peterfarrington
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May the Lord have mercy on you and strengthen your faith by your daily experience of His presence in your life. Peter
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The Church has tended to understand the commandment as 'Do not murder' and not 'Do not take any life under any circumstances'. Thus the Church has with difficulty judged between military action which is murder and military action which might be con…
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There doesn't seem to be the same genealogical listings as there is for Joseph, but marriage between tribes was not permitted, and therefore we can assume she was of the same ultimate genealogy as Joseph. Also all of the prophecies point to Jesus be…
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What is se7r and 3amal? Peter
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Are you considering joining the CIA? I think you have answered your own question when you ask if someone should have a job which requires them to lie and kill. There is a great deal of theological discussion around the issue of how a serving soldi…
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For just one day why not try doing everything she asks as soon as she asks, and even think of the things that you know she will ask you to do and do them before she asks. I am a married man and I also have to deal with 'conflicting demands' and I h…
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If you are a Christian and cannot in conscience continue to serve in the armed forces then you should follow the procedures which are in place to deal with that situation. And if there is a cost then the cost must be borne. Peter
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If anyone does something against their conscience and without faith then it is sin. Why would someone join the army without giving thought to the fact that they might be called to fight? And who are the innocent people that a US infantry man is be…
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I don't think it is helpful to mix your political views with the question of whether or not an Orthodox Christian should serve in the armed forces. In general we know that Orthodox Christians have served in the Armed Forces, and many have become s…
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If I can speak of my own experience.... I have found in my own spiritual pilgrimage that it is always better for me to seek what is good than to worry about what is bad. I don't mean that in an absolute sense as though I don't care about my sin, bu…
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Was the war only for Israel and was it wrong? I do not believe at all that is the case. It seems to me that the war was prosecuted very successfully and cleanly, and that it has been the follow up which has been poorly executed. It also does not se…
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I think that there are secular arguments against assisted suicide. What begins as a difficult choice made by one person - let us say that is possible, I am not sure that the choice of suicide is ever a sign of rationality - very quickly becomes a c…
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I don't disagree with the points you made Clay, but I do think that the reality of a person called Jesus, the wealth of material supporting the early production of the New Testament, and the fact that the members of the generation that knew Jesus we…
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I think that there are things which can give a person confidence in the historical roots of our faith, such as a study of the references to Jesus Christ outside the Scriptures, and the very development of the Church in the first and second generatio…
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May I speak as a man who has been married nearly 20 years. Marriage should not be rooted in a desire for personal happiness or fulfillment. If it is then when disappoints of various kinds come then the foundations of the marriage will be shaken. Ma…
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One of the Fathers teaches that the prayer our Lord taught us shows us how we may receive forgiveness ourselves... 'forgive us as we forgive others' and he shows us that God has willingly placed into our own hands the means and measure by which he…
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May the Lord have mercy on your friend. Peter
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Wait till you are blessed with children! And I wonder if he comes on the evening of the 5th which would be the eve of the 6th? Peter
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Yes, I think I am with Aidan on this, as someone from the UK. I don't think I would want to complete remove all of this cultural content from my children's experience of Christmas, but I would like to try this year to make much more of St Nicholas.…
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May I quote the words of our father among the saints, St Cyril. I am sure that his interpretation is not the only one, and we could turn to St John Chrysostom as well, and many others. But it will shed some light I am sure, even though it is transla…
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It's a bit of a difficult judgement call. I was brought up to believe in Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy, and also came to understand that these were both mythic figures. I never placed Christ in the same category, nor can I remember any great…
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Yes, Santa Klaus really exists, and is St Nicholas of Myra, who is commemorated in the Synaxarium with quite a long entry on the 10th Khiak. http://www.copticchurch.net/synaxarium/4_10.html#2 In some European countries such as Holland the feast of…
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When I was in my teens and an Evangelical I would spend almost all of Sunday in Church. Now I am Orthodox I expect to be in Church for the morning, but then I enjoy spending some time with my wife in the afternoon, and as I have grown older I have l…
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I am working on a website and organisation to raise awareness of the situation of Christians in Israel and Palestine, not because Muslims are not suffering also, but because it seems that the shrinking Christian communities there are even more forgo…
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In the UK there were no Christmas trees until the middle of the 19th century. The old English tradition was to have a Yule log, a great piece of wood that would be kept burning through the whole time of the feast. The tradition of the Christmas tree…
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I wouldn't really agree that the act of adultery dissolves a marriage. Our Lord says that a lustful look is the same as adultery and warns us that we are hypocrites if we judge those who have committed such a physical act while we harbour lustful t…
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In my own life I spent many years thinking that if only I could get my act together and really force myself to be a better Christian then I could. I realise now that this was prideful, even while I was well aware of my sins. I also ame to think that…
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I guess that history teaches us to be humble in the matter of when feasts should take place since the history of Christmas is not straightforward. In the earliest period the events of the nativity, the visit of the wise men, and the baptism of Chris…
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I guess that the main thing which came out of the controversy which gave us the Creed was that Christ is 'of the same ousia' as the Father, rather than 'of a like ousia'. So as long as the English translation contains a strong sense of that dogma, t…
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Dear RPM, thank you for your welcome. It is always a blessing to visit Tasbeha as a guest and read the great number of serious and thoughtful posts, and now I would like to participate a little and gain an even greater blessing. It does seem that …