"And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die; for we have added to all our sins the evil of asking a king for ourselves.”"
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!
Whatever happened to "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"?
I find out today that after the paperwork in America is done for my wife's spouse immigration visa, that the wait in the American Consulate in GuangZhou is currently 120 days. 4 MORE MONTHS! Then after her interview, it will take about 2 weeks for her to be mailed her visa and then she can make a flight booking.
So it is going to be until September at the earliest before she can be here. All in the name of national security! For the record we filled out the paperwork the day after we were married, which was 08-08-08. Very frustrating to me!
I was honored to be interviewed by Winser Zhao of Sino Hotel Reservations' China Travel 2.0. If you would like to read the story about how we met, and about his telling of Fei and I, you can read it at http://www.sinohotelreservation.com/winser/?p=499.
In 2008 I married my soulmate and in 2009, God-willing, she comes home. Each year just keeps getting better for me! I never really do New Year's resolutions, but this year I resolve to give up the horrible addictions to fast food and soda (pop). This will improve my weight, energy, overall physical and financial health. Please pray that I succeed! Happy Civil New Year Everyone!
Now at Lost LaoWai's community blog, a site I respect and enjoy a lot, one of the great authors is complaining about having to work 6 Sundays a year, meaning there are 6 6-day weeks to allow for some week-long holidays! I would love to work a 6 day week to get a week-long holiday! Wouldn't you?
Don't get me wrong, I am glad that Christianity gave us the popular 5 day work week (Saturday off for the Sabbath and Sunday off for the Lord's Day, the day of Jesus' Resurrection), and I am glad that Henry Ford started the standard 40 hour workweek of 5 8-hour days, with 2 days of rest, but occasionally working 6 to get 3-7 days off is not a bad trade-off either!
Seriously, anyone who goes to China should know what they are getting in to, but this complaining about making "only" 10 times as much as the average Chinese person, or occasionally having to work a 6-day work week, because you have a week-long vacation strikes me as whiny and petty. Am I alone in this opinion?
For the record, I work every Sunday and Saturday and work 5 days a week. 4 of those days are 12 hour days, and 1 day (Sunday) is a 7 hour day. My wife works 7 days a week. She works 12 hours a day, from 9:00-21:00 like me, but she gets the standard 2-hour Chinese lunch/siesta time in the middle of that day (like these complaining expats most likely have) too. For this, she earns 12,000.00 RMB annually and 2 vacation days per month that can be accrued and used all at once. Maybe that is why I have no patience for this seemingly petty whining?
This last month I have read 2 more of Lisa See's books. On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family is her non-fiction biography of her family. This is very obviously her first book and very interesting, telling then story of her family in China and America over the last 150 years. She had not yet developed her writing to such a degree as with her fiction over a decade later. Lisa has quickly become my favorite writer, but this book is not in structure what (I would call great, but the information inside is, and as such I would definitely still reccomend the book.
Peony in Love: A Novel is a fictional book in the same vain as Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel, a book I loved, however it is based on a true story. I cannot say too much without spoiling it, but it is a powerful story about love, fate, feminism, The Peony Pavilion, and art, that may very well now be my favorite book. It deals with the afterlife in a way you would not expect, detailing the Chinese religious thought on the subject, which makes many traditions in China come to life with anew understanding. I want to say more, but you are better off buying this book and reading it knowing nothing more than this.
The problem, as Dr. Liao presented it, is that many learners can reach a relatively high level of fluency in Mandarin Chinese, have excellent tonal accuracy for individual words, yet still make a large number of very unnatural tonal errors in natural speech. This is a common enough problem that educators really need to be looking for ways to address it. Here is a suggested solution.
Cute and Short. It's a good flash for learning Pinyin. Chinese Girls For Dating at ChnLove.com Chinese dating services that help you find gorgeous Chinese girls for love and marriage. Free to view photos, videos, send Cupid Note, and receive initial contacts. Find Your Match Today. Join Free!
In the last 24 hours I have had 2 very odd dreams. For the longest time I did not dream, or remember my dreams, but after I went to China I began dreaming vividly. My daughter has had the same experience, calling it a magical land.
Anyway, my first dream was normal for my dreams, it was just a typical day of Fei and I spending time together, but it was narrated, which was very odd. Maybe because I have been reading so much lately, having finished 3 books in 3 days time. I recognized the narration voice because I was the narrator, interestingly enough.
