Aphorisms in Orthodox Christianity: communicating the faith via facebook

Aphorisms in Orthodox Christianity.

All these comments have been gleaned from three years of being an administrator of the Facebook ‘Ask an Orthodox Priest’ group. In that time, it has grown from about one thousand to 9,800 members. Hundreds of thousands of comments have been made over a huge range of topics, moderated by a small team of 8 active admins.

The aphorism made below have been made in response to real questionsposed by real people, and in the context of other comments, advice and information provided by members, from learned theologians to somewhat ill-informed lay people, with quite a few opinionated clergy in between. The comments below have a context, and they have been removed from that context. They have also been typically written on a mobile phone, so represent a terse and truncated genre of writing, seeking convey a lot of complex meaning in a brief message. One day, when you have all had your chance to comment, I intend to sort them into themes and develop each aphorism into a more full response to publish as a book.

I pray that they will be read for what they are intended to be; pastoral, short and in plain English. I would value correction whereI have strayed beyond the boundaries of mainstream Orthodox Christianity.

Fr Timothy Curtis, 8th May 2015

1. Orthodoxy is never terse in its definitions. So the fullest expression of baptism is found in the Orthodox rite, includingbut not limited to full immersion in sanctified water, three times in the name of the Trinity. The minimum, by economia, isbaptism by intent (with sand if no water is available) by a lay person but the 'normal' rite is the fullest one. Where a full Orthodox right is possible, there needs to be no baptism by economia.

2. I think of Facebook as being a post-modern market-place, and this group as being a 'water well' around which people gather today to discuss, learn and debate. Some are antagonistic to the discussions, but many are hear to listen and learn. We arefree to walk away from the well to quieter pastures outside

the virtual village where there is less sinfulness on show, but the village is a worse place for our absence.

3. Firstly, we don't reach God, He reaches us. Secondly, the 'trappings' are our gift of adoration and thanksgiving back toGod. If you don't think that God is worthy of the best that wecan offer Him, together, then I can't comment. *Nothing* in Orthodox Christianity is essential, except for the Love of God, but many things are helpful for our salvation, for our spiritual healing, for our eternal life. You can be as flippant as you like, but we will remain utterly serious aboutour faith and traditions. The odd sarcastic remark won't budgeus

4. It's not absolutely required, but showing respect and humbleness regarding your body is really important. Some people think that covering your hair and an wearing long dresses is a sign of holiness. Think about it the other way round- if you love God, you won't need to show yourself off toother people, therefore you will end up wearing modest clothes. There is nothing worse than flashy women wearing headscarves, but with expensive perfume and make-up, showing off their jewels over their long, but very tight dresses. Modesty: that's is what is important. The same is true for men, please.

5. Your sins after baptism are not forgotten, and you won't forget giving up your chastity. 'Cleanliness' is not the objective here, but holiness, a life in communion with God. Sexual encounters (of any type) outside marriage are a distraction from that communion with God. I think you got it exactly right when you said " I don't think I should sin just because I know it'll be forgotten!" You can be perfectly loving with a boy without getting sexual. It's difficult, but not impossible. He needs to respect you better so that he doesn't "need sex". Otherwise, he doesn't love you, he just loves "sex".

6. f you want to be theological, read St Basil. His opinion on philanthropy was quite clear: if you have spare shoes you are worse than a bad philanthropist, you are a thief. Everything that we have, including profit, that we do not need is (for Basil) theft. Indeed, the Christian standard for philanthropy is to 'give the man your shirt' and Christ's standard is to

give your life for that person. We may wriggle about when thinking of governments taxing our wealth or say that we want to freely give to the poor, but I have yet to meet many people(including myself) who are willing to give away all that we have stolen from other people and which stock our cupboards, bursting with food and clothes that we don't need.

7. If the questions posed here seem ridiculous to us, then we arenot being humble, we are not meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. These are, for better or worse, the concerns that people (mostly) genuinely bring to this group. It may be a virtual meeting place, but we are all real people not computers. Before computers, people would ask these questions via letter or phone. I pray every day that more substantial questions are asked and that marginal questions disappear,

8. Don't conflate social justice with social welfare. Nor should we think that a welfare state removes the need or benefit of philanthropy or personal care. But, I am a product of a welfare state and I do believe that a welfare state is a good thing. That is not quite what you might mean by wealth redistribution but it is what I mean by moral citizenship (including moral corporate citizenship)

9. That's a legalistic way of thinking about it. If you were taking a course of medicine and died in a car crash on the wayto see your doctor, were you healed? Impossible to answer, because you were *being* healed. Same with the ministry of reconciliation, you are constantly *being* healed and receivedback into communion with the Church.

10. I have a parishioner who has a drug and alcohol problem. His doctor has said he cannot have any ...

11. We may have faith in God, but we are also here to heal humans, and to recognise their weaknesses, and not to lead them into temptation. I would advise communicating the parishioner with the Body only, with a blessing from the bishop. Or, with the Body on the spoon, with a tiny amount of Blood on the spoon may not cause harm, in its alcoholic content, especially if liberally diluted with water.

12. But although you have observed structure in the life of the church, it has, and continues to develop organically as a community of love. It rarely manifests itself as an *organisation* (except at a parish constition level where it

interacts with civil legal frameworks like charity law) rathermanifests itself as an *organism*, a body, The Body. It has a underdeveloped canon law which is rarely applied in a western civil law sense. The limited breadth of action and theology comes responsibility to the whole body rather than enforcementof legal organisational rules.

13. God doesn't change. We change. We have the Gospel of the Incarnation. If we reject it, we are worse than those who obeyed the law in their hearts but didn't experience the Gospel

14. Concerning the judgement of heterodox “They will be judged according to their deeds in keeping with the presence of God written on their hearts, whereas we will be judged according to Christ's mercy.”

15. We are made unique and have unique stories and are judgedby God as unique persons. To take a cookie cutter approach denies our unique humanity. Economia allows the church to temper the common rule and apply it to the healing of the person. Would we really want God to judge us consistently according to our sins, or according to His mercy?

16. Water is holy by virtue of Christ's baptism of all water in creation. All water should be treated with reverence

17. There is a small minority who consider 'ecumenism' to be a political theory, that all ecumenical activity is aimed at the lowest common denominator. This is then imputed on the leadership of the Church, assuming that every discussion or meeting with other Christian bodies is tantamount to selling out the whole of the Orthodox traditions and doctrines. Does going shopping mean that our leadership have also sold out lock stock and barrel to capitalism? No. This approach is erroneous for two reasons: it is presumptuous and disrespectful towards the leadership of the Church who are ourshepherds (I have visions of sheep herding shepherds) and secondly, it misunderstands the careful and detailed work thatis going on behinds the scenes of every meeting to make sure that Orthodoxy is not squandered.

18. Cigarettes, or e-cigs, are not sinful in their own right,it is our addictions to such behaviours that are sinful, that separate us from God. If your friend is no longer addicted, then she is to be commended.

