him?
If so, how does this singular anecdote disprove
a) the efficacy of the cure?
b) virus + vax + mandatory = exclusion from society („not able to buy and sell“) -> beast system?

4.
Living elders have authority but are not just as authoritative as saints.

5.
St Paisios did not talk about when the virus would pass, so an elder being wrong about his part is irrelevant.

6.
„ecclesial history reminds us“ that saints were wrong too, so “we are not bound to unconditionally share“ all their views.
Yes, this is absolutely correct and very important!

So then we look at the content of their words and at the evidence in the world and can gather that St Paisios prophecy seems to meet the main points so far.


In conclusion, I get and appreciate that you are trying to offer a balance to the intuitive conclusions which we might wish to be true. But I don’t see how your arguments counter the signs of the vax as a means to usher in a totalitarian system of control and St Paisios warning exactly about that.

thank you for your thoughts and God bless.

IC

 

[Giordano Bruno]

We already have a thread on the Russian Orthodox Church but ROCOR is a semi-autonomous jurisdiction that deserves its own discussion. (As many of you know, I was received into ROCOR this year.)

Compared to the Greeks and OCA, ROCOR has been more resistant to fighting the lies of the coronavirus pandemic based on a recent survey. This matches my experience.

Interesting, although you don't have any graphs that show the actions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church do you? At least the one me and my mum go to was mostly closed, however, I would like to believe that was due to external reasons. You see they technically don't own the building, they rent it on Saturdays. They were trying to raise money to build their own Church, but they've had issues what with the London Construction scene, and getting enough money (they tried asking the Bank for a loan).

 

[DRIIIVER]

Fr. Andrew Phillips and Fellow Clergy have Left ROCOR in England and have Joined the Archdiocese of Western Europe

Read more and continue the discussion in the "Russian Orthodox Church" thread here.

 

[nagareboshi]

I recently joined the Orthodox Catholic Church through ROCOR, via baptism. I was previously a part of the Uniate church (sometimes called Byzantine Catholicism) and switched for historical and theological reasons. Along the way, I also noticed that there were many secondary benefits, including a stronger prayer life, fellow parishioners who are serious about faith and enlightened on current affairs, and priests who are trustworthy and from whom I am very happy and grateful to receive spiritual guidance. Your prayers on my behalf would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to DM me.

 

[Lawrence87]

I recently joined the Orthodox Catholic Church through ROCOR, via baptism. I was previously a part of the Uniate church (sometimes called Byzantine Catholicism) and switched for historical and theological reasons. Along the way, I also noticed that there were many secondary benefits, including a stronger prayer life, fellow parishioners who are serious about faith and enlightened on current affairs, and priests who are trustworthy and from whom I am very happy and grateful to receive spiritual guidance. Your prayers on my behalf would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to DM me.

Glory to God!

I am glad you have found yourself a spiritual home. I pray that now you are there you continue to grow strong roots.

God bless

 

[magaman]

Hello everyone, I’m happy to tell you all that after some time of talking about it and reading about Orthodoxy, I attended my first Divine Liturgy at a ROCOR church. I liked it a lot, it was pretty much what I was expecting but being there in person was a game changer. I got to meet the bishop and the deacon, they were both very welcoming. Safe to say that if I’m not back there Wednesday night (which I’m planning to go) then I will definitely be there again next Sunday for the next Divine Liturgy.

 

[nagareboshi]

Story of a German man who became a ROCOR priest: https://pravoslavie.ru/87231.html

 

[magaman]

I’ve continued attending the ROCOR church and so far everyone has been warm and welcoming, they are looking forward to me becoming a catechumen at some point! Seems I’ve lucked out and found a good and sane church Orthodox Church

I’ll go ahead and throw this in too.. As I was in the car about to leave the church today, a young woman and her family were heading in for the next liturgy (we share a building with another parish) She and I made eye contact for a few seconds.. Enough time to tell that it was far from just a glance. Haha okay I’m not going to get myself or anyone else here worked up.. but maybe I’ll see her again sometime, maybe at fellowship