WGMG: Ray Hudson commentary.

-PB

Post of the day :laugh:

Abrahamic religions are very easy to tar with the same brush because there is literally a billion examples of stupid and ridiculous things they believe/say/do.

Such as?

When I say Ancient church, I mean the absolute original - Orthodox, Coptic, Eastern Church from the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium. We are separate to all others including the Catholics which we are not in communion with one bit, and we certainly not in communion with any of the other hundreds of loopy and fanatical Evangelists in the various forms. We are only in communion with the Anglicans of Church of England. it's the only religion we recognize. 

They don't say anything or do anything at an official capacity.

You would say that, but when was the last time they have said anything? 

Few people know, contraception is legal and encouraged, evolution is taught, sex education is taught and many more things, but because others are more vocal, the stupidities are attributed to the eastern church which is NOT the case. Even abortion is allowed for rape victims. More than 10,000 women have been given abortions because they got raped by Islamic Fundamentalists over the decades. 

So don't tar all religions with the same brush. The eastern Church is an evolving beast and will never be in your face. Anyone who wants to be a part of it, will have to seek the Church out because of their heart's desire, not because we would sermonize or bible bash to them.

Eugh another multi. Aikhme its so easy to see you when you talk about how superior your eastern religion is.

Yawnnn.....

Easy to spot lol.

Muh Greek Orthodox #1

-PB

The only sensible thing you've said.

So the old school Coptics and co don't believe in Jesus?

-PB

I never said anything about superiority.

I pointed out that not all religions are the same. As for superiority, we do not make any such claims and it is against our beliefs. our beliefs are in humility and respect, not trying to convert or slam things down people's throats uninvited. 

A sense of superiority goes against everything that is taught. 

As to the multi accusations - it is pretty obvious to the admins and mods that I am not a duplicate account. And I stand by that 100%

The old school Copts and Orthodox were pagan going back. they use to believe in various Polytheist religions. 

Many of the pagan rituals have actually metamorphosed into our religion of today - even Jewish Festivals like the Passover. Many of the rituals pre-date Christianity and maybe between 4000 to 10000 years old. 

Flippant as usual. That's not sensible. 

What's sensible is curiosity and a willingness to learn. 

Bullshit

It's not bullshit at all.

The Copts have been celebrating the Passover since about 4000 odd years ago. 

It also marks the beginning of Lent and coincides with the Eastern Easter - not the Catholic Easter. We also, like the Jews, eat Matzah. We have co-existed with the jews for more than 10,000 years. And we have respected their observances too and believe them relevant. 

There is actually no such word as Easter in our language. we call it Passover (Pascha). We've been holding the Passover Festival or Pascha for thousands of years pre-dating Christ (BC) then as Pagans and Polytheists. 

so you celebrate Easter, not Passover

No, to be 100% correct, it is actually Passover, not Easter. 

It's really the same festival that has been going on for thousands of years.

To be more correct, we celebrate the resurrection of Christ and his defeat of Death since about 2000 years ago and that coincides with the passover and that is what we actually call it too. We call it Pascha or Passover. And our lent always starts 40 days from the passover, because new crops would be sown and we didn't have a lot of food so we would fast. 

If you celebrated Passover it would be on Nisan 14 (Exodus 12:6)

We still do kind off. We call Easter Pascha or Passover. Our Easter always coincides with a particular lunar cycle to coincide with the Passover. And I am not talking about Exodus of the Jews. but the actual time of year which coincides with the sewing of crops in the Arid Climate we lived in. This is when we hold Pascha or Easter (if you prefer). It is a ritual we have been observing for a very long time, since BC. We would sow crops, and by necessity we would have to fast (later this became a religious observance of lent) because we just simply ran out of wheat. 

the dates of our Pascha fully coincide with the Jewish Passover as observed by them. 

My heritage is actually Middle Eastern. I am from the Levant. We have co-existed with the Jews for thousands of years. 

You are completely Wrong. Orthodox, Eastern and Coptic Easter do not coincide with your Easter. it coincides with the Jewish Passover. it can be on March 21 or April 25.

And of course it's not completely the same as Passover. Our Passover (Pascha) is an Ancient ritual which has some commonality to the rituals as practiced from BC. Our Pascha or Easter, isn't a completely Christian Ritual but has to do with the Festival of Fertility. In BC, we probably even sacrificed animals to a fertility god. Well that might not be correct entirely, but I think we did use to sacrifice lambs and eat them after Passover, same as the Jews did. 

We lived side by side with them for hundreds of years. our customs, and theirs rubbed off on each other and influenced our culture, religious observances, cuisine, music and language. 