19. On suicides “There are people who destroy their own life for nihilistic reasons, to beat God, to deny God exists, for honour, for the purposes of religious sacrifice. This is rare now, but was not uncommon in the Roman empire. Suicide today is most often nothing to do with this. It is most likely to befrom mental I'll health or despair, especially from not knowing God. Ged's point was that God would not judge harshly someone in the second category, whereas Mark's point was that those in the first category have condemned themselves to hell because they have denied God's sovereignty over their lives.”

20. Don't start with the aim to get to heaven, or avoid hell.That's the wrong objective. Love God and seek to do His will. Nothing else is important

21. Even the grape juice is wrong. Not about the fact that it's not alcoholic but that grape juice is not a human product. Bread and wine have to be made, from ground wheat andcrushed grapes. That's what makes the sacraments - a gift fromGod made by human hands and offered back to Him as our gift.

22. The complicated and laborious procedure that is our Divine Liturgy and Typikon is enormously healing for our souls. The fact that it is a struggle (podvig) is exactly the point. Faith in, and eternal life with, the crucified and resurrected Son of God doesn't involve comfy chairs and sound systems. It requires us to be transfigured.

23. Whilst Maximos the Confessor's contribution to the defence against monotheletism is vast, it is a poor reading ofhistory to think that he was the only defender in the church. He died before his viewpoint was confirmed by the Ecumenical Council, so other theologians, monks, priests, laypeople and bishops must have contributed to the thinking that lay behind the final acts of the council. In other words, he didn't achieve it on his own. The church is a whole community not a solitary heroic figure. This thinking comes from individualistic theological culture

24. A sacrament makes manifest the grace of God that already exists. God doesn't visit a lake, it is already His. The blessing of the lake makes His presence known to us.

25. I'm trying to keep this away from the specific example, but married life also includes chastity and ultimately celibacy, as we refrain (ideally) from sex during the times of

fasting and preparation for communion. Impotency does not equal celibacy. If one partner refuses to tackle the situation, then they seem not to be becoming 'one flesh' in the minds and their prayer life. I feel bad for them both. I am not sure that 'trying it out' before would have changed thesituation. They either would have not married, for a mechanical reason, or would still have married and still be inthe same situation.

26. The tragedy is that, like the time of Joachim and Anna, being childless is considered a tragedy and often breaks up marriages. My homily yesterday was about J&A turning humiliation into humility, through their perseverance, patience, experience and ultimately hope, they were blessed with one child in their very old age. Not all childless couples are blessed with children in their old age like J&A but it is possible to find spiritual children, through the parish life, and to 'bear fruit' in the Church. The man is more than a child producing machine, just as women are more than child producing machines. Marriage is for mutual salvation, in becoming one flesh through mutual self-giving, we find our salvation

27. On scarves in church: To close this thread, my response is: why have you all even noticed how other people are dressed? If you have noticed, you haven't focussed on God. Beware the beam in your own eyes when picking a mite out of your brothers' or sisters' eyes.

28. Let's be honest here, yes, of course clergy get bored sometimes and mostly when exhausted. That doesn't mean it's a good thing but it's a human thing. The difference is that clergy don't give up when they are bored but redouble their focus. Try saying the Jesus Prayer 500 times and NOT get distracted, even a tiny bit.

29. The Old Testament is also about the history of the peopleof God learning about him and their misunderstanding of Him and their disobedience. Christ reveals God as a God peace in the New Testament

30. he bible contains no theological errors about God. That does make it a scientific text that contains no contradictions. It also contains poetry and a variety of literary genres. We don't use it to *prove* things, we use it

to know and love God. It is a treasure of the church, written by humans inspired by the Holy Spirit. It does not stand separately from the church but exists within the living traditions of the praying community.

31. Sadly, it is not made clear that wearing a headscarf doesnot make a person worthy to receive holy communion, only Christ makes us worthy through his death and resurrection. This is where people get stuck with the externalities of faithand poor understanding of what the canons are for.

32. Another way of putting it: God allowed Adam and Eve to becompletely free. Free to love or reject Him. They rejected communion with Him.

33. All parents, including atheists and those who don't thinkabout these things, indoctrinate their children. That's calledculture. It is possible to imprint beliefs and values through fear and violence (inc symbolic) but religious people aren't the only ones that do that. Bringing our children up to understand why we believe what we do, and guiding them to makeautonomous choices is the mark of good parenting

34. Let's not go on and on about homosexuality. This is verging on an obsession.

35. I disagree that mass education is indoctrination. For me and millions it has been emancipation guided by wonderfully enlightened teachers resisting social and governmental pressures over the decades

36. It's impossible to separate modern atheism from the Christian revolution in ethics that fundamentally changed the way in which pagan religions operated. everything we see in modern, compassionate atheism has been informed and formed by Christian and other religious systems. It's not evolution to take an ethical framework and remove it from it's source, i.e God.

37. It is very much a church full of sinners. The difference between us and the world is that we know that we are sinners.

38. My faith puts gender in it's proper place, the sex of theperson is important where there sex is clearly linked to the 'thing' they are representing, but in all other things sex andgender are irrelevant. This means that we do not deny that women and men have some things that the other cannot do, but does not extend that difference to all unnecessary areas. I cannot give birth to a child, and therefore I am limited by my

sex, but most other things are not gendered, even though they have been socially gendered.

39. he church does engage with 'modernity' but as a radical alternative to the corruption and emotionalism of the times. It thinks much more carefully that some about the nature of humanity, and the nature of servanthood. To want to 'be' the chap who stands at the front of church buys completely into the male politics, and is not an alternative to it at all.

40. if we reduce women's ministry in our minds to tea and flowers, then we are more sexist than we think. I think of St Julitta whom we venerated last night, martyred for her faith, or St Elizabeth the New Martyr who set up the first modern church hospitals against the advice of her sexist bishops. We demean women when we claim that their ministry is just tea andflowers, and we also demean the ministries of hospitality and beauty. Get in the kitchen at church young man and make tea!

41. Times change, but not everything changes. We still breathe air don't we? No-one yet has denied that Jesus, God Incarnate, was not male. The priesthood stands 'in corpus Cristi', in the body of Christ at the Liturgy/Mass. Ministry, like that of the deacons or Mary and Martha is not a gendered role, and is nothing to do with the exercise of power within the Church. The two get conflated. The Orthodox church has a long way to go to better incorporate lay decision-making into it's power structures (which I have been working on with my diocese) but that is about everyone being involved, not just including women, but also men. The decision-making in a parishshould be a balance between the priest/clergy (deciding on what should be prayed about and when) and the lay people (men and women) undertaking Christian ministry. There should be no exercise of *power over* but the authority of servanthood.