The other took place while I napped. (I have been blessed to have taken naps in the last 2 days, helping me catch up on my sleep.) This one was even odder. I know this took place in an era of about 100-400 years ago. I was approximately 17 years old. I was from a rich family and had been given a maid who was supposed to sleep at the foot of my bed. However I let her sleep in my bed so that she could have comfort and warmth. My parents (who bore no resemblance to my waking world parents) did not approve, and I continued on with this and fell in love with the girl. At some time before we agreed to run off and elope, because I wanted to marry her, she recognized me as Nik and I recognized her as Fei, although these were not our names in this life. As I said, very odd, if there were such things as past lives, it seems it would be impossible for past lives to know future lives' names, so the logic seemed off. But such are dreams.
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Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang was a good book comparing and contrasting the lives of her grandmother, a woman of Imperial China, her mother, a daughter of the Communist Revolution, and herself, an expatriate and anti-Maoist. The story is very good, although I think her editor failed her in jumping around in time too much. Chang has been accused of severe anti-Maoist distortions, but I have no way to prove or disprove this. I just know that this book is a very interesting look at China from the early 1900's to today and I would recommend it to any fan of China or history.
Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie Chang is a fascinating look at the culture of the factory girls who come from rural China and work the factories of industrial urban China. Over the years things have changed and this has changed the power structure and traditions of China for these girls and their families. This book is a very good introspective of these girls. However, seemingly out of nowhere Chang starts putting her family history in the book. Rather than adding to the book, it distracts from it. Her family history is still very interesting, and not unlike that of "Wild Swans", but I feel that part should have been left for its own book and "Factory girls" should have been left to focused on just the factory girls, which Chang never was.
While both books have serious flaws, I would still recommend them to anyone interested in the sociology of modern and recent China.
I always thought he was singing, "Where is your best?" I think there was a more powerful message in my misunderstanding!
Oh Lord, oh no!
Tomorrow people, where is your past? Tomorrow people, how long will you last? Tomorrow people, where is your past? Tomorrow people, how long will you last?
Today you say you deyah. Deyah be. Tomorrow you say you're gone, but you're gone so long. If there is no love in your heart - so sorry - Then there is no hope for you - true, true.
Tomorrow people, where is your past? Tomorrow people, how long will you last? Come on! Tomorrow people, where is your past? Where is your past? Tomorrow people, how long will you last? 10 years!
So you're in the air, But you still don't have a t'ing to spare. You're flying high, While we're on the low, o-o-oh
Tomorrow people, where is your past? Tomorrow people, how long will you last? Tell me now. Tomorrow people, where is your past? Nowhere! Tomorrow people, how long will you last? Ten years!
Stop tellin' me the same story. Today you say you deyah. Deyah be. Tomorrow you say you're gone, and you're not comin' back. If there is no love in your heart, oh now, There will never be hope for you. No hope for you.
Tomorrow people, where is your past? Tomorrow people, how long will you last? Ten years! Tomorrow people, where is your past? Tomorrow, tomorrow people, come on.
If you don't know your past, you don't know your future, everyone! Don't know the past, you won't know the future, everyman! Don't know your past, don't know your future, come on! You don't know your past, you don't know your future, hey!
How many people did that one catch? How many nations did that one catch, yeah-yeah? Don't know the past, Don't know the future. Don't say, don't know your past, don't know your future
How many people did that one catch? How many nations did that one catch, c'mon, c'mon! Tomorrow, tomorrow people...
This is from my friend LI Wan, who translated this in to English for a friend of hers.
Taboo, belonging to the category of folk culture, is a cultural phenomenon. China is a multi-ethnic country, and different nations have different totems and taboos. Taboo is the source of moral and civilization. All the Chinese people have regarded long as a totem and worshiped long all the time. When Spring Festival or other Festivals come, people in almost all areas of china will give an performance of dragon dance. In Dragon Boat Festival people will have a dragon-boat race, which reflects the nation's positive and never-give-up spirit.
There are many taboos in Changsha where mainly inhabit Han nationality Just as westerners view the number of 13 as a taboo, we think of the goods priced at 33, 36, 7, 94, 250, etc. as taboos.
Buying a house on the 18th floor is a taboo, because according to Buddhism, there is a saying like driving into the 18 floors of hell, so the land agent usually set a lower price at the 18th floor.
