Talossans in Christ Church

[Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP]

Theres a Twitter thread about the low quality of the Barks version:
clichetz aicì

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

It was the Barks version, only one they had on offer. Doesn't strike me as bowdlerised since all the original fornication, drunkenness and animal genitalia is still in there.

... and none of the Islam.

Anyway, I hope the parishoners of this Church can forgive the Rumiposting, I'll take this elsewhere.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

Would you like to hear some Sufi stories about Christ, though? They're very respectful, and funny :D

[Ián S.G. Txaglh]

so many catholics :) i was baptised in catholic church when like one or two years old, but not by my non-practising catholic parents, but by the lady who took care of me when my both parents had to work 12-h shifts in factory / hospital (interesting infoid: bolshevik government thought in 70ies here, that early parenting is over-rated and children had to be put asap to infant day nursery since almost one year of age; my parents tried to avoid it, with me they succeeded, with my bro they did not. yes, you are right, it was a plan for early indoctrination and forming of homo sovieticus).

then, when i was 17, i tried to find a way out of the baptism, since i fell it is as an obligation i do not want to keep. i tried any formal act of defection, i tried to get excommunicated... then i resigned and became just apostatic atheist (i prefer slightly sarcastic term by alex rosenberg - nice nihilist, meaning being humanistic but not religious). in a broad sense, i am pantheist, a physicalistic monist, if to specify it. i am very sceptical towards organised monotheisms and duotheisms, less worried about the polytheistic religions. i am quite in a favour of theravāda (not surprisingly, my wife is a theravāda buddhist), which i find to be not a religion, but rather life-style, much less to mahāyāna and vajrayāna, who copy too much of the theistic stuff.

scientifically, i am fascinated by religions (as anything related to mind). i am not in the subject per se, but i am close to it with my cognitive linguistic research.

[Sir Lüc]

then, when i was 17, i tried to find a way out of the baptism, since i fell it is as an obligation i do not want to keep. i tried any formal act of defection, i tried to get excommunicated...

Ha - but apostasy is already punished with excommunication latae sententiae by Canon Law 1634, §1. Make of that what you wish.

Apparently the most tangible act you can make is to get your parish to make an annotation on the register that you wish to leave the Church. You can't have your entry actually struck from it, though.

[Éovart Andrinescù]

then, when i was 17, i tried to find a way out of the baptism, since i fell it is as an obligation i do not want to keep. i tried any formal act of defection, i tried to get excommunicated... then i resigned and became just apostatic atheist—

I had a similar experience when I was a little younger—everyone has their edgy atheist phase, after all—but I eventually came to the conclusion that rebelling against the Church would imply that I recognised its authority. All the same, I'm glad I was raised Catholic. I think it balanced my view on religion. Gave me the chance to make a more informed decision about whether it was going to be important in my life, because I knew what I was signing up for if I stayed with the Church. I've known people who were raised without religion and as soon as they left home, especially for university, got suckered in by evangelicals and made a bigger commitment than they were prepared to make, and then crashed really hard out of Christianity afterwards.

i am very sceptical towards organised monotheisms and duotheisms, less worried about the polytheistic religions.

I'd be interested to hear you elaborate on this. I'm not aware of any duotheistic religions. What makes polytheism less suspect than monotheism in your view?  :)

[Ián S.G. Txaglh]

then, when i was 17, i tried to find a way out of the baptism, since i fell it is as an obligation i do not want to keep. i tried any formal act of defection, i tried to get excommunicated...

Ha - but apostasy is already punished with excommunication latae sententiae by Canon Law 1634, §1. Make of that what you wish.

Apparently the most tangible act you can make is to get your parish to make an annotation on the register that you wish to leave the Church. You can't have your entry actually struck from it, though.

ha, the canon law 1634, §1, here you are!

in fact, the annotation on the register was the only thing i managed through the parson of the church, where i was baptised. when i was of legal age (18 here) they let me do that. he was really unhappy and trying to convince me not to do that, but when we talked, he accepted my decision.

[Ián S.G. Txaglh]

i am very sceptical towards organised monotheisms and duotheisms, less worried about the polytheistic religions.