42. In Orthodoxy, we have a view of God as not just creating but constantly sustaining His creation. So we are thankful a) for creating creation, b) for sustaining that creation despitewhat we do to it c)for protecting us from that creation d)for showing us Himself, e)for showing us how to be perfect (and stop damaging that creation) and f) for showing us that we areimmortal and not limited to this particular existence (becausewe generally think that we disappear when we die). That's

enough reason for me, but mostly because He is the essence, the ultimate definition of and incarnation of Love.

43. ancient faith relates to the unbroken organic unity of faith passed from the Apostles by the Orthodox church. Fallingin love with it relates that we want people to become Orthodoxfor positive reasons rather than because there is something wrong with their own church.

44. this obsession with leadership denies the true catholicity of the church and collapses church service into 'whose boss'. Of course, Orthodoxy should continue to develop its principal of sobornost or conciliarity. It should never abandon silent service and still humility.

45. When social cohesion becomes the primary function of the holy space then the church ceases to be sacramental and is reduced to social work. Whilst Orthodoxy has been deeply committed to social justice it has not abandoned the sacred for the social

46. The objective of the Jesus Prayer is to pray without any image in your head, but that requires a very experience spiritual guide and lots of time and practice. Our parish say the Jesus Prayer before the iconostasis, so that even if you are distracted, Christ is there.

47. All sexual attraction is a basic emotion, what the Fathers of the Church call a 'passion', like our emotive response to food. If we are not careful, it controls us, rather than the other way round. I didn't try and say that same sex attraction isn't deep and meaningful, but that is still emotion. Sadly, the 'real world' as you put it is a world of fantasy and shadows. I am not condemning you or anyone who experiences same or other-sex attraction. I AM saying that humans are more than our basic emotions or biological imperatives. If we are only that, we are not free.

48. modern psychology is in its infancy but the psychotherapyto be found in the Philokalia is based on sound theory and evidence. It shows that we can, and should, transcend our base'animal' psychology. Of course we know that children are sexual beings very early but we can also form and 'work on' our basic psychology to improve it and change it. Otherwise, we are not free, we are slaves to our animal instincts and

therefore not human. The quote is more than cute, its scripture and speaks directly to real world problems

49. Our sexuality need not define any of us. We are better than mere basic psychology. We are more than just a bundle of base emotions.

50. Some of us are trying not to be bigots. The point is thatany form of sexuality is subject to continence, even inside marriage. I'm sorry that your sexuality defines you. I pray that you allow God to define you.

51. Small traditions change all the time because they are living communities. The merging of the parish and monastic traditions that gave us the shape of the modern vespers service didn't get written and sent to a committee of bishops-it happened because the Holy Spirit willed it, bishops allowedit and the laity accepted it. The hymnography of the church and the music likewise. Most theology happens in the same way.Ecumenical Councils only intervene to steer us away from severe examples of heresy like Arianism.

52. Praying alongside? Pray with? Wherein the difference? We said that same words together, and we meant the same thing. Wecan say the Lord's prayer and the Creed together, and we mean the same thing. But we don't mean the same thing in all material things (the seven ecumenical councils and the living Tradition that we experience in the Orthodox Church together) and that causes a pain in my side too.

53. We both know and understand that which separates us and that which we hold in common. We also understood the context within which that simple prayer for guidance by the Holy Spirit was made. We shared what we hold in common and offered to God that which separates us. You know that I respectfully consider Protestantism to be an unfortunate result of the schism between Constantinople and Rome and desire that all be united under one visible church, without pre-judging what thatchurch would look like in the Holy Spirit. My interlocutor is using the canons for something that they are not designed, andthat is as a replacement for the Living Faith. The canons are not 'once and for all'. They are to be applied with care by the physicians of the church, for the healing of the souls andbodies of those under their care. It is prelest to take those same canons and use them to punish the hierarchs without

understanding all the canons and which are applied and which are in abeyance. It is a common legal principle that a legal instrument may continue to be in force but never enforced.

54. If we are to be One Church, we are to meet non-Orthodox Christians at the well and offer them Living Water, not keep the Water to ourselves.

55. The canons are a medical reference manual for the spiritual physicians of the church, not a legal text with which we can bash the said physicians.

56. The content of astrology is fiction but the intent is to tell people how to act, robbing you of your freedom in Christ,and is therefore anti-Christian

57. Please don't say 'I kiss your hand' in written communication. It is cringe worthy. If you are in the presenceof a priest, then you may try to kiss his hand, if you can.......

58. we know the borders of the communion of the Orthodox church, for sure, a la Florovsky, but we don't know the borders of grace

59. It's not a communicable disease. Sin is essentially wilfulness, selfishness. We have all seen innocent children being self-centred- this is the heart of our sinfulness- to want what we want rather than God's will.

60. Be guided by your father confessor, not a text. It is a sacrament and a relationship, not an incantation

61. I am a priest and am intolerant, but mostly to the preservatives in bread. Of course I commune with joy and have no side effects. The point here is that the sacrament is not magic, it is still bread as well as the Body of Christ. We allalready sick and we receive the Body and Blood for the healingof soul and body. But babies receive only fragments and wheat intolerant can receive fragments just as alcohol intolerants receive mostly the Body. We all receive God insofar as we are capable, like the disciples on Mount Tabor.

62. Fashion, vanity, habit. None of which relate to modesty. Mini skirts, lipstick and jewelry are not cancelled out by a headscarf, and tight jeans, too much cologne, and expensive labels are not cancelled out by fancy short haircuts.

63. Unfortunately, the desire to be modestly dressed in church and in life has been reduced to whether hair is

covered/short or not. This is a Pharisaical influence on the church. Everyone should dress modestly and not to be noticed by other people/ostentatiously. Local and contemporary understanding of what 'modest' looks like varies, but if you are too busy looking, you should be praying more.

64. Orthodox means Right Glory- to ensure that we are offering the Right Worship to the Right God is very important.We care if people get their understanding of God, or Christ wrong. That doesn't have to involve anger or condemnation (although sadly history doesn't reflect that) but to carefullyexplore, explain and encounter each other will, little by little, allow us to return to being One in Christ. It does matter. What doesn't matter is the egos that get in the way.

65. Christ's resurrected body was in human form (wounds and eating) but transfigured into something suprahuman- appearing and disappearing, ascending etc. We can't know what that really means for us humans, in human terms, I explain it by saying Christ ascended into 'all space, all time', ie eternity.

66. In the Holy Spirit, we freely make own life. We are dependant on Him not as unwilling and unfree slaves but as serfs.

67. Schismatic thinking comes from prelest- thought that one's own opinion is purer than everybody else. Of course, we are all called to fight for truth and not accept the drift of theology towards heresies, as did St Maximos the Confessor, who died in schism from the church. But most modern schismaticgroups mistake calendar for doctrine. Their view is that all details that change are a degradation of the faith.

68. theology in Orthodoxy is an unfinished choral piece not asingle systematic and unchanging document, so while iconography is very conservative on the whole, and infused with theology, within the constraints of theology and style, there are many variations and variant themes.

