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I can't read slavonic but this site looks like a Christian Mission to Evangelize Byzantine Catholics and Orthodox. Maybe someone can translate: http://www.hopeofsalvation.org It appears they even have a radio station.

I like how they use the 3 bar cross. You know it is important that we evangelize Catholics because they are not christians. Go Figure!

Hi,

You can use this to translate http://babel.altavista.com/

Rose

This one works better with your page.

http://www.systranbox.com/systran/box

Dear Catholic Man,

The site is in Russian and it is indeed Evangelical.

It is not nearly as "in your face" as other Evangelical groups in Russia who proselytize among the Orthodox.

Why is this upsetting to you?

I look on this as a challenge for Catholic and Orthodox Christians to know their own faith better and the Bible better.

We believe not because "my Church has more and better scriptural proof-texts" or whether or not we can "out-reason" the bible-thumpers at the door or on street-corners.

It is best not to engage with such, there are those who have special gifts to do so, but it is not me - and if this upsets you, then this isn't something you should be reading or getting involved with either.

We are called to focus on our own spiritual life, with the help of a spiritual Father, and read the Bible with the Church and its 2,000 year tradition of interpretation that comes directly from Christ Himself.

In fact, the Bible itself is a Church book, canonized by the Church that rejected two or three other books for every book of the New Testament that it accepted.

A number of local Churches still have some ancient books that are part of their Bibles but that are not accepted internationally by the universal Church.

To want to interpret Scripture outside the Church is to read it out of context.

Protestants know what the Bible says. Thanks to the Church and the Holy Spirit given to it by Christ, we know what the Bible MEANS.

Alex

Excellent points, Alex. We can learn from the game plan of these evangelicals in order to (1) know our own faith better to answer these questions; (2) know Scripture better as this is really the only "tool" of the Evangelicals (and they generally know Scripture a heck of lot better than Catholics or Orthodox, albeit stripped away from any other notion of Tradition); and (3) intensify and deepen our own spiritual lives in order to be more effective witnesses of our Apostolic Faith.

Brothers and Sisters,

I cannot resist the urge to throw in my two cents on this topic. I was born and bred an evangelical, and am very grateful for the scriptural foundation I received. It is ironic, I suppose, that as I write this, a cousin of mine is working in Sofia, Bulgaria toward the establishment of protestant churches. In another life (figuratively speaking!) I was also involved with numerous protestant mission groups in eastern and western Europe.

How amazing it is to me that we who enjoy all the riches of the historic church and its traditions are so poor in the knowledge of and love for sacred scripture. Of course, I can enjoy and worship at an eastern liturgy or Latin mass without any substantial homily included, but how sad to find myself in exactly that situation so very often. Protestants learn "the Word" because it's all they have, but even our priests (let alone the laity!) rarely seem to find scripture study and homily preparation a worthwhile use of their time!

Isn't it the duty of the shepherd to feed the flock? How sad to see a priest who feels he does his congregation a favor by giving them a two minute milquetoast homily and letting them go. We need some fire in the belly, and some meat on the plate! St. Paul discoursed on the scriptures and fed the flock until late into the night. He exhorted Timothy to preach the word,"in season and out of season."

To paraphrase Edmund Burke, the only thing necessary for protestants to triumph is for the historic church to do nothing. Too often, at least in terms of explaining the scriptures, "nothing" is exactly what's happening.

And then we have the gall to be offended by their "evangelism?" Show them that you love and know the scripture, and you completely disarm them: you may even win them over. We need these people to be building the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.

Respectfully,
Robert