HT: Byzantine, Tx
(mospat.ru) – On February 9, 2012, Archbishop Mark of Yegoryevsk, director of the Moscow Patriarchate’s office for institutions abroad, who is on a visit to Thailand, consecrated the church dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God at the Monastery of the Dormition in Ratchaburi.
With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Fr. Seraphim Raicha of St. Nicholas’s in Bangkok was ordained in the newly-consecrated church as hieromonk to continue his service in Thailand. Present at the service were pilgrims from various parishes in the country, officials of the Russian Embassy in Thailand and the head of the local administration.
His Eminence Mark presented Rev. Danai (Daniel) Vann with a patriarchal award, a golden pectoral cross. The right to wear it was granted to the first Thai Orthodox priest for his zealous work for the good of the Church and the Thai translation of Archpriest Seraphim Slobodskoy’s Bible chairs.
Archbishop Mark also presented Archimandrite Oleg Cherepanin, representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Thailand, with the Order of St. Innocent of Moscow in acknowledgement of his work for many years for the good of the Church and on the occasion of his 50th birthday.
The previous day, Archbishop Mark held at the monastery an assembly of the clergy, members of the parish councils of Orthodox churches in Thailand and Cambodia, representatives of the Orthodox parish in Laos and the committee of the Orthodox Church Foundation in Thailand. Archimandrite Oleg Cherepanin made a report stating the progress made and existing problems, the main ones being an acute need for purchasing some land for building a church in Bangkok and a shortage of clergy at the acting parishes.
Read the entire article on the Byzantine, TX website.
Very encouraging!
How about this set of news, from Pakistan:
http://www.rocor.org.au/?p=4917
How about this news about the House Church in China? All you have to do to see it in overview fashion is conduct a Wikipedia search on it. Anyone with eyes can see who and what is moving the Gospel forward in the greatest mission and evangelism field of our century. Looks like the western rational RCC and Protestants are leaving the EOC eastern irrational in the dust in China. It is irrational by Christ in the Gospels and by the mission of the Apostles in the NT to not be a Christian force for salvation change and good in China.
It is said this church is seen as less threatening because it is not top down and centralized hierarchy and under foreign rule power and control and that is its great under the radar and stealth strength. It is decentralized, bottom up, open system and therefore able to grow. It practices freedom of religion by not being under foreign rule, state sponsored or church/state.
This church is the greatest threat the third generation top down and closed system communist state bondage has ever faced for this church being BOTTOM UP and OPEN SYSTEM freedom in Christ. It is treated as a threat by the state. The STATE cannot CONTROL it by its POWER. State rule power cannot manipulate it to its corrupt control ends and it can’t because it does not embrace the state structure and the system of totalism rule power and control.
It is independent and can stand up on its own two feet and walk where it is planted. It is not found in a demising state where it is planted. It is not ethnocentric ghetto centered and it is not a religious social club by vision, priorities, strategy, plan and goals. It is inclusive by freedom in salvation and not exclusive by tradition as salvation. It is alive by its freedom in salvation and not dead by bondage in tradition. It is mission and evangelism other centered risk taking and not self centered tradition and religion self protection centered.
This church has not arrived by claiming to be Gods only alone right and one true church and therefore it is not found in a pond water stagnant or sewer farm polluted state of proud, arrogant and self righteous failure. It is found on the edge of the cutting edge of mission and evangelism by humility and service. It is found RELEVANT to the society and generation it exists in.
The modern mission and evangelism strategy is to help the Chinese church become independent, self sustaining and free of foreign rule. Not all Christian mission in China will want to practice this. The process of this will not be pretty or easy. It will be real, messy, controversial and difficult. It will fail forward to success and not fail backwards into ruin.