69. Orthodoxy satisfactorily holds mutually contradictory andparadoxical ideas about reality in one system of thought, likea human being 100% God and 100% human, or wine being both fermented grape juice and God

70. Nihilism is a belief in nothing, but even that is a belief, and therefore cannot be a belief in nothing, except a

belief in nihilism. So everyone has a belief system (some moreorganised than others) but not all belief systems require a God.

71. I have atheists all the time telling me that other thingsare more important than God: money, taxes, mortgages, pensions, shopping, gravity, science, GCSEs. All these are non-theist gods.

72. Well, syntax and rhythm can be used creatively and poetically to render sacred the profane. The objective of liturgy is to set apart out of the ordinary, to sacralise the ordinary, not to make them hygenically separate. I think a 'somewhat' different tilt and timbre of language is essential,but twiddly bits like 'thee and thou' don't make English poetic or sacred.

73. The ONLY way to God is through Christ, the best way to know Christ is through his apostles who gave us the church and(much later) the canon of the bible. The best way to Christ isto be humbly obedient to the experience of those who come before us, rather than trying to invent our own

74. The ritual enactment of events in the scriptures that we call worship and sacraments create the conditions for the Christian to participate in, rather than merely remember or observe, the mystery of the incarnation of God.

75. Marriage is for binding two people into one soul. It is afurnace of salvation. It is where two people learn to obey another person and to live selflessly. That is God's purpose

76. Humans have used marriage for many diverse purposes, including mostly the exchange of goods and power between families and tribes. The church blesses the marriage by crowning it, but does not contract the marriage.

77. Economia is only validly exercised by the bishop. It is the pastoral application of the norms and canons of the churchto a specific and local situation. Exercising economia does not change the rules or create new rules, or diminish the rules, but 'bends' them or interprets them in a pastoral context, for our human weakness. It is not 'I think' or 'I want' but an obedient response to pastoral guidance from a spiritual father or parish priest, and they do so under the guidance of their bishop or abbot. An example might be

allowing a sick person to fast less strictly than is the standard

78. We are all hypocrites. Being Orthodox doesn't instantly cure us of that sin. Love Orthodox Christianity for what it is, rather than what you don't like in your own church.

79. The reality is that Orthodox Christianity IS part of the (post)modernist fairground/marketplace/smorgasbord. Do we stand on the sidelines and wring our hands hoping it will go away? No, we do what happened in all the heresies that createda marketplace of religion, we do what St Paul when he saw the smorgasbord of Roman deities. We engage, we communicate, we challenge.

80. money is a function of trust and value. Without money we would need to barter, and to barter we would need more trust and social connections than we do now. Money represents (but not is identical) to our ability to persuade people to be niceto us and give us what we want

81. I sometimes think that you deliberately try to dissemble my comments. You know that the format of fb isn't suitable forlong form theology. The purpose of my comments are not to provide a complete and detailed systematic theology but to point to the mystery of God as short form poetry.

82. It causes us to pause and think anew. The scriptures are not a moral code in themselves. Only Christ is our moral compass.

83. We could do what Jesus did for the Samaritan woman at thewell. he didn't shout at her from across the yard, he went up to her and offered her Living Water, in other words, he offered her himself.

84. Symbolism is a reflection of spiritual reality into this world, not just 'mere symbol'. It is very important that the language of that 'deeper symbolism' is understood and taught, not taken for granted or removed.

85. I would think that being part of a carefully planned relationship of obedience to an experienced spiritual father would be very important. Knowing one's limits and triggers will be essential, and being able to recognise when you are engaging too intensively in the compulsion. Orthodoxy is such a rich resource of prayers and traditions, your compulsions may know no bounds. At the heart of Orthodox Christian

practice is 'knowing oneself', with the help of a spiritual guide to whom you surrender your compulsion. That person will be able to put limits around your prayer times and help you recognise where faith in a Healing God tips over into religiosity.

86. We are taught to obsess about our bodies, to discipline them into twisted simulacra of our humanity. And yet our obsession with our flesh, controlling it and letting it hang out, hiding and showing it, is seated in a idea that we can only be perfect in our minds, separated from out physicality. Instead, we can heal our flesh, our physicality so that mind and body are reunited and become 'super' human again.

87. Only God knows our true worth and that worth is expressedin 'becoming' Christ-like, not in 'being' Christian in a completed and passive manner

88. I was thinking of God as a transcendent person who is beyond the frailties and failures of humans, but from whom we get our humanity. Humans are flawed and judge my external behaviour and not my intent. They judge my flaws and not my struggle. Only God knows my true worth because God made me.

89. I have a great deal of respect for the Ignatian exercisesand we must work, little by little, towards sharing the altar again. But we should not rush to the altar like a young couplein love! We must forge a unity with tough and honest love.

90. Indeed, therefore freedom does not exist as a good in itsown right. It is only in submitting our will (to God, and God alone) can we be truly free. Therefore, we can only be truly free when we are no longer chained by the cares of this world,including its putative freedoms

91. Those physically imprisoned and tortured as martyrs were still spiritually free. these technologies are very different from real imprisonment and torture (although are a hidden formof attempts to control us). If we allow our minds to be controlled by such superstitions, we are making ourselves the very slaves the governments and captalists want us to be. Be free, my friend, for Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit. Do not be imprisoned by chains of your own making

92. Those outside the church are judged according to their deeds. Those inside the church are judged according to the sacrifice of Christ and their faith.

93. We can use all of our senses, not just our ears, to apprehend the Love of God. The message has to be given and explained using every sense perception. I'm not worrying aboutsymbolism and tradition, but I am concerned at closing down channels of communication.

94. if the sign still points to the signified but the reader doesn't understand the sign, is it better to remove the sign or explain the sign again. My (mostly brit converts) congregation has no problem in learning the language of that signification and it opens up a whole new world of meaning. I wouldn't want to close down that world of meaning.

95. To say that clothing, and hence our bodily sensations, don't matter is close to dualism - as long as it's right in your mind your body is inconsequential.

96. He did indeed embrace humanity at Bethlehem, and therefore I should not stand in His way. Seen from the back, as they should, vestments cover the body of the man at the altar because my particular humanity should diminish before His humanity

97. Holiness is invisible. Vestments function to hide the human standing in corpus Christi in order to give glory to God.

98. On vocations: Be a regular parishioner, serve people in the parish, be at all the services, and ask the priest if you can help in the altar. Leave everything else to God, and His bishop. Don't have any goal in mind except the service of Christ

99. Let's not judge but offer love and compassion. If we are to judge because we cannot help ourselves, let us judge by actions not what people say

100. A powerful medicine, one that has power over both Life and death, should be handled with caution, with the appropriate diet and accompanying (spiritual) exercises. The Gift is free, and we are made worthy to receive it by God's grace. It needn't mean that, because we haven't earnt it, we need trivialise it.

101. God did indeed make bodies that look like man and woman but their biological, hormonal and genetic makeup are deeply complex. Are these the result of ancestral sinfulness and disease or given by God? We cannot know. If the complexity is disease then we must seek to heal. If it is God's divine plan,then we are even more deeply challenged.