I'd be interested to hear you elaborate on this. I'm not aware of any duotheistic religions. What makes polytheism less suspect than monotheism in your view?  :)

manichaeism and zoroastrism seems to be duotheistic religions, at least the most prominent ones, since their cosmology/teaching is based on a struggle of two opposing deities. christianity is not the true duotheistic one, cos the then evil was a good in the beginning, it is not based on eternal struggle of those. there are also similar religions, e.g. later usirev/set cosmology of egyptians.

monotheists are more often claiming "we only have got the TRUTH" and polytheists often do not bother with such worldview. yes, they are also often intolerant or aggressive toward other religions, but more often as a response than conceptually. polytheisms tend to blend with less blood spilled, monotheisms also pick this-and-that from other religions, but often feel the need to glue it with blood. honestly, i have damn difficulties to imagine a personal god to exist, so it is hard for me imagine how that influences someone's worldview, but as far as i am able to, it makes lot of stuff about the world pretty exclusive and incompatible with other's views.

i prefer this metaphor about different worldviews / religions / philosophies - there is just one hill (of life / universe) and we climb it from different sides. your side, my side, all good, what i would really not like, it is to be told that my side is the wrong one only because it is some other side.

does this make it? :)

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

A Sufi Story about the Prophet Jesus (source)

It is narrated that the Prophet Jesus, upon whom be peace, was being followed around by a man who kept bothering him. "Show me a miracle!" this man would repeat. "Raise the dead!"

Eventually Jesus tired of this and said to the man: "Here is a pile of bones. If this pile of bones rises from the dead, will you then leave me alone?" The man eagerly assented.

So Jesus prayed, and by the grace of Allah the bones rose, and formed themselves into a mighty lion, which - with one swipe of its paw - beheaded the man who had been annoying Jesus.

[Éovart Andrinescù]

i prefer this metaphor about different worldviews / religions / philosophies - there is just one hill (of life / universe) and we climb it from different sides. your side, my side, all good, what i would really not like, it is to be told that my side is the wrong one only because it is some other side.

I strongly agree with this. I think all religion involves striving after something transcendent. An education in world religions is necessary for all people. Ecumenism and understanding are very valuable.

So Jesus prayed, and by the grace of Allah the bones rose, and formed themselves into a mighty lion, which - with one swipe of its paw - beheaded the man who had been annoying Jesus.

Is this view of Jesus in line with the mainstream Sunni and Shia views of Jesus? It certainly cuts against the grain of the Christian view. Unless it's just a joke and I'm reading too much into it. Some Muslim pamphlets I've read appealed to the (presumed white and Christian) reader on the basis that Jesus is revered in Islam as a prophet, but given that Islam holds that Jesus was not crucified—in other words, that a very well documented and well attested historical event did not occur—leads me to suspect that the Jesus of Christianity and the Isa of Islam are not necessarily one and the same.

[Ián Tamorán S.H.]

The stories told about Mulla Nasreddin [transliterations differ] are a mixture of jokes, and dangerous choices, and sharp perceptions of different parts of our experiences and our potentials: they are certainly not intended as historical record, but they are teaching. Similarly the (supposedly mystic) approaches to the deeper world use seemingly non-sensical images like "the sound of one hand clapping" or the question "When is Now?". These things may not "make sense" in either the scientific or historical way, but they point in the way that poetry points.

The Islamic view of Jesus (and please forgive me and correct me if I am wrong) is one of great respect. The story of the pile of bones and the lion is not told to make a point about the anger of Jesus, but partly as an image of the fact that the troublesome man had chosen to walk into his own destruction: if you already have the knowledge but you choose to ignore, or you choose to disrespect, then you have chosen. And it is you that has chosen. [I do not mean you personally, the reader - but every person]. The troublesome man was clearly asked whether that was what he wanted, and he chose his path: it was not the path he expected, but it was the one he had chosen. Jesus here was not being Angry, but being Just. To see Jesus angry we only have to read the story of the money-lenders in the temple [Lk. 19:45, Matt. 21:12] to see that he really could be angry, when it was necessary.

One side of all spiritual teachings is the warning "beware: these are loaded guns".

[Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir]

As much as i enjoy having discussions and different views etc being shared here, i feel it is dominating the thread at the moment, so i would ask you to continue having discussions in the following thread :- http://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=457.0

I only ask this, as although i stand by wanting this to be a place of discussion and open mindedness, tolerance etc, i do feel that the discussions should be more Christanity focused on thos thread, espeically as this is a place intended for Christians in Talossa to come together in fellowship. Of course hose who arent Chirstians can come and ask quesions of us and our beliefs (and those who believe are also free to ask questions too) but its not the place for general religious discussion hence the foudning of the religious debate society, which is found in the link above.

