"Before the world was made, He chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in His presence." - Ephesians 1:4, JB 🇺🇲🇩🇴
My confession father has wisely told me to get off Twitter until after my baptism into the Orthodox Church. See you guys on the other side, and pray for me, a sinner. 🙏🙏🙏
Flash back to 2020 when an Ethiopian Orthodox Priest monk and his crew decided to bless the city of Worcester MA amid the covid outbreak. Few know this but it could have been much worse without their ministry that day.
I anoint you Rafael Simon with ointment of joy against all evil deeds. Be planted in the olive tree, in the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Church of God.
Amen.
I've worshiped in the Coptic, Ethiopian, and Malankara Jacobite rites. When they find out I'm a former Protestant, someone inevitably asks me, "Do you think our Liturgy is too long?"
My only reply: "No, mine was too short."
"I'm taking the position that Eastern Orthodoxy should be the state religion of a U.S. Theocracy."
Debate Host: "You're EO, I take it, right?
"Yea, I'm an inquirer."
💀💀💀
*visits a Coptic parish* - "Welcome! What part of Egypt are you from?
*visits Malankara Jacobite parish* - "What part of India were you from again?"
*visits Ethiopian parish* - "You're Ethiopian, right?"
I didn't realize Dominicans could be so ethnically ambiguous. 😎
I often find myself overwhelmed by the Coptic Orthodox Church--the miracles, the holiness, the prayers, the doctrine, the asceticism, the spirituality.
Yet to share the specifics on X just seems like casting pearls before swine. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.
This refugee from war-torn Protestantism is coveting your prayers as he approaches Baptism in the Oriental Orthodox Church. Thank you in advance. 4 more days!!
Reading, watching, listening to the endless stories of St. Pope Kyrillos VI has opened my mind to perceive heights of glory and holiness that I did not know was possible for a human being to acquire in the modern world.
📸 Today I am pleased to share I was baptized into the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church on St. George's day at St. George's Cathedral. My Christian name is now Amaha Selassie. I am overwhelmed w/ gratitude to everyone who played a role in my journey to Timket.
#before
#after
💯- 6-8 months ago there were *zero* apologetics videos on YouTube defending OO against the *dozens* of videos attacking our beliefs. It only took 1 series on a neutral platform for the meltdown you're currently witnessing to occur.
This is just false, if anything it was the other way around until recently.
I guess the playlist consisting of 74 videos bashing us just doesn’t exist 🤷♂️
This was a pivotal moment in my journey toward Oriental Orthodoxy. From this moment, I knew I had to choose one communion over the other based on the theological merits themselves, and not simply presume that a reunion was just around the corner.
My friend, who helped bring me in to the Orthodox Church, has started a YouTube Channel. She's an African American Nun in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
When I joined the Orthodox Church (Oriental), I honestly wasn't expecting to sit under some of the best Bible studies I've ever experienced, but here we are.
Is it weird for me, a convert to Oriental Orthodoxy, to kiss the cross and hand of the priest? Sure. But that's because I was formed in a culture void of humility and reverence for the Holy Mysteries. The Church doesn't need to change, I do.
"My Desire has been crucified, and there burns in me no passion for material things. What I want is God’s bread, which is the flesh of Christ, and for drink I want His blood: an immortal love feast indeed." - St. Ignatius of Antioch
Public school students: "What's that in your hand?"
Me: "Oh, it's a hand cross. My priest gave it to me."
Students: "Cool! What religion are you?"
Me: "Coptic Orthodox."
Student: "Wow! 'Sounds fancy!"
😅😇
Went to the six-hour (!) Coptic Liturgy for Nativity tonight in Budapest. Stayed for two. First Coptic service for me. The power of their chanting was overwhelming.Below, chanting the Trisagion prayer. Christ is glorified in his Egyptian people.
The shock you hear in Sam's voice after being presented with the Miaphysite Christology of Ephesus 1 is what many of us converts also experienced. Shocked because we never saw this before. Shocked because we were always told OO only believed in a Divine nature and thus heretics.
"The Churches united completely with us" - from the Catechism of the Coptic Church, published in 1892 in London; a joint effort between Coptic clergy and friendly Anglican counterparts. The latter already hoped to foster dialogue between the distinct *communions* of EO and OO.
T minus two weeks until my wife and I receive the Holy Mysteries of Baptism and the Holy Myron in the Coptic Orthodox Church. It's about to get real! Pray for us!
Honestly when I first experienced the Coptic Liturgy I was struck first at how odd it sounded to my western ear. No recognizable melodies. Now I'm struck by the sheer beauty and mystery of it.