102. Getting married doesn't excuse sexual incontinence103. Is the desire that is created when someone looks at the

curve of a neck or shape of a thigh a fixed 'orientation'? We honestly don't know. Are sexual orientations fixed and immutable? It's not clear? Not every is born genetically or hormonally male or female, so what does that mean for our 'orientations'? Sexuality per se is mysterious and powerful which is why the church has sought to tame it and its effects.That doesn't give us permission to demonise one part of the body of God without entering into their own crucifixion.

104. Which is morally courageous, to shout at the Samaritan woman at the well to move out the way so that a Jewish rabbi can drink, or go to offer her Living Water?

105. I am not speaking about Christian witness through good works or the sermon on the mount - those are not moralisms, they are the Gospel. The moralism that I and Olivier Clement speak of are an ideology of social control through focusing onpetty behaviours rather than repentance and love of Christ.

106. I don't presume to understand what other people mean by aword like sin, I find it unhelpful. So I work on understandingwhat their relationship with God across the whole of their life is like, rather than zeroing in on specific or individualbehaviours.

107. God of the old testament was a wrathful God, and God in the New Testament is a God of Love. Has God changed His mind? No. Our experience of God as we develop as a people of God hasdeveloped and changed, just as a child who experiences a slap from a parent when doing something dangerous experiences wrathand only later understands loving kindness.

108. IF homosexuality is about as involuntary as me having brown eyes, then we have to really work hard to understand theextra burden this places upon a section of our community. Whatis critically important in all of this judgementalism is STRUGGLE. I hear many confessions from people struggling with

their own heterosexual sexuality, married and single. I also hear many confessions from people who think that their sexuality is perfectly fine, but I know them well enough that their married sexual acts are likely to be self focussed and often quite brutal, but they have no sense of struggle, they are self justified.

109. Be the profligate sower, sowing the seeds of God's love and grace in all corners of the world. Do not withdraw into quietism, but use prayer in the cell of your heart but then goout and spread the Good News.

110. The fast is to prompt struggle/podvig. If the fast, no matter how strict or perfectly achieved, does not result in podvig, it results in pride/prelest.

111. You are thinking that Jesus died to protect us from a wrathful judgemental God and this is not the case. He was incarnate to reconcile us to God and overcome death by His death. He doesn't plead for us before a judging God, he has achieved our salvation as God

112. synergism is an Orthodox term where we act in response toGod's free gift. We are radically free, and are free to acceptor reject God grace. therefore Mary (not just once and for allbut) constantly accepted the grace of God to resist temptationand chose to bear God in the flesh. Whilst she is an ordinary human being with no superhuman powers, she has shown us what we are all capable of if we try- to be 'as like unto God', to raise up the image and likeness of God in ourselves.

113. you will note that as soon as we have said statements like 'more honourable than the cherubim....' we turn to the icon of Christ and worship Him. Our devotion to Mary is ALWAYSmediated through our relation to Christ. We worship Christ as a group, bound together, not alone, and amongst us stands she who loved more than any other, Mary.

114. Whatever translation you use, read it 'in church' and with the 'mind of tradition', not alone and not with only the bible as your guide. The bible is a treasure within the livingtradition of the people of God, not a dry text to be read 'sola'.

115. Don't stop reading the OT but read it through the lenses of the New Covenant. Too many errors come from excessive reading of the OT, in my experience

116. I think the examples you cite great examples of conflating the repentance of the people of God with the fortunes of a state, as if God is rewarding the state for the prayers. In each case you cite a person, rather than a state (although some are powerful enough to seem to be identified with the state). But states/countries are abstracts, constructed by us. There is nothing essentialist about states.The 'nation' of Israel were an organic unity far different from the modern nation-state that we are used to, more of a familial tribe. Their understanding, recorded in the OT, of God at the time was that He punishes through misfortune. Another way of reading it is: ignore God and you will lose allyou consider valuable. This is different to the 'ignore God and He will punish you.' The presence of Christ in the gospelsis about persons rather than nations, concrete reality rather than abstract.

117. we should read a whole lot more new testament, and seek arelationship with the Living God, not try and make the old testament fit modern politics.

118. We do not love God enough. We love our own opinions more and there fore we sin. Even the idea that a particular countryis especially blessed, and then abandoned because of sin, is passive aggressive avoidance of our own role in political events.

119. I think we need to put away our hyper alertness to heresyand learn to obey our fathers in Christ. It's like finding thedevil under every stone. Let's stop heresy hunting and listen obediently and humbly.

120. Stop guddling around in the shallows for easy to catch ideas and moralisms. Cast out into the depths of encounter with the living God.

121. On homilies: If I can't remember what to say without notes, then my congregation won't remember what I said. Three minutes will be fine.

122. Faith also needs ritualised action which binds people in their focus on God into a community not just a collection of individuals. If religion is collective appeasement of a wrathful God, then religion is dead. If community expresses itself in ritual then it will remain a community.

123. your personhood is not lost in communion as it is in communism, subtle difference.

124. I agree with not reducing Orthodoxy to an economic systembut we can no more abstain from capitalism that we can abstainfrom breathing, it IS the global way of organising human life right now.

125. Heaven just won't be heaven if you don't believe in God. Imagine spending eternity in the loving presence of an entity you actively avoided during your life, even if you were a goodperson.

126. Marx actually wrote 'religion is the sigh of the oppressed......' was he wrong on this? He then goes on the saythst religion stops people revolting because we are taught to accept that oppression

127. It is fundamentally different from the three week old evangelical convert rushing off to convert people through social services. The superficiality of the effort means that it has no deep spiritual value. (Not all evangelical mission is like this, but you get the drift). Once the Orthodox Christian has become an icon of Christ, then she is ready to serve those who do not know God. The encounter with God is notabout information and marketing, but a deep encounter with Life.

128. The primary task of the Orthodox Christian is to work outtheir salvation, and through that be evangelical, as a secondary feature. I would imagine that monasticism has attracted many more converts over the centuries than modern evangelicalism

129. outside a monastery it is easy to be distracted by busyness and entertainment and believe that we dont sin much. Being a monk means that you spend a lot of time 'bored' with little to distract you from seeing and experiencing your own sinfulness.

130. In marriage our ascetic life is eliminating our selfish passions is preference for another. In monasticism, doing the same without a spouse to accompany us om the journey

131. we are unified but not uniform, as each of us is uniquelymade in Christ. We are also more similar than it may seem sometimes

132. t is important not to a) read scriptures as an individualand b) individual texts to create dogma. We understand the scriptures as a communion, a historical community and we individual scripts in the context of all scripture and all teaching of the church. This does not lead to scholastic systematic majesterium statements but a deeper understanding of the love of God

133. I concur that absolute truth exists but I am not clear how absolute certainty is arrived at.

134. My experience is that many people think that marriage is the 'get out clause' for sexual incontinence. Not so. Marriagedoes not mean a sexual free for all, any which way. If we findourselves abusing ourselves and our spouse with self involved and selfish sex then we are no better than a monastics who acts on sexual temptation. Monastic life is not asexual, unless the monk was already an asexual. Monastic life is full of the eros and full of temptation. The same is true of the married life. Celibates are just as qualified to speak about sexuality. One does not have to be a murderer to speak authentically about life.

