www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Closed on Sundays

Is it possible to close The Byzantine Forum on Sundays? Not only will this encourage our members to engage in spiritual practice, and time with family; it will also allow a period of cool-down for heated discussions. Hopefully having a day off will allow flare-ups a chance to die down a little.

Any thoughts?

No. That will not be considered. Self-discipline is what is necessary for those who do not wish to participate on Sundays, or on any given day.

The Byzantine Forum is often considered to be a 'cyber coffee hour', much like the one after the Sunday Liturgy. The conversations that occur here are appropriate even for Sundays.

Hi Didymus,

Are you really a twin?!?

I am not an administrator but I agree with John that the forum is indeed suitable for Sundays.

I think that if one has a problem with a particular conversation, that after attending church, they would probably not be inclined to give in to the passions as much!

I generally do not participate much on Sundays because of church services and family time. I have also noticed that low participation on Sundays tends to be the norm across the board.

Additionally, I try to post material of a spiritual nature when I can. Slavipodviznik used to do this too. I would encourage this kind of material to be posted by more posters, and it could then be put off to be read and to be philosophically and spiritually discussed- if desired-- on Sundays!

In the risen Christ,
Alice

That would be news to my Mom! No, I am not a twin but am aware of the meaning of the name. Thomas who was called Didymus in John's Gospel, was the apostle that I can relate to. He was an avegare Joe, err... Tom whom I took an interest in.

I am aware that we can moderate ourselves when it comes to our spiritual lives and spending time with our families. But, I still am curious as to how many of the frequent posters would be in favor of the idea.

Administrators can administate as they see fit, I am interested in the common man/womens' ideas.

I am personally as an average poster against the idea. If you really want to have the board closed on Sundays, you do have an option, do not power up your computer. If you do power up your computer to go on the internet, than any other talk is just simply hypocritical.

I'm okay with posting on Sundays. It's a communal forum, after all, and seems largely in keeping with the joy of each Sunday.

We're not supposed to take the same attitude towards Sunday as observant Jews do of the Sabbath, right?

Alexis

I too am against this idea. As a student, sometimes I use Saturdays and Sundays to catch up on the forum and fun things that I haven't had a chance to do during the week.

I'd be opposed, as well. Noone is forced to use it. Closing it on Sunday would be nothing more than to impose (what I suppose to be) a small minority opninion of how others should on everyone.

hawk

And what would the time frame of Sunday be constituted as? We are all from different time zones, with differences of over 12 hours for some, so to close on Sunday would require closing mid-afternoon Saturday for those of us on the East Coast of the US to early morning Monday to cover the bases for everybody.

And even if we were all still on the same time zone, then what? According to some, in the Roman Church Sunday counts from sundown on Saturday to midnight on Sunday, since the Church in Her mercy can even stretch the limits of time, in order that those who go to a Saturday evening Mass can fulfill their Sunday obligation (at least that's how I've seen it explained).

But for Easterners, I guess it's just sundown to sundown.

Alexis

One can easily notice that activity on the Forum tends to drop on Friday evening - I have no particular idea why this is, but it indicates that when people do not want to post here, no one can force them to!

Fr. Serge

Quoted for truth

Kiev time, of course!