Overnight it appears someone decided to take down half of A2 hosting. The interface is going up and down, which affects emails, posting and getting things done. But in the meantime…

______________

thank you Scott: I found this post on my phone a couple of days ago but lost it, and then he had it on his facebook page.

I’m not orthodox, I am reformed. Because of the theology: going back (the Reformed are of the West) to the older teaching, the church fathers, staying very close to scripture, avoiding speculations.

And avoiding the theology of being a bride of Christ. I agree with the Orthodox who say that is effete and horrid. We are men. We need to lead.

The reason I am quoting Father John is because he gets some things correct. The Charismatic movement has caused damage, and I say that as someone who was raised in it. Not because of the gifts or healing or prophecy, but because of the lack fo discipline and emotion.

For what is said in church needs to be weighed and tested.

With respect and love in Christ,

Eastern Catholicism is just what it was invented to be – Catholics pretending to be Orthodox, and trying to convince everyone else that it is all the same.

Orthodoxy is not a “rite.” Eastern Catholicism is.

How you come to the conclusion that Orthodoxy is marginalized, unless you mean marginalized from Rome. We still await our Roman brothers return to the Orthodox faith, which is why there is no Orthodox bishop of Rome. The same cannot be said of Catholicism’s view of Orthodoxy, knowing that there is a Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Orthodoxy has remained itself, while everyone else in the Christian world, including Rome, has gone to the charismatic movement, praise bands and every form of nonsense following the way of the world. I’m sorry to say it, but either you’re Orthodox or you’re not, and if you’re not…. you’re not.

You can, however, follow the path of a multitude of Eastern Catholics and enter the Orthodox Church. We welcome you home!

What the good father needs to hear is that in the West there was a reaction to the overtly corrupt Bishops in Rome. Calvin would not consider that he was preaching anything new, but the gospel. He spent a fair amount of his commentaries deconstructing the Thomist mysticism that passed as Christianity in his day.

What we are facing now is again, a mysticism. The charismatics started with singing folk songs and avoiding the choirs and professionalism of the choir: by the time I moved to Dunedin they had professional rock musicians: Hillsong is the modern choir.

But the old choir, and the first part of the revival, was about singing scripture.

The Pentecostals have had problems with women leading — inherited from the Missionary Methodists and the Prohibitionists — and this has led to a dilution of leadership.

I find it easy to follow men. Women… much less so. Everything is personal then. Everything is therapeutic. And one wants to rebel.

It led me back to a reformed theology and the Presbyterians: among the Presbyterians it led me well away from the liberals into a small, low church congregation. For the Presbyterians in NZ are returning to their reformed roots.

But I pray for my friends who are Catholic. They have no shelter but the Latin service: if that is offered. Otherwise, all is Charismata, without substance. Emotion without content. Despite the crunchy nature of Catholic theology, or in rebellion from it.