www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Need to Leave this Forum for awhile

Some of the latest threads have convinced me that I need to take time away from the Forum for a bit.

Basically, I and some others have been accused by the Administrator of trying to sow doubt in other's minds about the Church and our Faith and it breaks my heart to think that others might suppose this. Nothing can be furthur from the truth and that is quite hurtful. Of course, on the Net (since we cannot see the person and have not the advantage of seeing body language) often it can tempt us to go too far and also to wound. I ask everyone's forgiveness if I have said anything to wound and hurt. I am especially thinking of dear Alice in this regard. Alice, forgive me, a sinner! Your Love and concern for the unity of the Churches goes beyond any differences that we may have on other issues.

I will miss the great majority of the posters here too numerous to mention but I need to especially thank Dr Alex Roman for his kindness, erudition and wonderful sense of humour and balance, Dr John for for the same sparkling qualities, Steve for his wonderfully honest and good questions and openness to see different views, Lemko Rusyn for his sense of humor and great support and amazing knowledge of the Rusyn Church (whose people I knew in the Byzantine Catholic Church, and will always love and cherish) and of course, all those who are working by prayer and by action to work for the unity of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches and who chersh the Church both of the East and West.

I pray for all of you, please pray for me too!!

Love and Peace,

Brian Seraphim

St Seraphim of Sarov, Pray unto God for us!!!!!!!!!!!

Brian

Don't go - Please

I think the 'silly summer season thing' has hit the Forum.

We are all a bit short with each other and seem to forget that we cannot actually see the effect our words have.

You and Alice are both Othodox Posters that to me seem to be very open to an understanding that we Catholics [ well me this lopsided RC ] sometimes have difficulty in understanding where you are coming from.

I deliberately did not post on 'that thread' because I once [ not here ] got my head in my hands for saying that I did willingly nurse women who had procured illegal abortions. To me - they still needed my care - no matter what they had done, and I always hoped that my care would give them the courage to go on with life and perhaps come to the Great Healer.

Please stay

Anhelyna

Brian,

It seems that the Holy Spirit has prompted you to take a short break.

May your spirit be refreshed while your away, to return fully recharged.

james

Dear Brian,

I am saddened by the notion that you might choose to remove yourself from this cyber community.

I read the comments to which you refer and must honestly say that I do not perceive what you are about as trying to sow seeds of doubt. I have seen you come to the defense of those who, to me, are the the defenseless or whom you feel to experience improper discrimination.

To my mind there is no one quite as open to ravaging or as defenseless as a teen who has been told that the Vatican is embarking on a campaign against homosexuals as was reported on our news here this morning. We know the nuanced difference between homosexuals and homosexual unions.

Kids don't. (Have I mentioned recently the huge suicide rate among gay teens?) To them, the Church speaks for God; the news says that the Church is campaigning against gays; God doesn't think I'm good .... This added to the burden of teens who have been told to leave home because they're gay.

I'm not saying that that is what the Church is about. I am saying that too often, we condemn the sin and then by our behavior do the same for the sinner by what we do not do. We do not say I love my homosexual brother or sister as often as we say I have nothing against gays, for example.

It seems to me that we need your perspective here. It is a valuable one, I think. It is not a popular one.

If you have an agenda other than that, I have difficulty finding it.

So, I encourage you to reconsider your planned withdrawl from among us. We all have been accused of things. Sometimes we are falsely accused. Sometimes we say things that are unclear or that even are wrong. For that we must apologize. It's part of being a human who is Christian.

That should not be the determiner of whether or not we stay or go. Whether we can address the need of the Churches or the needs of fellow believers or the needs of those who are thought of as the least of our brothers and sisters should, in my opinion, inform a decision to leave.

I come here to learn and to share when I can, to build up the Body. From what I can see, you do the same.

There'd be a gap without you.

Steve

Dear Brian,
Sometimes we defend our points of view and position in an unfairly way and we end up hurting other peoples feelings. I think I do that at times as well. Sometimes after reading what I have written, I wonder to myself, why I said a certain thing in a certain manner, but then it's too late. The important thing in this forum is that we are able to express our ideas and feelings and our points of view in reference to our church, traditions etc.and I can also say that I've learned a lot especially on how to listen to people before I open my mouth. I don't post very much on this forum, I'm more of an observer.
Lauro

BRIAN!!!!

Now you are really making me feel guilty. Brian, I love EVERYONE, especially people with good, gentle and kind qualities of character like YOU!

If anything can come out of 'that thread', can you please, please, please understand that these qualities are what matter in a person, not his or her sexual activity, orientation, or sin.

Remember that Christ did not judge the Harlot, he said, "go and sin no more". I have to tell myself that every day, Brian, who doesn't? Do you think that these are easy times to be raising children, who may be making the same foolish mistakes that their mother or that their father made, or perhaps even worse, who knows?? We grow as persons, we grow older in age and hopefully wisdom, and we grow in the Lord and trying to follow him. That is all that I am trying to say and to convey. Although I was always spiritual, I am definitely not the same person, with the same Christian understanding today that I was when I was 17. When my mother used to adamantly say, 'abortion is a sin', I would get really angry at her. "How could you say that mom, don't you know that I have friends who have had them, and they are good people. How can you be so judgemental and unloving?" I now realize that she wasn't judgemental or unloving, for she treated women, some of who I later found out had abortions, with the same respect that she did others. She was compassionate about the circumstances, but wanted to be clear about the sin and what it really was.

Please understand that I speak with LOVE when I speak of the Lord's truths, for how can HIS truths be anything BUT love...He is perfect, and He is PURE LOVE. That is what I tell my beautiful teenage daughter when I tell her to please try not to have sexual relations...not because I want to make her unhappy, but because God's rules for us are perfect, and if we follow HIS way, we wouldn't have to worry, cry, or despair about STDs, AIDS, infertility and abortion. I pray daily and earnestly that by the grace of God, that I may never be put in any of those situations with my loved ones.

Brian, I forgive you, OFCOURSE! But please try to understand what I am saying, not what your emotions may have fooled you into thinking that I am saying. If you read it carefully, you will see that I judge NO ONE, (how can I, I am a sinner!) but I DO fault a society that makes ALL of our carnal temptations all that more difficult to resist..male, female, hetero or homosexual. When individuals cannot resist these temptations, the evil one often (but not always) delights in giving us a whammy of pain and suffering, like what you have sadly seen and experienced with your friends(...may their memory be eternal),like what women experience who cannot bear children because of infertility due to a previous STD,like the psychological and often physical anguish other women go through because of past abortions, like the anguish of a divorce because of adultery, (not only on the parties involved, but also the psychological wounds and suffering of the children) and like many other situations too plentiful to describe without boring you.

I hope that I have made my points more clear and hopefully, in a more understanding way, this time.

PLEEEEEASE stay!

I DID!

It will be lonely here without your Christ centered kindness!

With Christian love,
Alice

Brian, you are too good to lose.

Brian,

You do more good than you might think. Details in my private message.

Axios

As I've said before and I'll say it again: We all need time for PRAYER and time for LAUGHTER and time to SMELL THE FLOWERS.... and then come back to this wonderful Forum. People who have the knowledge and the ability to share it are very valuable here.

I will keep you in my prayers.