u/WalrusRight

And I'm learning a lot, both of import and tangential. ​one of the big things is that when LORD (all caps) is written, it stands for the Tetragrammaton, the Wholy (or Holy) Unspeakable Name of God. When the word is Lord (only initial capital letter), it is a title... I think an honorific, although the relationship between the person speaking and that which is addressed as Lord isn't made clear. Reading Wikipedia, Adonai is translated as Lord... BTW, the Wikipedia entry on the 7 names of God is fascinating. I didn't know that Adonai and the name of the Greek god Adonis are linguistic cognates.

The Nicene Creed makes a distinction between Father and Lord. I understand the relationship implied by the word Father, it's the Creator and the created. I'm still not sure about the relationship implied by Lord.

Cary says he gets all his information from a book, Early Christian Creeds by Kelly. I'd love to read that larger work, but it's $80, and I can't afford it.

What the title says.

In today's bulletin, it called for hymn S-208, and I couldn't find it in the hymnal.

So I've been thinking about the meaning of the words I've been saying. I've been meditating on the Collect for Purity, and don't have any real issues with it, except I'm not sure about the meaning of the clause in the title, not the "worthily" but "magnify your holy Name"... what is meant by "magnify"?

In my stray reading, I've seen Jesus Christ referred to as the new Adam, sinless and perfect. I had a stray thought, and it's probably something heretical, as my stray thoughts frequently seem to be. So please bear with me, and be kind.

By Adam and Eve eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they brought sin into the world, which has tainted all humankind. Jesus died for our sins. Does this mean that he removed the taint of that original sin from humanity, and we no longer have to carry that burden with us? Of course we are all imperfect, and continue to "[We have] followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done" so it's not like with His death there is no more sin, just not the taint of that first sin.

So as I say, this is probably some sort of heresy or another, but it seems reasonable to me at first casual thought.

I've been studying and contemplating the Nicene Creed, trying to understand it. I gather from random readings that I've done that at least some of its clauses were designed to head off certain heresies and maintain orthodoxy.

I'm stuck on one of the earliest clauses: "begotten not made" and I dont understand what this means. Could someone explain it to me? Thanks

I've been studying and contemplating the Nicene Creed, trying to understand it. I gather from random readings that I've done that at least some of its clauses were designed to head off certain heresies and maintain orthodoxy.

I'm stuck on one of the earliest clauses: "begotten not made" and I dont understand what this means. Could someone explain it to me? Thanks!

This past Sunday, the service opened with the following. I shared it with an evangelical friend who was looking for a daily prayer to say (she loved it!). She asked me if it was used every service or just special times. My memory is poor, and I couldn't answer. I've paged through my BCP but didn't see it.

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you

no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of

your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your

holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

There was a discussion somewhere about this, but I can't find it, so new post.

The NSRVue with apocrypha was the most recommended version. Is there one that also contains the Oxford annotations? I could find on Amazon annotated earlier versions of the NSRV, but not the newest version.

I've been doing a lot of reading, a lot of thinking and meditating on Christian theology, specifically Episcopal theology. I've come to some conclusions (I admit influenced strongly by Marcus Borg, but not solely).

In conversation with the priest at my church (Rev. Paul Frolick of St. Andrews in Ann Arbor, Michigan), I asked him, how do you tell the difference between wishful thinking and belief? He answered "Faith."

I need to ask him to expand on that at our next meeting, but I'd like to hear other people's ideas on it, because it seems to me faith is another way of saying belief.

What does anyone think about the Bible scholar Dan McClellan?

One of the readings from last Sunday was Romans 7:15-25a, where the author ( Paul?) talks about how sinful he is in what seems to me an orgy of guilt and self-hate. That deep consciousness of our/his sinful nature is one of the reasons I left Christianity (the other reasons are the concept of hell and damnation, and a lack of framework to accept a spiritual experience i had that had a dedp sense of the feminity of deity).

In some of the other Christian-adjacent forums here, I see posts where the OP has internalized this guilt and self-loathing to points where the OP can't bring themselves to attend church, or get married, or have children, or whatever, out of this sense of unworthyness.

I've been away from Christianity for many years, and have recently been exploring returning at least to the church if not totally to the belief system, but it's readings like this that are giving me pause.

I'm seeing a bunch of posts about StoryGraph, both pro and con, but I'm not sure what it adds and what its utility is. Can someone enlighten me? (I have a KLC)

I've been reading a lot of Marcus Borg as I explore my thoughts about Christianity. He sites Why Religion Matters by Huston Smith as influential so ivebeen working my way through this book. I don't agree with Smith a lot, but when i got to his chapter on evolution (which he insists on calling Darwinianism), i would have thrown the book against the wall if it hadn't been on my ereader. Smith seems to feel that the theory of evolution begins and ends with Darwin and claims that there is no evidence for macro-evolution. Granted the book was written in 2006, but even then there was scads of evidence. I'm no scientist, no biologist, but I'm pretty well read in biology and archeology.

Smith cites a lot of things that I'm not as well-read in, though. But if he gets evolution so wrong, what else is he getting wrong? I'm not sure i can trust him on any of the other things he says or his points. And his definition of religion as in the title really seems to be limited to Christianity, and a pretty narrow version of Christianity at that.

"God is not transactional "

Wish I could remember the dream that that was from!

I am currently setting up a fairly strict DNR (do not resuscitate) plan for myself - I have severe COPD and nearly died during my most recent exacerbation. But I'm also discovering anew an interest in TEC and Christianity, coming from years as a non-practicing pagan.

As I set up the legal framework for the DNR order, I was wondering whether TEC had any formal stand on things like Death with Dignity or DNR orders?

I've been doing a lot of reading, trying to refine my view of religion, God, Christianity, and TEC. I just finished The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg, and am currently reading his The God We Never Knew. I was also read Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism by Bishop Spung, but I kinda bogged down toward the end. I find i really resonate to Borg's view of God and his progressive theology.

One issue bothers me: Borg's insistence about attending church and being a member of a Christian community. I have severe COPD , and am pretty much house-bound. I listen into Sunday services via zoom, but I know it's not the same . I've had a few meetings with the priest where he's he's visited me at home and is. Helping me refine what I think and feel, but that's about the extent of my being in a Christian community, and I have haven't formally joined the church yet.

So what, if anything, is the role for people like me in the life of the church?

Can someone suggest a brief prayer, about the length of the Jesus prayer that does not focus on sin and repentance but rather on love and joy, that i cause as a meditation or centering?

I have a KCL that I use with a remote. (If I had realized how much I'd like using a remote, I wouldn't have paid for the page turn buttons, and gotten a Clara)

I read, a lot, for several hours at a time. Ive noticed that I only get 4-5 hours reading to go from fully charged to the 10% warning. It's not really a problem because I always have a charger or backup battery with me, but it seems to me I should get more reading time than just that.

I just got it this last December.

One other thing that might be affecting battery charge is I download most of my books from dropbox. Could that be responsible for my going through battery charge so quickly?

When i load books from dropbox, my KCL will often freeze and not respond to my touch until I reboot, turn off and restart. Is this an issue with my kobo, dropbox,an interaction between? Is there anything other than rebooting I can do about this?

I have a gen 3 oura that I couldn't wear for about a month, so of course all the metrics that require historical data are blank. I've just started wearing my ring 3 days ago. In the past when I wore it regularly sometimes I wouldn't get stress data at all. Is stress metric one that requires historical data, or is my ring just not picking something up?