135. cohorts of young Slavs who visit my parish suffering fromthe oppression of partially taught rules and told to obey without understanding why and being damaged by incomplete discipleship

136. The abstention is often couched in 'unworthiness' talk. I'm referring to several confessions I have heard where someone has been told by their priest or confessor to refrain from communion. I don't contradict that advise, but it is often expressed in the confessee as 'I am unworthy'- we are never worthy by our own effort and yet Christ makes us worthy

137. It's the fundamentalist, literalist atheists that are theproblem. Do they literally believe that I believe in an old man in the sky?

138. Sure, worship in traditional churches is boring by youth standards, but being bored, and being able to be bored/idle, is a critical skill in an overstimulated culture. Traditional churches die when they cease to allow young people to be a bitbored and noisy in church services. Further, youth activities and services that are in addition to, rather than instead of, the single community at prayer is essential.

139. I do not call myself Orthodox, I wouldn't presume such arrogance. My bishop has called me Orthodox and his Patriarch has confirmed that.

140. Falling, failing, repenting and starting again forgiven IS the Christian life. Tell him not to be despondent and not to give up. We are praying for him. He does not need to be perfect now for God has made him worthy by his faith. Trying to be perfect is what he will do for the rest of his life.

141. If a pagan asks for a blessing they must know Christ in some way, no matter how poorly formed. Its something to build on.

142. The Councils of the Church are like boundary markers indicating that which is not Christian. Be careful not to spend so much time studying the sign posts that you never visit His house in the centre of town

143. Canons are not as definitive and stable as many hope. Theobedience is always to a Person not a law or rule.

144. Laws are lots of things, but what they are not are to orient people to Godliness. We must look to God to become Godly, not law.

145. We should be arguing against all those who abuse spouses and children in (whatever) unions regardless of whether they have been blessed by the church or not. Western culture is noteroding any more than it was 200 years ago. In fact, Christianculture is now more honest than it has ever been.

146. All reading requires discernment and a living spiritual father can authentically assist you with understanding how to read the bible and the philokalia with the mind and practice of the Church. They are only dangerous insofar as we are infected with the sin of egotism and self-will. We like to read our own predilections into texts, rather than letting thetexts read to us.

147. We should be much more concerned at the plank of judgmentalism in our eyes than the speck in someone else's.

148. Our worth is endowed on us by God. God's worth is such that we are all unworthy by comparison. Then we are free to realise our inherent worth rather than that offered by other humans.

149. Those whose lives are dysfunctional and don't stand up toGod's standards are those who are worth fighting for and with,

not against. There is no-one who does not sin and this hospital is open to all the sick, not just the worthy.

150. What impresses me most about this thread is the obvious extreme humility of some of the commentators. So humble that they are keen to wash other people's dirty laundry in public whilst refusing to check the state of their own.

151. Synergy, my friend, synergy. This doesn't nullify the first statement that there is no salvation outside the Church.It means that two items are synergistically essential, and oneis not superior to the other. There are those within the visible Church who will not see salvation because they do not internally repent. There are also those outside the visible church who may see salvation because God has judged them according to their goodness rather than through Christ's Resurrection

152. Marriage is the joining of two people in one flesh beforeGod (not really possible to do it behind God). Later it becomes a community institution- to control society and who should lie with whom

153. If we understand Adam and Eve to be married, then an 'cleaving together as one flesh' constitutes marriage. Therefore 'sex before marriage' doesn't exist- any sex constitutes marriage. A boyfriend/girlfriend are thus married.Do they have to divorce? Will the children be recognised? Can they share property?

154. The clericalisation of the church (and the tescoisation of the church) has led the laity to be consumers of church services and the leadership of the church to be glorified social workers

155. The Bible is the Logos of God, reflecting, in human terms, the mind or thought of God. It's easy to look at one verse and present an argument, but that is not Christ centred.Look again at this verse with Christ in the centre of your mind. You can see Christ writ large in this text, being the guilt offering in order to fulfil the guilt offering, to transcend the Law

156. You'll be surprised how much Orthodox Christian spirituality is in this statement- to be truly free to live bychoice and not the slave of others or the self. The only thingthat needs clarifying is that God is the 'inner voice' as the

natural inner voice is full of habits and emotions and therefore not truly free.

157. God reveals himself to us not through sense perception asif from outside-in, but directly from within our hearts, from inside-out. That perception of God by the soul is more reliable than our external perceptions

158. paradoxically, Christ does all the hard work, when we learn to truly rely on Him. To aid that process, the fasts aregiven to us to discipline the body and to render it weak, so that we don't rely on our own strength so much.

159. To be an evangelist is to go out and preach the Good Newsof God Incarnate. This is not quite the same as protestant understandings of 'winning souls for Christ' as a good work. Nevertheless, go, pray in silence as preparation and then tellyour friends about Christ. Show them an icon of Christ and explain how we can do this, because God became Man for us and our salvation from death.

160. Forgive seventy times seven. We are impatient, but God waits millennia with unfailing patience.

161. Remember, the Church of Christ is not degraded by heterodox opinions and thought. We may be offended and feel degraded, but God is bigger than we are. Its our job to draw the heterodox to wards the church, not hold them at bay as is they are unclean.

162. But what joy, to worship in a tin shed. Had there been corrugated iron in Bethlehem, Christ God would have been born in a tin shed.

163. Bit by bit we learn to trust God only. Humans are always going to fail our expectations, but if we trust God, He will not fail us. Confession helps to build that relationship with God.

164. This is all part of a seamless garment of faith. Confession makes no sense isolated from prayer, fasting and their objective: which is communion of, and in, Christ. It makes no sense to rock up to church, make a confession and take communion, and then nothing else. Nor does any of the other aspects of faith make sense without confession.

165. We have to be ready to accept that forgiveness already given to us by the incarnation of Christ. The priest stands byas a witness and confirms that the sins against God are

forgiven, and the sins against the church community are also forgiven. This is a slightly artificial distinction, but it will do to illustrate my point.

166. we need to understand actually what happens in confession. We don't make our confession to a priest - he is just a witness on behalf of the rest of the church community. We are still part of an organic Body of Christ, not just an individual, so part of our confession is recognising wherever actions and attitudes have harmed the community. Then there isthe part of our confession which is directed entirely to God, where we admit our inability to meet the target he has set forus to become fully human.

167. God does know everything about us, he searches every fibre of our being to know us. he doesn't need a priest intermediary, but we do.

