Presanctified before the Ages.

Sermon at the First Presanctified Liturgy of 2011.

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[1980sir1]

You have said that the problems the church has is that it goes against science and therefore alienates the young educated demographic which you value so much, I would say that the main reasons people are disillusioned with the church is the scandalous behaviour of certain clergy

[allsaintsmonastery]

@1980sir1 The decline of the Church in Greece Is, in part (as young people in Thess/niki have told me) is on the doorstep of clergy, especially hierarchs. Chrystodulous knew how to attract them, but priests there tell me that after his death, youth attendance fell off. Hierarchs and many priests are remote, stuffy and out of touch. It takes time and effort to restore people to the Church when the behaviour of the clergy has been as it has in Greece, etc. "State Churches" are a liability.

[allsaintsmonastery]

@AnglicanApologist72 The problem for us is with the Western heresy of double predestination. Foreknowledge is onething, predestining some to hell and some to heaven before they even exist is a monstrous notion, and the Orthodox Christian world most certainly does not accept such a satanic idea.

[GuardianofTwilight]

Please forgive me, Your Eminence (I'm assuming that to be the correct way to address an Orthodox Archbishop :)

I could not help but read your conversation with 1980sir1 concerning the Old Testament. I'm curious now about what the Orthodox Church teaches concerning the Old Testament now. Maybe you could help my understanding?

[1980sir1]

You really have not answered any of my questions, all I've recieved from you is ad honimem attacks and asumptions on my character, which I predicted you would resort to in my first comments which is fair enough, you have put yourself in an indefensible position by attacking the bible.

All I would ask is that you answer Q.5. Not because I want complain or cause you trouble, but so I know where you are, so i can go the oppisite direction

[1980sir1]

@allsaintsmonastery My father is not a liar, but a hardworking, honest, humble and loving human being.

My father has been working since the age of 10 and allways been there for me and my family, you are not worthy to speak about him. He has shown his likeness to Christ through has actions, not through egotistical self-rigthteous speeches and philosophies, you would do well to be like him.

The fact that you would say this to me shows you are of your father, the father of lies

[allsaintsmonastery]

@1980sir1 In any case, your question is a rather tacky sophism. If Apostle James (who was head of the Church) had punished someone that way, it hardly compares with the mass homicide and infants, children, pregnant women and innocent civilians that fill the Old Testament. I suspect, however, that for all your pretended "gentleness" you would support genocide and mass-murder as much as the Talaban do. We know quite a lot about James, and it appears he would have been capable of executing A$S

[allsaintsmonastery]

@1980sir1 The story about .Ananias, although it was an interpolation into the book, might also have been a case of an excecution rather than an "act of God." It would certainly be totally out of character for Jesus Christ to have been involved. Yes, it is a dubious story. It is opposed to the teaching of Christ and to His own life example, and to the purpose for which He was Incarnate into the world.

[allsaintsmonastery]

@1980sir1 The blind attack on science makes on think you are very right-wing. Science has not proved, nor could it claim to prove, that miracles are impossible. Of course their are questions when we have the likes of Benny Hinn producing clearly false "miracles," and Oral Roberts claiming to have raised a dead man to life. But there is no way to even examine miracles scientifically, and many scientists are sincere believers.

[allsaintsmonastery]

@1980sir1 The Church is not a consumerist product, but it is also not a foundation for the falsehood and genuine lies that are told by Fundamentalists. If you genuinely believe that one must believe lies and falsehoods in order to be Orthodox, then you are of your father, the father of lies himself. It is evident to me that you do advocate that in order to be faithful to the Way, the Truth and the Life, one must accept lies as being true and falsehood as being fact. Lenin would love you.

[1980sir1]

@allsaintsmonastery There are passages of apparent cruelty in the new testament too, just look at the story of Ananias and Sapphira who both died for not giving all their money and lying about it.

Does this seemingly unjust punishment for what is seemingly a mild infraction not bother you?

If not, why not?

Why do acts of apparent cruelty disqualify the old testament for you but, not the new one?