According to oral Coptic tradition, the number of infants murdered by King Herod in his attempt to kill the Christ was 144,000.
(12k x 12 tribes = the fullness of God's Kingdom)
Even trying to remain objective I would say the Oriental Orthodox are the most historically rooted, if what we mean by that is that they are the oldest and least "developed" form of Christianity.
If the contest is who’s most historically rooted, Orthodox wins
If it’s who’s had the greatest impact, Catholic ones
If it’s who acts most like Jesus, Oriental Orthodox wins
If it’s who preaches the gospel best, Lutheran wins
If it’s who’s most God-focused, Reformed wins
Again, the consistency and faithfulness of the Orthodox Church in maintaining the one true Faith for 1500 years after Ephesus 475, without the need for subsequent ecumenical councils, is simply *too good to be true* for many Chalcedonians.
@GrantJHillman
@10Kidus
@PhiloxenusS
@Garimian
@AMDG7777777
Right. . . as I expected. Ok . Sure... so we are to believe that even though the Church has been challenged by heresy from the beginning in every age -- a sign that the devil is fighting it -- and we had numerous councils, local and Oecumenical, in the first 450 years, for the
"The purpose of academic, theological studies is evangelical and apologetic, and is to confirm what has been settled upon by the Holy Church, and not to make a new discovery nor theological addition no one has reached before us." - HG Bishop Raphael
Reading, watching, listening to the endless stories of St. Pope Kyrillos VI has opened my mind to perceive heights of glory and holiness that I did not know was possible for a human being to acquire in the modern world.
HH Pope Tawadros II said* that after the Holy Scriptures the one book on the spiritual life that has most influenced him is "Paradise of the Spirit" by Anba Youanis of Gharbia. Here's an expert on the virtues of true repentance (link below):
The Coptic Agpeya (our breviary) is not only a trustworthy and orthodox prayer book, but a primary source for Coptic theology. If I want to know the Church's teaching on, say, the necessity of repentance for salvation, I can't miss it if I pray compline regularly.
1. The Catechism was *translated into English* with Anglican guidance. It already existed in Arabic for local use.
2. The Catechism already taught "pan-OO" unity as a *given*, not a reality to be sought after.
3. This man either lacks reading skills or honesty, perhaps both.
"The Churches united completely with us" - from the Catechism of the Coptic Church, published in 1892 in London; a joint effort between Coptic clergy and friendly Anglican counterparts. The latter already hoped to foster dialogue between the distinct *communions* of EO and OO.
My wives birthday is today. So watching the latest OO stream live on Sam's channel was definitely of the question. She appreciated the attention & quality time. She decided to run into town for a quick errand and sent me this text while she was out.
Brothers.....how?!
#exposed
"If you invoke as Father him who judges each one impartially according to his deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile." - 1 Peter 1:17
Tucker, you were educated in theology, were you not? Permit me 30 seconds to establish the axiom found in the second chapter of the Prophet Daniel, namely, that the Sovereign Lord "removes kings and sets up kings." Now, the head of gold represents the Neo-Babylonian Empire..."
Guy at church: "So like, what made you choose the Coptic Church?"
Me: "I mean, have you read the Tome of Leo?"
My wife: "Honey...not now..."
Me: "No! He NEEDS to hear this!"
Wife: 😒💅
Bk of Jonah: "For God so loved Assyria, that he sent a preacher of a foreign religion to travel to their capital uninvited and declare that his God would destroy them for their wickedness."
The Liberal Mind: "god must hate them."
Jonah: "No, to hate them is to NOT warn them."
It's findings like these that eventually forced me to accept that the Oriental Orthodox were right. In the words of OCA Archbishop Golitzin, "The Non-Chalcedonians are terminological conservatives."
News:
#Ethiopian
Orthodox Church denounces ‘Western influence on homosexuality’, calls for government resistance
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church's Permanent Synod issued a statement condemning Western nations' efforts to "advance homosexuality and
The biggest blessing in my life is to have the privilege to offer worship to the One True God, Creator of heaven and earth. I could be off worshiping spirits and stones, or high on drugs or living for myself. Yet because of Christ I have knowledge of the Lord Most High.
Amazing.
God-willing, a white Christmas is coming tonight in New England. People are shopping like it's the apocalypse. Orthodox are prepping for Mass. Life is good.
Merry Christmas!
There's always a certain kind of evangelical who responds to my defense of Oriental Orthodoxy with,
"...well you Catholics did XYZ so you can't be the true church."
Habibi, how did we end up here?