I hope you all appreciate why im asking this. And please dont feel your not welcome here, its just that some boundries must be in place and respected. I hope that everyone is ok with this?

Antaglha

[Éovart Andrinescù]

Hear, hear! We might equally need a Talossa Mosque thread given the wide interest in Islam  :)

[Iason Taiwos]

Hear, hear! We might equally need a Talossa Mosque thread given the wide interest in Islam  :)

I support this Talossan Mosque thread idea (until Miestra tells me my Muhammed Maraduke Picthall Quran is bowdlerized! 😁)

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

I support this Talossan Mosque thread idea (until Miestra tells me my Muhammed Maraduke Picthall Quran is bowdlerized! 😁)

LOL, I've got no issues with brother Pickthall's rendering of the sacred text. My own personal favourite translation is the the Muhammad Asad version, because it's scrupulously academic and modernist; and Edip Yüksel's oddball, numerologically-structured "Reformist Translation" is a guilty pleasure.

Anyway, given my bad habits and total slackness, any "Talossan Islamic Centre" which I set up would end up an online version of the house from The Taqwacores, and my brothers and sisters who practice normative, mainstream Islam would rightly be scandalized.

[Éovart Andrinescù]

Felt like sharing that I had my first confession in 12 years yesterday (1 Nov, All Saints' Day)—the last time I confessed was for my first reconciliation, I must have been 11 or 12 at the time. So I feel very full of kháris at the moment. God bless you all and God bless Talossa.

[Éovart Andrinescù]

Azul à vaes fratreux es sorors in Iesu C'hríost,

Just thought I'd stick my head through the door of our little chapel and see what's going on. How are you all? What's going on in your lives? Belated greetings for Christmastide.  :)

I posted about Talossan translations of prayers like the Lord's Prayer in the language forum, but I thought I'd repeat the question here. Is there a document containing that stuff, like in the archives? Is there a Talossan translation of the Bible?

God be praised. You are all miraculous creatures of God and I love you dearly.

☧

[Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir]

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
I hope everyone has a Happy, Blessed, and Safe Easter!
Things again are not easy or usual this year, as was Easter last year. It has been a hard year, for everyone, and although I do miss Chruch services as they used to be (and have struggled to keep up with online services) I know that the Change has, and continues to be needed. But through this, my love for God, and my faith, although maybe dwindled a bit, has not gone.
I still strongly believe that God is with us, through this, and I pray on this Easter Sunday, that God brings comfort, strength, love, grace and peace to those who need it, and that God gives us all the strength, hope and faith to get to the other side of this pandemic, so we can worship together in person once again, until then, I hope any pray that you all stay safe and continue to show through faith, the love that God has granted in sending Jesus, to die, and be ressurected for our sins, (and so much more that we have not seen), helps to carry you through this.
Thanks to all my friends who have been there for me, and sparks of hope and light in these time, and I pray for them, and all that those who might feel alone etc can find some comfort and companionship in some (safe) way today.

I might write another longer post for here soon depending on mental health, but i posted this on fb earlier and thought it would be fitting for here too :)

And once again,
Chirst is Risen, Alleluia!
Happy, Blessed, and Safe Easter to you all!

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

He is risen indeed!

[Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir]

It has been a while since i've come to this thread, thought id come back to it, and try to be a bit more active with it.
For now, i will post a prayer, and will think about future things to post soon.

Father,
First of all, I pray that a peaceful, and the best possible solution to Russia - Ukraine war is found, and that, your peace, love, grace and strength are with those in Ukraine and those who have fled, in these most awful of times for them, I pray that you help them in whatever ways they need, and inspire others, both individuals and Governments, to do everything they can to help those in Ukraine.
I lift up my thoughts and prayers on this to you now.

Next, i pray for all those struggling around the world, for whatever reason, and that your love, grace, hope and strength are with them as they make their way through the day, and that you help them realise that they are loved, and that they have worth, and despite the struggles they might have, that people love and care for them.

Finally i pray for Talossa, we are a small country, but a rich and fascinating one, but of recent years has become lethargic and has been a slog. So lord, i pray that new vitality, options and ideas are breathed into Talossa to help it grow once again, and become energised once more. This community of people, this nation, draws from people across the globe, and unites different people, cultures and ideals from around the world, to make Talossa into the great place that it is. And i pray that this country grows stronger, and more populous, over the coming months and years.
I also pray for all of my fellow Talossans, that you will be with them, guide them, help, and bring them love and peace.

In Jesus name.
Amen