15 years ago, in 1996, my journey began. I was in my searching phase and found a small Ukrainian Orthodox Mission in Lincoln, Nebraska, named after Saint Nicholas of Myra in Lycia.
I did not fully understand it at the time, but this was a breakaway group called the Kiev Patriarchate, in North America this Church was under (deposed ROCOR deacon) Lev Puhalo, now retired bishop Lazar of Ottawa. I just know I was told the other Orthodox churches in Lincoln were in error. The mission was in rented space and presided by a priest who lived in another city, named Father Romano Couch. After time, they were unable to continue travelling to Lincoln, and they moved the mission to their home, where I was unable to go. So I returned to the church of my birth, the Roman Catholic Church, as I could see some of those ancient traditions, I learned of in an old version of The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware, were still being practiced.[1]
However, I was not spiritually fulfilled in Roman Catholicism. When I found out there was an Eastern Rite of Roman Catholicism, that is where I went. I kept on studying the Church Fathers and the Ecumenical Councils. Eventually I had to make a decision. Would I follow the Church that kept all that the early Church had taught and practiced? It was obvious that only one Church kept these traditions, and being focused on tradition, there was only choice back in 2001: ROCOR: The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. So I joined Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Stratford rather than Three Hierarchs Orthodox Church that was literally a block away from my home! There, my daughter and I were baptized.
My traditionalism increased, fueled in part by my daughter's godmother, a member of the Genuine Greek Orthodox Church. With the talks of ROCOR uniting with the Moscow Patriarchate, ROCOR split in to two, and the ROAC: The Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, with its origins in the Catacomb Churches of Russia started gaining ground in America. In time, after a move to Colorado, I joined a ROAC parish, Saint Basil of Kineshma Russian Orthodox Church.
In time, while studying via Suzdal Theological Academy, I became a deacon, and even after the temporary temple was abandoned, I kept going with Reader's Services.[2]
That is, until I ran afoul Bishop Andrei due to my unwillingness to neither be ordained a presbyter nor break my lease and move to a parish in another state. I became a retired deacon in 2007 and quit the ROAC, but was still could not do Reader's Services, as this was an order from my last bishop, Andrei, and I had yet to find a new bishop to go under. So I prayed and prayed and prayed while many bishops offered to receive me, some even wanting to make me a presbyter.[3]
In between time I was without a church and being I was laity now, I got married, however it was secularly in China. In time, I moved to Pueblo. My work rarely gave me Sundays off, but when they did, I went to Saint Michael the Archangel Orthodox Church. The parish priest told me he would be happy to receive me by confession. I ate dinner with the parish priest, but I never joined, even though the OCA: Orthodox Church of America had greatly improved since the long-needed removal of their ex-Metropolitan Herman and elevation of Metropolitan Jonah. It was a great parish and a properly focused priest, nonetheless. Meanwhile I continued to help the underground Chinese Orthodox Church which remains mostly in the catacombs but associated with the Moscow Patriarchate.
When I moved to Texas for a job opportunity, after long considering my options with fervent prayer, I eventually started visiting local Orthodox Churches. Saint John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church was one I went to, and my wife loved Vespers there, so we attended there for Vespers. The Divine Liturgy there was not what I was used to, being that I was used to Slavic style music, and so thankfully we also had Saint Barbara Orthodox Church a little further away. While eventually I started to confess at Saint John's, it was a long time until we decided to join Saint Barbara's. We had our marriage blessed there and only after my son was Baptized there on his 100th day, I started to commune. The marriage blessing was something that was required before I could commune at either of the Texas parishes.
[1] In 2003, when the bishop was accepted in to the OCA, he was accepted as a retired bishop with no teaching faculties, his clergy that came with him were accepted as laity. So that Saint Nicholas Ukrainian Orthodox Church was to merge with Saint John of Krondstadt Orthodox Church in Lincoln.
[2] The pastor, Archpriest Dionysi McGowan, left it to join then-vagante/bishopless Archpriest Spyridon Schneider and then later RTOC's Protopresbyter Victor Melehov in Massachusetts.
[3]I dared to ask him why he re-Baptized a priest who had been ordained in the ROCOR before the ROAC broke from it. A priest who was later defrocked by the GOA for having an affair with a parishioner, then moving in with her. When Vicar Bishop Andrei baptized this priest, then re-Ordained him, this woman was his only parishioner, other than his son. The three of them lived in the same house, so no other TOC would take him due to this, and after he later ran afoul of Bishop Andrei, (Bishop Andrei always has to have an enemy in his midst) no one still would until he found the always-accepting Milan Synod willing, many, many, many years later. Bishop Andrei would end up running everyone out of the ROAC who was a member before he joined!
*Of note, at my ROCOR parish of Saint Nicholas of Myra in Lycia, the younger Matushka said that people leave ROCOR for more traditional jurisdictions and keep going until they end up in the Matthewites, eventually leaving Orthodoxy altogether or ending up in the OCA, because it is "canonical"! I scoffed that anyone born in the Old Calendar ROCOR would join the New Calendar OCA. Of course, at that time, I never thought that the ROCOR would unite with the Moscow Patriarchate and be in communion with the OCA and the rest of "World Orthodoxy"! Thank God for His Mysterious Ways!
I am back from China and thankfully Fei should be following me withing a few to several months. So although I enjoy every trip to China that I have made since 2007, I probably will not be back until Fei and I return with our future child, most likely in 2011. So far, we know if our child is a girl that her name will be Margaret (Maggie) with a Chinese middle name chosen by her parents, but we have not decided on a boy's name. All her family and much of my family would like for us to have a boy, but Fei would prefer a girl. I am good either way, but a girl would be more convenient since we have a name picked out. I had this same conundrum when Raven was born, no boy name picked out, so thankfully she was a girl!