Does the Chinese underground home church want to become melded, merged and made one in theology with the Chinese communist state of state controlled dictator ruler kings? Does this church want to wear the royal church/state robes of the divine right of church/state kings and bishops? What would happen to the Chinese church if it became the state religion in league with the dictatorship state? Do any of you understand what those questions are really telling you about foreign ruled church/state Orthodoxy and why it is found in a exponentially demising state and not a exponentially growing state in the modern world?
The Chinese church puts it all on the line for Christ and the exponential growth outcome proves it. This church is Holy Spirit living dependent and not hierarchy of dead religious man codependent. This church is not CIRCULAR WITHOUT SOLUTION. It is not found in a closed, isolated and subjective box going in circles that cannot change to relevancy where it is planted. It is not based in the carnal corrupt religion rigidity, legalism and works of we are Gods only alone right and one true church. It is not inflexible one structure and system fits all or forces all to fit inside of it. It is flexible, dynamic, alive and growing by its salvation and it is real salvation that exponentially moves the Gospel forward in a straight upward growth line where ever it is planted. It accomplishes this because it is not structurally and systemically corrupt to its core. This church is structurally and systemically free of man made church/state theocratic tradition based authoritarianism that is the corruption of Christ, the Gospels and the NT.
Do the priests in the GOA put themselves at risk for Christ?
Do the GOA bishops who are the direct spiritual line of the high risk and martyred Apostles put it all on the line for a moral and ethical church whose basis is mission and evangelism or do they operate from a different basis than that?
Do the GOA bishops have the same morality in ethics as did the Apostles?
Do the GOA priests enable this corrupt and failed state of bishops by the intimidation and coercion of the bishops? Do they play religious political maneuver games of FAVOR and playing it SAFE with the bishops?
Does the GOC perish due to a vision based upon closed system religious tradition and top down centralized authoritarian power and control?
Orthodox, what is the estimated Christian convert growth of China by churches not EOC?
Ashley Nevins
Ashley Nivens, …”you must state which denomination (i.e. “true Church of Christ”) you attend,”
and
2. You must restrict all posts to five hundred words or less. (Splitting long posts into a stream of 500 word short ones wont fly.)
Ashley, another dose of your noisome WIND! I thought we had got past that?
One should, I know, I know, ;pretend it didn’t happen and change the subject. But when a dose lasts longer than 500 words and comes from a totally boring source, it just gives people the pip, the utter pip!
Why, even Heracleides seems to have been blown away or suffocated!
Bishop, where is the bishop solution to the corrupt, failed, irrelevant and dying church?
Bishop, what is your vision, strategy, priorities and plan to move the EOC in America forward?
Bishop, is your church suffocating and being blown away by bishops?
Bishop, you don’t like me telling you that you are the problem and you do not have a solution to the corrupt, failed, irrelevant and demising church state. The corrupt hate being held in expose’ of their corruptions and I am well hated by many Orthodox bishops that I have exposed. The corrupt hate transparency and accountability and those who hold them transparent and accountable.
Short enough?
Clear enough?
Ashley Nevins
No, no, no. Not nearly short enough. Not nearly clear enough.
Questions relative to clarity:
1. What in the world is a “bishop solution?” Is that three cups of water and one cup of bishop? What’s it for?
2. What does moving the EOC forward mean? Has time stopped?
3. How could bishops suffocate or blow away anything?
4. What is “demising?”
5. What is a “church state?”
6. How many bishops has Ashley “exposed,” and who are they?
7. Do any bishops KNOW that they’ve been exposed by Ashley?
8. Do you belong to a Christian faith community? This is definitely not clear enough.
Isn’t the bishop solution in the OCA the Metropolitan Council? Oh wait, that’s the “solution for bishops.”
Reminder 24
Ashley Nivens, …”you must state which denomination (i.e. “true Church of Christ”) you attend,”
George, did he? If not why is he still here?
Joseph: He did not because it is an obsession for him (maybe even a pathological one).
Ob·ses·sion/əbˈseSHən/
Noun:
The state of being obsessed with someone or something.
An idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind.