www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Byzantine Village Redux

If impending economic doom comes sooner than later, maybe we should take note of those already living in rural areas. I, for one, wouldn't mind some glorious Byzantinization of eastern Iowa.

In Christ,
Adam

A blessed & fruitful season of the Great Fast to all! I'm new as a poster on this site, but have been reading here for years. Slavipodvizhnik, I tried to send you a PM about interest in the Byzantine Village, but was unable to do so. My family of 8 is very interested in hearing more. Thank you & God bless!

Zita:

Glory be to Jesus Christ!!

Welcome to the forum. As a new poster, you are under full moderation for awhile. We don't really enjoy doing this, but have had problems with new posters in the past. So we don't discriminate. Pm privileges will follow at a later date.

Bob
Moderator

Glory to Him forever!
Thanks for your kind welcome, Theophan!
Gotcha, I'll keep my eyes open for when I can send a PM as a newbie. ;) I've been following the discussions on the Byzantine Forum for about 7+ years & have been informed, inspired & blessed by many things I've read.

Bump

Now there's a thought; why not look in our own backyards? Here in Kansas we just burned our pasture off last night (right before the freezing rain hit). Our governor wants to do away with State income tax, and our legislature just passed one of the better pro-life bills to emerge in recent years in any state. We've homeschooled for almost two decades without incident or intrusion.


Lots of it is hot and humid, but not all of it. In the gaucho country it is not nearly as humid. Some positives are lots of land, and some of the more flexible alternative schooling regulations in the entire world. For Latins they have the only EF Ordinary (Bishop Rifan) and several Eastern Catholic eparchies.

Location is very important, but we must start with the future, so to speak, and for parents we have to have a place to freely form our children fully in the orthodox faith without intrusion or coersion to do otherwise.

Yeah. I know that the one priest (actually the pastor) of St. Josaphat UGCC Cathedral comes from Brazil himself, and has that nice accent on him. He does make his visits to family and to the UGCC missions down there, so I know that there are large EC communities throughout South America, especially Brazil and Argentina.

Diak, you should hear the resistance to doing away with the income tax here at Pitt State. At first I was surprised at such a reaction from Kansans. But I then realized they were either transplants or people living in Missouri.

Glory to be Jesus Christ:

I am very much interested in this I have a family of 5 and faith community / prayer group of 10 people. Please send me a private email. I have a couple of resources.

Paul

There is some interest and Slavipodvizhnik and I have been discussing how a Byzantine Village can become a reality. If you are interested, please send Slavipodvizhnik or me a PM.

There are a lot of possibilities, including getting a good size piece of land in Downeast Maine (where it's cheap) and subdividing it, and putting up both a chapel with a three-bar cross (no, not a three-cross bar). The larger issue (here or anywhere where land is still affordable) is the question of employment possibilities. One can like a more rural setting but one certainly does not want to have to drive an hour to a grocery store.

Other places are also being discussed and researched.

At some point we will set up a group PM for further discussion.

Has any one looked into the home schooling laws in Wisconsin or Michigan?

There are four levels of homeschooling regulation around the country: states with essentially no regulations; states with low regulations; states with moderate regulations; and states with high regulations.

The states which have essentially no regulations are the most homeschooler-friendly. These states require no notification. That is, the parents of the children do not have to notify the district in any way of their intent to homeschool. There are no forms to fill out, no phone calls to make. Even if one decides to pull their child from public school in order to begin homeschooling, there is not even a form to sign. These states allow homeschoolers the most freedom and the most flexibility in their curriculums, as well as the amount of time they decide to spend on educational endeavors. Currently, there are 10 states that fall into this category: Idaho, Alaska, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Connecticut, and New Jersey.

The next level up, are the states which have low regulations. Namely, they require only that the parent notifies the district in writing of their intent to homeschool a child of compulsory attendance age. These states are also highly homeschooler-friendly as they require no testing, no reporting, and no home visits. Currently there are 15 states which fall into this category: California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Delaware and Washington D.C.

The third level up, are the states which have moderate regulations. Not only do these states require written parental notification, but they also require state standardized test scores and professional evaluation of the homeschooling students' performance. Theoretically, if the district within which the homeschooling family resides felt, after this testing and evaluation, that the homeschool was not fulfilling its legal requirement to educate the student to the state's standards, they could revoke that family's right to homeschool. These states are not considered overly homeschooler-friendly. This is the most popular level of homeschooling regulation in our country, as there are currently 20 states which implement this program: Washington, Oregon, Colorado, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, New Hampshire, Maine, and Hawaii.

The strictest level of homeschooling regulation exercised in our country, requires notification, mandatory state testing, professional evaluation, and may also include curriculum approval, reporting of hours and progress, teaching certification of the parent and/or home visits by state officials. Obviously, these states would not be considered the best for homeschoolers, at least in the eyes of homeschoolers themselves. They are not homeschooler-friendly, allow little to no flexibility, and may just be states that homeschoolers prefer to avoid all together. Fortunately for most homeschoolers, there are only 6 states which currently fall into this category: North Dakota, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.

For more info see:
http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/

What we are shooting for:

http://khongthe.com/wallpapers/animals/river-church-31802.jpg

If anyone is interested who has not spoken up yet, please, let us know. You can pm me or John the Administrator if you are uncomfortable posting. Ideas are being fleshed out and your input is needed.

Alexandr

p.s. All Christians, whether Orthodox or Catholic, western or eastern are welcome. This is not some jurisdictional project. All that we ask is to be courteous and respectful of each others beliefs and practices. We WILL be a polemics free community!

I was at church a few weeks ago and a visitor from Utah mentioned a Trappist monastery and 1800 acres which would become available in the near future.....here is an article:

http://www.utahstories.com/2012/04/25/trappist-monastery-eden-utah/

Buying a piece of church property such as the Trappist monastery makes a lot of sense since it already has a self sustaining infrastructure......and it is 'holy ground'. In addition, perhaps the monks would look favorable on a religious minded group buying the property (rather than a developer) given the existing cemetery of the departed monks, buildings, etc. I hear the area is quite beautiful and not exclusively Mormon. The area has attracted Catholic converts given the existence of the monastery in the area.

Utah would get my vote . Second choice would be Texas but I am not planning on moving
anytime soon.