And no, Passover as I have told you many times, is also about the changing of the season and sowing the crops and the fertility of the ground. Lent was adhered to since way before BC. We actually call our Easter Passover. 

Read about it here: http://www.antiochian.org/date-of-pascha.html

we actually have to wait until after the Jewish Passover for Orthodox Pascha which means Passover. it doesn't mean Easter. 

There are so many "Christian" rituals which are not really Christian. More accurate to call them traditions. Some of these traditions are Ancient BC traditions. 

Easter in the majority catholic nations of Italy, France, Spain, Portugal (there are others too) is called Pasqua, Paques, Pascua and Pascoa. The name is not something that's special to Eastern Orthodox religions :laugh:

Yes because the catholic Church was part of the Orthodox Church until the big schism where they never spoke again or have ever been in communion with ever again. Catholic Church was actually the same as Orthodox, hence why many of the traditions and wordings are just copy cat. 

You split from the Orthodox Church, and one of the biggest issues of contention was having a God like Pope. There was also a liturgical disagreeing about the Holy Trinity or something to that effect as well. Don't know exactly what the issue was/is but it was something like that. 

Sweden is Påsk (posk)

View from the fence being serious for once?

Wgmg:iinet  double billing  me. They  were  still  charging  me for my old account despite  them cancelling my net . And old account  was under my name and our new account  was set  up under my wife's 

You link to a story about the Pope and one of his Bishops deciding to ignore the Bible and make up their own festival.

East and West Catholic still both follow 1700 year old bullshit, there is no difference

If you believe the Bible, read it, do it.

If you don't believe the Bible, stop pretending that you do.

Of course we believe the Bible but it isn't the be all and end all.

The Bible is still a fantastic piece of literature, and holds important philosophies, but our Church does actually evolve with the times. The bible is just that. It's a Holy Book.

that said, everything written in it isn't suppose to be taken as gospel. you got to remember, the Bible was written by man. Some of it may have even been written by the disciples in its original format. then it has been republished. 

Some fanatical Christians say it is the word of God through his Son Jesus Christ. But that isn't true. It has been revised, edited and changed hundreds of times. Still a very great piece of literature, and holy as far as the Church's Canon's are concerned, but not the word of god.

there are copies of the original document, or at least a very early version of it within our Church, safely preserved. If you get one of today's copies, it is different to this early version. 

Being Christian isn't about reading the Bible, despite what some people say. In fact, you don't even need to read it if you don't want to. Taking the document literally, is a mistake and that is a belief held by the clergy. It doesn't diminish its importance though. It is important.

The Church has many traditions which are not Christian at all. In fact, these traditions pre-date Christianity even. Things like the Pascha, has its origins from BC, and it is connected with the Passover festival or changing of seasons. 

Another strange tradition the Church follows is leaving food outside for the dead spirits. We believe that when you die, your spirit remains in limbo from Christmas Day to the Epiphany of the 6th of January. Spirits are in effect in limbo.

now, that might seem strange to some, but how many people believe in spirits of ghosts? lots do. We also believe you can contact and communicate with the spirits. people use Ouija Boards for this purpose. The Church contacts them all the time when we have wakes but these interactions are done in the presence of the Holy Ghost and are safe. 

It might seem far fetched to some, but I have communicated with spirits and felt a very strong presence. these things are pre christian rituals. They have evolved under Christianity to their present form. 

"you don't have to read it",

Sure, your faith will get you into heaven.

plus your Church leaders will be pleased as punch you don't read it as well, just keep doing a THEY say.

Selective religion eh

-PB

wgmg: thread derailment.

also jesus is gay
also mohammed is gay

Who told you we do what our Church leaders say? You're very naive.

No one believes because the Church Leaders say so. No one reads the bible because Church Leaders say so. Church leaders know this to be correct 95% of the time. 

What you believe in is in your heart. That is the only thing that you need to remain true to. And if your heart and mind believes in God, and the Church, you don't need to justify yourself. 

Our Church is an Ancient one. The only pre-requisite is that you believe and live a good life. 

No one does what our Church Leaders tell us. Our Church leaders are Men among Equals. they can marry and have families (unless they are a Monk or Deacon). There is no special status afforded to anyone, or even a Leader. There is however, a Council of Bishops and an Archbishop for each precinct or area. Again a man among equals and certainly no Pope or person of higher status than anyone else. 

And the Church doesn't say your faith will get you into heaven. Faith isn't enough to get you there. You have to be the good person above all else. And we do not believe non believers will go to hell either. We don't believe in a God that would do that. You are talking about the catholic God maybe.

We believe that God is all seeing into a man's heart, and if the heart is good, then it should be ok. but the judge of that is not the Church or Man.