Apprehension, aversion

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Joseph D
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Apprehension, aversion

Post by Joseph D »

My wife and I are considering a move in the next year or so and are not determined to remain in the ROCOR. I do not wish to accuse anyone, but I would prefer that things be more pleasant and less hateful. Perhaps I am just too timid anymore but all my prayers and the guidance of my heart tell me that my Sunday would be better spent fishing. This is no joke. My experience in the ROCOR has been a heartrending dissappointment. I have tried, I tried. Maybe it has been good for me to discourse with people more cruel and obsessive than myself, I feel certain it has tempered me in a way that three or four years without such might not have. Please pray for a hopeless sinner, one more burden of the Church Abroad.

-Joseph D

Makis
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Post by Makis »

Dear Joseph,

Please think well (although I guess, or better, hope, you are already doing that) before you leave the Church.

Believe me, your sundays are much better spend in church than spend fishing!

Please, don't blame God for the weaknesses of His servants!
If you don't feel happy in your current parish, then by all means, find an other one in which you can continue your journey towards God.
If you don't feel happy in your jurisdiction (ROCOR), there are a couple of things you could do.
First, if you are not "born" in that jurisdiction, think why you are in there.
Second, try to look very well again if it is really something of the jurisdiction, or just something of certain persons (lay or clergy).

If you being in ROCOR is not because of "cannonical conviction reasons" but more or less "by accident", and if (and be very, very honest to yourself and to God, since He is the supreme Judge of all our actions) you are really convinced that it is really something of ROCOR as a whole, then, and only then, try to find a parish of another jurisdiction in which you can feel at home as in our Lord's House. (BTW, when I say "you", I mean ofcause you and your wife)

Like I said, do not blame God for the actions of His servants, because that is essentially what you say if you would leave the Church (i.e. spend your sundays fishing).

"one more burden of the Church Abroad"? NO ONE IS EVER A BURDEN FOR GOD OR HIS CHURCH!!!!

"...a hopeless sinner" Aren't we all?

My brother, I wish you and your wife a lot of strength and wisdom in this difficult time!!!!

Ofcause I will pray for the both of you.

In Christ,

Makis

p.s. Try to speak (again??) about it with your spiritual father.

Joseph D
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Post by Joseph D »

Dear Makis:

Thank you for the sobering advice. No, I cannot say for certain that I should blame the jurisdiction as a whole; in fact I feel very uncomfortable about such an idea. However, due to the speech and conduct of "certain individuals" as you say, the idea of ROCOR now has very painful association for me. Yes of course my wife and I stand together.

As far as a spiritual father, our current priest told me repeatedly when I chose to join the ROCOR (prior to my engagement and marriage) that he was "not qualified to be a spiritual father to anyone right now." Looking back, I should have listened to him. And when he told me "you need to find a spiritual father," I should have known then that something was wrong. And of course I have had enough of these self-appointed canon law sherrifs too, who would have us all doing slave labor in monasteries if they had their way.

Does all this perceived negativity reflect the character of ROCOR's hierarchs? I very seriously doubt it. So the question then is whether I am prepared to live out my time in the ROCOR as a prelatist and without a spiritual father; I am not. So you see my problem, the wife and I want church to be a salve, not a poison. Options are slim, and what has always been most precious is now all the more rare. It is a quandry to be sure, especially for a weak and silly man like me.

Sincerely:
Joseph, spewer-forth of nonsense

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尼古拉前执事
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Post by 尼古拉前执事 »

Dear Joseph,

Does your family feel this way? Why did you chose ROCOR and where do you live?

Joseph D
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Post by Joseph D »

Dear Nicholas:

I am a convert to Orthodoxy and was prone to great zeal at first. My family is not Orthodox, and the large majority are not really religious in any sense. They respect my religous choice in much the same way they would hypothetically approve of my riding a motorcycle. Surprized? They are not altogether comfortable with the strictness of diet that accompanies the faith, which accounts for the concern. My wife converted while we were betrothed so we could get married in the Church. She loves Orthodoxy and has grave suspicions about Protestantism and other religions; however, she, like me, has not yet gotten comfortable with our present situation. The mean decor and very smallness of the parish seem to suggest a cult to our mutual sensibilities. We both feel overburdoned with an awkwardness that only seems to worsen with time.

My original choice of joining the ROCOR had a great deal to do with my personal anxiety about ecumenism, and about freemasonry, both of which I felt were too readily endorsed or else to easily overlooked by other jurisdictions. Love of Christ and personal desire for salvation led me to visit a ROCOR parish for the first time in 2000 when, while temporarily living in Italy, I took a pilgrimage down to Bari to pray at the Russian church there and to do likewise at the tomb of St. Nicholas. My heart filled with a kind of easy joy and I felt then that I had found the right path. But what I found there, and what I find here are not the same thing. It is just my personal experience in this little part of the world I know that represents a problem now.

Sincerely,
Joseph

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Joe Zollars
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cults and rocor

Post by Joe Zollars »

Private Message posted by mistake.

Joe Zollars

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Post by 尼古拉前执事 »

Recently leaving ROCOR myself, I might not be the most unbiased person, but I would not consider ROCOR itself a cult. It might just be the specific parish you are a part of. Where do you live? Are there any other parishes close by?

I definitely agree with you on the OCA, GOA and Antiochian churches being lax on Masons, Fasting, and other Canons.

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