Didymus
Peace and grace.
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Faith: Oriental Orthodox
Jurisdiction: HG Coptic Bishop Anba Daniel of Sydney
Posts: 551
St. Thomas Didymus the Apostle of India
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« on: May 20, 2008, 08:46:37 AM » |
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As many of you will know I was formally a Baptist.
My former pastor from amongst that congregation has eight children. The eldest (Daniel) felt from the time he was five that he should go to the USSR. He ended up getting in there just about a year or so before it collapsed and still lives in Ukrain now as a Baptist missionary with his Canadian wife, their son and three younger daughters. The name of the town he is in is Rshishiv (no idea how to spell it but it sounds something like that) and it's near the Dnepra River (again please forgive my spelling).
My former pastor (John), his wife and two youngest daughters are headed to see him at the moment.
I am aware from previous communication that the local Orthodox priest has had some communication with Daniel. From what I can tell, Daniel really doesn't know what to make of the Orthodox Faith and, with all due respect, the situation in Ukrain right now (with the multiple overlapping jurisdictions) is at best somewhat confusing for outsiders.
Daniel's son is a very honest and upright lad. (I met their whole family when their last daughter was born in Australia due to complications while his wife was carrying.) Even if the rest of the family does not come to a realisation of our True Orthodox Christian Faith, I believe this lad probably will sooner or later. However their family is very close-knit, even with people scattered about Australia and the world.
My requests then are as follows please:
1) Please pray that their entire family may come to see the truth of the Orthodox Faith and have the courage to follow it.
2) That their will not be tension amongst them but rather positive witness should some come to understand the True Christian Faith sooner than others.
3) That the local priest whom I mentioned (&/or any other Orthodox clergy in the area) may be a fine witness to Daniel and his family.
4) That while the part of their family that is visiting is over there, that they may come to see the sacredness wherewith we worship in spirit and in truth. Also, that they may seek to explore the Orthodox Faith more.
5) That Daniel's well-intentioned although misguided zeal as a Baptist missionary may be turned into a zeal for the Orthodox Faith and love of God.
If I can think of more specific points later I may mention them but thank you all for now and pray ever for me also please.
Just to end with, it seems to me as though my former pastor John (he's still a Baptist pastor) is somewhat afraid of Orthodoxy. I think he realises that if he is wrong he has spent a large part of his life in a misguided way and misguiding others.
6) Please pray that he may realise how much good he could still do if he opened his heart to Orthodoxy sooner rather than later and come to do so.
This man John is a very kind-hearted man yet his father was a Methodist and he became Baptist in his late teens. It seems as though it is hard for him to kick against the pricks now.
Thank you.
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...because I was not with you when the Lord came aforetime.
...because I am blind and yet I see.
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Fr. George
formerly "Cleveland"
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Domestikos tou thematos
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May the Lord bless you and keep you always!
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« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2008, 09:04:35 AM » |
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Lord, have mercy.
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"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the one who can't read them." Mark Twain
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Ordained on 17 & 18-Oct 2009. Please forgive me if earlier posts are poorly worded or incorrect in any way.
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ytterbiumanalyst
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« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2008, 12:40:22 PM » |
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Lord have mercy on Your servant Daniel and all his family.
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"It is remarkable that what we call the world...in what professes to be true...will allow in one man no blemishes, and in another no virtue."--Charles Dickens
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PeterTheAleut
The Right Blowhard Peter the Furtive of Yetts O'Muckhart
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Exarchos
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Faith: Orthodox Christian
Jurisdiction: OCA
Posts: 26,002
EXTERMINATE!
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« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2008, 11:56:09 PM » |
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Lord, have mercy.
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Tzimis
Site Supporter
OC.net guru
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« Reply #4 on: May 21, 2008, 08:47:36 AM » |
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Lord, have mercy.
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Excellence of character, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it. Now it is a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect.
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Riddikulus
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« Reply #5 on: May 21, 2008, 09:00:03 AM » |
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Lord, have mercy.
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I believe in One God, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.
Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.
Theodosius Dobzhansky, Russian Orthodox Christian (1900-1975)
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recent convert
Orthodox Chrisitan
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Jurisdiction: Antiochian (N.A.)
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« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2008, 09:40:05 AM » |
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Grant this O Lord,
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Antiochian OC N.A.
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Rosehip
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« Reply #7 on: May 21, 2008, 10:10:35 AM » |
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I can definitely relate to all of this, and will be praying!
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+ Our dear sister Martha (Rosehip) passed away on Dec 20, 2010. May her memory be eternal! +
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ozgeorge
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« Reply #8 on: May 23, 2008, 06:20:57 AM » |
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Thy will be done o Lord.
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If you're living a happy life as a Christian, you're doing something wrong.
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