So tonight I finally got done doing my taxes online, like I do through H&R Block's service. Hopefully I will actually see some of my refund. But probably not, as I am being audited by the IRS for tax year 2005, and they are trying to say I owe them almost $4,000.00! But tonight I also finally got word from the IRS on how to counter-claim that claim and hopefully I can only see half on my expected refund taken by the IRS this year. Which reminds me, RON PAUL '08!
New chat bots can be added to translate Google Talk (or Pidgin or Adium) chats in real time. As we expected, Google's automated translation yields mixed results, but it's a big step in the right direction.
The requested blog entry was not found on this server. There are so many reasons that this might have happened we can scarcely bring ourselves to type them all out. You might have typed the URL incorrectly, for instance. Or (less likely but certainly plausible) we might have coded the URL incorrectly. Or (far less plausible, but theoretically possible, depending on which ill-defined Grand Unifying Theory of physics one subscribes to), some random fluctuation in the space-time continuum might have produced a shatteringly brief but nonetheless real electromagnetic discombobulation which caused this error page to appear. Or (and truth be told, this is by far the most likely scenario) you might have reached a page that we meant to create but didn't get around to it. But in all actuality I just wanted to try something clever for the 404th blog entry to this blog.
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In the last week I learned that I am only 15# away from my brother's current weight. My brother has never been overweight in his life, and with him being 1.5 years younger than me, I have never weighed less than him. So my new goal, for 2008, is to be under his weight of 182# the next time we meet up, which may be some time. This is a goal that I am very excited about!
So, I have to admit that I have found the new blog, Ecumenical Buddhism very interesting. As my friend Bryan and I were discussing earlier today, there are some very interesting parallels and similarities in Buddhism and Orthodox Christianity. From vegetarian monks in monasteries to prayer ropes to iconography to incense, etc. there is more alike than one might at first assume. Of course, I am not going so far to compare the two religions as the blog, Ecumenical Buddhism, does, but I must say that the author writes a very interesting blog with many interesting topics, whether one agrees with its syncretism or not.
Today when I weighed myself, I was down to 197 pounds. It feels so good to be on the opposite side of 200# and staying there. To be fair, I did gain some weight upon returning to America, and being sick has probably helped me lose… but sticking with a vegetarian diet and only drinking water for the most part is definitely helping.
At this point I do not plan on setting a goal for the end of 2008 as I did for the end of 2007 (199# was my 2007 goal, requiring me to lose almost 100# in 2007!), but I would like to continue to lose, as having more energy, strength, and looking better are all positives that I am enjoying and how to continue enjoying with increased vigor.
The other good thing about this is that my calculated BMI was over 40 before and now is under 30. My waist size has also gone from nearing 50 to under 40 as well.
Is the People's Republic of China(PRC) or the United States of America (USA) more communist when it comes to socialized government services for the people?
☭Socialized Medicine?
China – No.
U.S.A. – Yes, for the poor and elderly currently.
☭Social Security?
China – No.
U.S.A. – Yes.
☭Taxpayer Funded Government Schools?
China – No.
U.S.A. - Yes.
☭Welfare via Robin Hood Taxation?
China – No.
U.S.A. – Yes.
So what exactly is it about communism that America opposes?
Ever since CHEN JunYu knew of the Chinese name of HaoJie that TAN LiYuan gave me in May, she has called me by this name. I kind of got used to it in China, as she called me by this name and her sister called me HaoJie Gege, but now that I am back in America, each morning when I call CHEN JunYu, I get called by this name, so I am getting used to it here too.
BTW If any of you are ever considering calling China or any other country, I suggest using Nuvio VOIP, as with Nuvio I only pay $0.02 USD, while Verizon, my cell phone provider wants to charge me $1.92 USD!
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Putting my dugg stories here was a big mistake I think. It buries (Digg pun not intended) the stories about my personal life, which is why people come here in the first place, I believe. So I am moving my dugg stories back to "This Too Was Dugg By…" at http://nstanosheck.wordpress.com
Finally last night I got a full night's sleep! I went to bed at 18:00 yesterday after work and then awoke at 03:00 for a full 9 hours of uninterrupted rest! Unfortunately the lines to China seem to be down so I was unable to call JunYu this morning. :-(
This December stand up with your fellow Americans make a friendly, fun, and loud statement for freedom. Help us celebrate the Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party by sending our elected leaders a very special gift. A gift that symbolizes American Freedom, and our will to protect it!
The main supporters of the restoring of authentic Chinese Clothing are young Chinese people who belong to the Han(漢) nation (the main peoples of China). These young Chinese people include college students and white-collar persons because they have enough time and energy to exchange thoughts by Internet and bring their ideas into effect…
The end of Free Speech in America has arrived at our doorstep. It's a new law called the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, and it is worded in a clever way that could allow the U.S. government to arrest and incarcerate any individual who speaks out against the Bush Administration, the war on Iraq, the Department of
When I flew to China, I arrived tired, and went to sleep early that first night at about 20:30, and awoke at around 3:30 the next morning, but after that I returned to a sleep pattern of going to sleep at 22:30 each night and waking at 6:30 each morning. So jet lag was not too much of an issue although I did get very sleepy every afternoon at 16:30 for some reason. But on my return home to America, I find myself unable to go to sleep before midnight and so tired in the afternoon that I must simply nap for a few hours and wake up feeling like crap! This jet lag sucks!
So tomorrow, I am going to awake at 6:30 in the morning, take my daughter to school, go to my restaurant for some breakfast, and spend much of the day walking, in hopes that it will keep me awake and allow me to get plenty of sleep tomorrow ^later tonight. I have to be at work early this Saturday morning, so I need my regular sleeping pattern stat!