168. Sometimes a charismatic monk can cause havoc in a parish and undermine the office of the parish priest, which is what you may be referring to. Parishioners end up shooting off to the monastery for 'important' services and neglect the realityof their worldly life in pursuit of doses of what they see as genuine holiness. On the flip side, the parish priest can be rather too concerned with the rules of the church around who can hear who's confession and who is able to confirm absolution. This can narrow the life of the parish to mere formalism and quench the holy spirit. Both movements need to remain in tension- neither should exist without the other, as they limit each other and can together make a parish life veryfulfilling and spiritually fed from the monastery and vice versa.

169. Some people will flit around spiritual fathers but that is unhealthy shopping mentality. A spiritual guide needs to agree to take on that burden, and once agreed should be a longterm relationship. It doesn't always work out, but that's life. Ideally that person should be a monk/nun, because they can concentrate on praying for you. This doesn't exclude asking other people for help and opinion, but your primary spiritual and life decisions should be informed by the guidance and prayers of your spiritual father

170. I suspect, contrary to modern political correctness, the spiritual relationship even between two females is still

modelled on spiritual Fatherhood rather than motherhood, with the ideal being the relationship between God the Father and God the Son, not between Mary and Jesus.

171. Orthodox Christians are 'reason endowed sheep' not lemmings.

172. I don't think misfortune is random, unless you mean that randomness in the effect of ancestral sin? I think society andit's structures are sinful because if the sum total of millions of little sinful acts and attitudes over the centuries.

173. the Theotokos was not sinless in the same sense as Christ(I'm trying to avoid using that word 'ontological'). Christ iswithout intrinsic sin-committing ability, whereas the Theotokos, as fully human, was not. Nevertheless, her humbleness and obedience to God was such that her level of theosis was (almost?) perfect, and certainly the highest levelof any human.

174. Repentance is to turn away from 'that which is not God' (evil). Sticking with your apple pie simile- you have lovinglymade the apple pie, building it up from flour and chopped apple into a perfect creation. You don't have to taste it to appreciate its beauty. (God also has created the stuff of apples and flour- so knows what it is from its quantum particles upwards- which we can't do. he knows its very essence). Even without tasting it, you can experience the painof someone stealing it, not eating it, but smashing it up and mixing it in the dirt.

175. God does not abort babies- our sinfulness in not providing the best possible environment and health for child bearing, and disease and human ills lead to miscarriages. God is not a demon who goes around killing babies, He gives us theresponsibility and freedom to prevent miscarriages, but we don't use that freedom fully.

176. One might say that we are all priests of God's kingdom inthat our prayers as baptised Christians sanctify all of creation. Clerical priests take parts of the creation (wine, oil, bread, water) and dually offer it to God through the HighPriest, who is the True Sacrifice, and receive it from Him to feed his priesthood of all believers.

177. Order is a pattern we see in nature. Randomness doesn't mean a lack of planning, just a pattern of activity that God uses to sustain His creation. Otherwise, we impute upon God anorder which is our own and not His. He can be random and ordered, and still Love and consistently loving.

178. The eison was taken up by new age music in the 80s, and then by trance

179. I have been taught that confession is not a gateway to communion, but regular confession with regular communion is a holy path.

180. My children go to a state funded Catholic school. I don'tbuy this seperatist mentality when it comes to schooling, although being free to talk about God in the corridors withoutbeing beaten up is a good thing. Teach your children about thefaith at home and church, and let them become salt and light to the schools they attend with everyone else

181. Teaching also involves guiding the student to the correctunderstanding, so that they can 'own' the implications of the information. It is not limited to the broadcasting of facts, no matter how seemingly self evident.

182. As you know, I have never written sermons, but always focussed on unpacking one small detail in the readings, lectiodivina style, in order to shed light on the rest of the reading.

183. To require intellectual assent would mean to exclude manypeople whose mental capacity is impaired. When the function ofgodparent as spiritual guide is lost, then the assent of the 'family' to the faith on behalf of the child is also lost. Didmy babes in arms fail to recognise me as father by sight, or my wife as mother by her smell and touch? No. Therefore, children can also perceive God, in a more clear way than us muddled and confused adults.

184. it is a comfortable myth that Orthodoxy has not changed over the centuries. The Church has changed and must change (but very slowly and carefully) to speak to each new people ineach generation. What does stay the same is Christ, and what the church teaches about Christ. The theology (theory of God) stays the same, but the practices that communicate that theology have changed- from Greek words to Slavonic words, forinstance.

185. As someone who spends a little of his time looking at congregations rather than being in them, the older people do have a difficult time restraining their facial reactions to children being children, and parents often going beetroot in ntrying to keep a child in suppressed silence so as not to disturb anyone, with no-one winning out.

186. What if someone abandons their faith?' If someone falls away because of poor teaching or a unsupportive congregation, but still led a life oriented towards the good, then I think that person would be judged according to the law in their hearts. On the other hand, if I were to nihilstically reject all the teachings of Christ and become anti-Christian in a specific and directed way, then I would imagine the judgement will be according to the Love of Christ.

187. One lesson I learnt (I'm trying to come up with a list of'thing you need to grasp to 'get' the Orthodox mindset) is 'don't collapse the paradox'. When discussions descend into argument here is because two parties want their side of a paradox to be the 'right' one. I have found that they are a)usually asking the wrong question and therefore b) the Truthis found in the gaps in their argument. I don't know how patristic that idea is, but it works....

188. heaven and hell are not different places, but our differing responses to the Glory of God. So, the repentant criminal who gives away what he has stolen would, I suppose, experience the Glory of God as love not eternal fire. So, heaven, not hell.

189. Sometimes a parishioner is not ready to be healed, and the priest grows weary of applying the balm.

190. Patriarchates are founded on centres rather than boundaries. It wasn't until Theodore of Canterbury (?) that dioceses gained definitive boundaries. Before that all church and secular politics were centred around a polis, with limiteddefinition of boundaries between one polis and another.

191. This attitude, sadly, seems quite common, that suffering abuse (even from a fellow Christian) is a spiritual challenge.Whilst this may be so, I don't think that suffering the abuse passively is an opportunity for spiritual growth. Others standing by and watching the abuse are cowards.

192. Hell is his exercise of freedom not to believe. The consequence of his atheism will be to experience the Love of God as torture. He assumes death is a bad thing, but we know eternal life is better. Pain and suffering is the free consequence of our wilfulness, and our opportunity to do something about it, not God's responsibility to tidy up our mess.

193. I baptise adults in a nearby lake, if possible, but have been told off by fanatics who insist that the baptism must occur inside a church, until I showed the icon of the baptism of the Rus

194. We're in danger of being seduced by propositional theology here. The fact of the matter, in Orthodoxy, is that that validity of a sacrament flows from the bishop, not a theoretical 'essence of baptism' argument. If a bishop baptises a person with water in the name of the trinity, the actual form of baptism is valid. So in Serbia, for historical reasons, baptism by sprinkling is accepted. Therefore baptism by sprinkling is 'valid' in the Orthodox church, just unusual.

