Easter

Christos aneste! Khristosu voskresu! Chrestos voskresu! Khrystos voskres! Al-Masih qam! Christos a inviat! Christ is risen!

Happy Orthodox Pascha/Easter! 

Not so much deliberate martrydom but familiarlty with being in abusive situations. Given kindness, these people will test it to the limit, which 'proves' to them that they are unloveable. It's very difficult to break these cycles of misery.

I felt that I was moderate, not disagreeing outright with evangelising as in my faith it is one thing that Jesus asked people to do. I wrote I didn't think that ranting or being absuive to people was the way to go, by writing not to force it on people. They should not be vitrolic when preaching about hell.  I explained where their basis in their argument comes from to do this. You have to try and think though those doing this to try and fit in where you are. I don't do this myself but I know people who do on another forum and it seems to be one of their motivators for life and they do this in a more compassionate way. The church I go to an Anglican church as a non denominational are not as extreme as you mentioned and they sing at Christmas and probably hand out cards at Easter.  You cannot I think label everyone together. I myself having anorexia in the past had some people always seeing my condition as not pyschological and I have had abuse of my own, but have met some good people and some do not have the true faith right may be in their hearts and I think the values that the faith is truly about is not understood spiritually by them. 

Your post is very triggering for me. I have been a victim of financial and emotional abuse by chistrians, over many years, part of which was actually a cult living off the respectable Methodist church. You cannot imagine the mental harm they did to me, this was multiple people, several different churches leaching me of money, self respect and hope. They made it clear that if I didn’t agree with their rules and every word of their bible I was heading straight for hell. 

I was subsequently diagnosed with C-PTSD and the the biggest aspects of abuse stemmed from christians and their churches. Your (as a group) hypocrisy is utterly appalling, god isn’t love, he is abuse.

Sorry about the delay in replying to your message. The typical service length does sound quite daunting. At my local church it is more like 3 hours (and the main service for Pascha itself will be even longer – nearly 5 hours by the time finishes at 02.30 on Easter morning). But Orthodox churches are very tolerant about people slipping in and out of services (if things get too much for me, I know I can simply go out to the church hall for a while). What I appreciate about Orthodox worship is its predictability (once you're familiar with the Liturgy, you can attend any Orthodox Liturgy in any language and know what's going on). And my local church is very comfortable with neurodivergent and learning disabled people.

If you're interested, there is a book on the church and disability by Summer Kinard (an autistic Orthodox lay theologian): Of Such Is the Kingdom. It is primarily about making the church more welcoming to families of disabled children, but she also says a good deal about the Orthodox view of disability and neurodivergence.

That is interesting to read. I was baptised in a Catholic church and attended a Catholic school to 19. I am a Christian but non denominational now. I won't join a denomination today and see myself as a folllower of Christ which he asked us to be at mininium. I have been to different church's in my life and they were all at with one cause. I have looked at the Orthodox teachings and don't disagree with what I read. I align with many denominations though and like to be inclusive. I was particularly drawn to read the teachings for your denomination because of this discussion about the creation and I like that the denomination you are joined do not go out to try and be scientific on how the world was created and support ex nihilo. I have not come across an Orthodox neurodiverse before you and I know some commitment is needed like 2 hours services which is quite hard for me with my autism and I attend shorter Anglican and Catholic services today. I am glad that you have found something you are comfortable with and it shows how diverse neurodiverse people can be..

Ranting at people is not good and if people are not interested in listening to you should not try and force them, but in the Christian faith the New Testament says that people have different roles which is appointed by Jesus. This is in (Ephesians s 4:11)  !"And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers”

Some people are evangelists and it is their role to bring the message of the Bible to people. There are different ways of doing this and not everybody operates in the same way. I don’t like to criticise those who feel called to do this as Jesus said people should witness to the nations.  I have come across some modest evangelists and I met some when I was about 16/17 who I will never forget and they told me this young group no more than 20 years old that they were going to walk on water that day, one of Jesus miracles. That encouraged me to start praying for a miracle myself which I never got, but I got something for free and richer instead during that time.

Why do they do this? I think some are committed in sharing the word of God with others and feel called to do this in this way.. Some may want to do this by fear that they haven’t done enough to receive eternal life through Jesus.  It is best to do it from your heart and freely.   

There is all different types of evangelising, there are more louder Christianese types or more one 2 one types as well who are quieter and you will find them more likely in the Anglican/Catholic church’s.

There is evangelising and witnessing and using your spiritual talents is encouraged to do by Jesus to help the church and its members.

Wow!!

I think sometimes it is fear that drives them. Protestantism may talk up salvation by faith, but it can be really hard to shake the idea that one is somehow not good enough (particularly if your view of God has been shaped by experience of a disapproving or abusive fathers). It is a small step from there to (at some level) imagining that you can win God's approval by making converts.

Good friday 

we had traditional hot cross buns in the afternoon. 

Saturday afternoon 

cream tea by post which was filling. We didn't have much dinner later. 

Easter Sunday 

dinner we had roast lamb with potatoes and vegetables. 

Rhubarb from the garden.

Easter Monday 

cold lamb for dinner. 

Happy Easter  

I usually struggle with the long weekends.

Happy Easter! Hope you had a nice day :)

I myself was cycling (think I covered about 65km) in Eastern Spain, watching rare Montagu's harriers displaying incredibly close to me

Do you think so? I guess it could be that, or they're driven by a need to be rejected, sworn at etc, maybe it just feeds a martyr complex?

power games. Getting angry at others hives off stress for some people.

I wonder what street preachers who rant at people get out of it?

We took the train to Preston and happily got home before the gales. It was a good trip but not without triggering moments for me. We enjoyed shopping, having a pizza and a walk in one of parks, but it was somewhat spoilt by religious zealots amplified and hectoring on Fishergate (the main shopping street). I fully respect everyone’s right to their own beliefs and religion but they were very intrusuve, dogmatic, intolerant and in our faces so to speak. Others in the street were arguing with them and situation was very tense. They are sure Im heading to hell apparently.  Anyway the journey home was really pleasant on a Pendo with cheerful Avanti staff. 

AnA

I watched the King of Kings yesterday, it was on BBC 2 and is still on iplayer. I found it moving. If any of you saw it, what did you think? 

www.bbc.co.uk/.../king-of-kings

Happy Easter! Have a wonderful time.

Thank you for doing this work so we can enjoy the chat .

Well said, B, and +1 to that

Thank you and the same to you Olivia Mod 

Have a lovely weekend.