195. The widows mite was worth more than the tithe.196. I think we are hearing here, that intellect isn't the

same as how we 'know' God. We can apprehend God in a myriad ofways, as children do. Often, our intellect gets in the way because it gives us pride that we might think and reason our way to God.

197. If the Jesus prayer was to be practised such that it can become an unconscious act (rather than just a frontal lobe activity), then we can see very clearly how it would effect our whole life.

198. Manual work, it seems to me, is condusive to single minded prayer, but knowledge work (which is a huge part of modern economies) is not.

199. As for 'myth' - that doesn't mean that 'myth' is untrue- the word 'myth' points to a reality greater than the story given- like a parable or children's fairy tale- they point to realities behind the words of the story. I have no problem with the 'mythology' of the Christian story- it doesn't mean that it is wrong, untrue or unscientific.

200. I think the ideas that tehre is a straightfoward link between sexual morality and poverty is very problematic. Are

you saying that all the married couples who see their childrendie of starvation in Ethiopia whilst we are debating this issue on our expensive technology are somehow immoral?

201. heavenly beings are very different from humans. The tradition is that angels are 'messages' or 'tasks' rather thanbeings that have shape or form. The image of angels as humans with wings has more to do with Wim Wenders than it does with Jewish or Christian angeology.

202. From memory, Judas was present at the Last Supper but left to 'make arrangements' before the breaking of bread. there is a line of thought that Judas was not intrinsically evil and wished to destroy Jesus, but that he thought his own way was best. Remember that Peter also betrayed Christ three times. I am intrigued by the notion that Jusdas destroyed himself out of despair, believing that God could not/would notforgive him.

203. It's interesting, as a 'purveyor of religion', as a priest, an Orthodox priest at that, I can see how so many people confuse what I do, and what I am, with religion. what apriest and his congregation do, when in Church praying the liturgy is offer back the Love that has been offered freely tous. Thine of thine own. What I do, as a priest, becomes religion when I get in the way of that Love, when I encourage falsehood rather than authenticity as humans.

204. we return to the intention that lies behind the act, rather than the sinfulness of the act per se. Every time thereis a hot debate in this thread, is seems to emerge from a lackof distinction between the act and the intentions. In this case I can see that the intentions of a woman contemplating abortion can be manifold, ambiguous, ambivalent and confusing.It is very hard as a confessor to tease apart those complexities to get to the point of 'nailing' an intent as sinful.

205. The church has many role models, but they are not those expected by secular society. Their example is not of influence, activity or status, but silence, hiddenness and servitude. These examples are not solely for women, the priestwho is visible is not a good priest, a bishop who is served rather than serves is not a good example.

206. et's not overestimate the influence of modern culture andunder estimate our abilities to resist and subvert that culture. We are not just products of our upbringing- we can choose to transcend that upbringing through theosis. This society is no more or less sexualised or objectifying that anygeneration before us.

207. I don't think we need to be afraid of using modern terminology when we express something that we find implicitly in the ancient sources. But, I am challenged to ask: the Orthodox church does teach that the Bible is a treasure of theChurch, created by the church and defended by the church, and does not have an existence outside of the Church. Can someone find those sources to support this assertion? More difficult: where in the ancient sources might we find this notion of history as narrative? Is it as explicit as some of us might believe?

208. Sex isn't just about (ahem) genital contact. It's about coming to know a person in a deep and intimate way, so that you become one of mind, let alone flesh

209. Itinerant, exile, convict, son of an unmarried mother, with no theological training, agitator and vandal of temples disobediently teaches heresy, leaves his religion without permission, and then declares himself as a God. Does this ringa bell?

210. I often explain my working full time, and being a priest,as an exercise in self constraint. If I had all the time as a stipended priest, I would be tempted, as would my congregation, to do all the diaconal work in the parish. Beingunable to do so, I am forced to focus on serving the altar, and the congregation a free to exercise their ministry. Let's remember what ordained clergy are actually for, and not let them do the work of lay men and women

211. community development, and the principles of social justice on which is built is (for me at least) about creating the conditions in this world whereby theosis/transfiguration may be achieved. Monks go to a monastery to achieve this, and expect social conditions of humility, poverty and justice. I hope that I can work, and encourage other to work to create the conditions of humility (genuine human dialogue and resistance to hegemonic discourses), poverty (in terms of

redistribution of wealth and privilege) and justice (where everyone is treated as a uniquely valued Person). As these conditions develop in the world, the conditions are being created where everyone's life can become physically, psychologically and spiritually transfigured.

212. Sinfulness is not 'in' things or situations. Sinfulness is our refusal to allow God to be present in our life. Sex becomes sinful when it objectifies other humans, like in rape,and when God is not a prayerful part of a loving relationship between two people. Sex 'in its self' is not sinful, nor is itsinful/not sinful in certain situations.

213. When I see military personnel weep tears of dismay at theacts they have been asked to commit. When I listen to soldiersgenuinely struggling with their ambivalence towards violence, yet clarity as to whom they are protecting ( not least their own children) I see nothing about 'just wars'. I see instead genuinely holy people deep in the sort of spiritual struggle that we mostly avoid

214. 'm not saying all Christians should be pacifist, but we can squander our salvation through sinful attitudes. To kill, or to commit any sin, is to squander the free gift of salvation offered to us. But a warrior who kills in full awareness of the seriousness of the sin and in all humility, and in forgiveness of the other combatant, must have the succour of salvation.

215. without a 'just war' theory, a soldier must risk losing his salvation: by killing an enemy. Our offering of succour tothat soldier is not 'it's OK , someone else made the decision of killing for you' it's one of we pray (not begging prayer, but pray confident in eternal life) that the brave decison of soldier to take a life is honest enough not to result in his or her losing her salvation.

216. prayer is only useful if the spiritual director remains prayerfully aware of the power of their words. topping and tailing with prayer isn't sufficient if the directors own 'issues' are visited upon the enquirer during the moment of direction

217. I hope I did not imply that I thought a 'parable' was somehow a lesser teaching than a literal one. Actually, I think the parables of Christ are those that speak to all

humans, whereas His 'literal' interventions were aimed at individuals. I suspect that the fire and brimstone of a rubbish tip at the edge of Jerusalem will be nothing compared to the real Beauty or torment of experiencing God.

218. does it make sense to speak of a 'place' (implying time and space) in a state of eternal being? What does a 'place' look like when you are an eternal being?

219. But then, what is that word 'pious'? It's not loving or faithful. I don't want to externally impose a structure. The structures of theotic time are already there, and we need to find our place in them, rather than struggle and strive to match those expectations. Again, its that 'reasonable sheep' thing, with Love anything is possible, but externally imposed obedience is just formalism. There is a danger that the children become so used to the presence of the icons that theydon't notice, but light some incense on the odd occasion, or acandle, then the normal is rendered strange again, and the children notice, look and see