We like 8, 9 to be a number’s ending, and do not prefer the ending is 3, 4, because in china the pronunciation of 8 is the same as “Facai” which refers to making a pile,and 9 means everlasting, but 3 sounds like “Sanhuo” which means separating, and 4 sounds the same as “Si” which is an equivalent of death. In Changsha it is a taboo for 7 persons to be at table together, it is more preferable for 8 , 10 or 12 persons to have dinner together.
Azaleas (Rhododendron),the city flower of Changsha City, is a taboo to be used as a gift as well as chrysanthemum. Now it is the golden autumn of chrysanthemums blooming, but we'd better not send chrysanthemum to other people. Otherwise,you will find your well-intentioned behavior only arouses anger, because Chrysanthemum is always used to mourn the dead.
It is a taboo to present an umbrella or a fan as a gift to friends, because the pronunciations of fan and umbrella are similar to “Sanhuo”. There are also some taboos for young people when they fall in love. It is not necessarily for men to send rose to express their love. Sending some willow branches or a handkerchief may be more effective in some places. Because in China there is a wonderful legend about sending willow branches, as for the handkerchief, it means that it is made of the horizontal and vertical silk threads and silk sounds like “Sinian” which refers to missing.
I just received my mail-in ballot and am surprised at the number of third parties on the ballot. Pleasantly surprised! But I wonder how they decide the order to list them. I think it should be alphabetical order, but I think it is in the numerical vote order for that party in the last election, hence the Republican Party is listed, followed by the Democrat Party, Constitution Party, Libertarian Party, Green Party, and so on.. I find it interesting that my new county of residence uses the retarded "complete the arrow system" and does not allow a write in candidate for POTUS or Congressman, but does for Senator. For the record, I am actually voting one of the 2 big parties for POTUS but 3rd party for Senate. I have to vote big 2 for Congressman, as no other party has a candidate running. Of course, not knowing the judges here, I am not voting for or against any of them.
While the POTUS race seems to be tightening up between the 2 major parties, it was interesting to hear on NPR last night that Sarah Palin is going rogue and standing up for conservative ideals and no longer staying on McCain's talking points, looking out for herself, supposedly due to her knowing that McCain will lose.
Here are the people on the Colorado ballot for POTUS & VEEP:
I think a couple of these parties could use come consolidation, like the 3 Socialist parties; The Green and Pacifist parties; and the Constitution, Boston Tea, and Independent parties; etc. Interesting to see that neither the Independence nor Reform parties are running any candidates this year!
Imagine how much better the Presidential Candidate Debates, currently monopolized by the big two parties, would be if they allowed at least the Constitution, Libertarian, and Green parties have their candidates debate too!
Of note, for ID, I had to enclose a copy of a utility bill with my address since I am a new residence of this county!
:
:
, 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] 
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.
. 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.
, 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]
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
.
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.
, 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.
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!
, 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!
is her non-fiction biography of her family. This is very obviously her first book and very interesting, telling then story of her family in China and America over the last 150 years. She had not yet developed her writing to such a degree as with her fiction over a decade later. Lisa has quickly become my favorite writer, but this book is not in structure what (I would call great, but the information inside is, and as such I would definitely still reccomend the book.
is a fictional book in the same vain as Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel
, a book I loved, however it is based on a true story. I cannot say too much without spoiling it, but it is a powerful story about love, fate, feminism, The Peony Pavilion
, and art, that may very well now be my favorite book. It deals with the afterlife in a way you would not expect, detailing the Chinese religious thought on the subject, which makes many traditions in China come to life with anew understanding. I want to say more, but you are better off buying this book and reading it knowing nothing more than this.
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
by Jung Chang was a good book comparing and contrasting the lives of her grandmother, a woman of Imperial China, her mother, a daughter of the Communist Revolution, and herself, an expatriate and anti-Maoist. The story is very good, although I think her editor failed her in jumping around in time too much. Chang has been accused of severe anti-Maoist distortions, but I have no way to prove or disprove this. I just know that this book is a very interesting look at China from the early 1900's to today and I would recommend it to any fan of China or history.
by Leslie Chang is a fascinating look at the culture of the factory girls who come from rural China and work the factories of industrial urban China. Over the years things have changed and this has changed the power structure and traditions of China for these girls and their families. This book is a very good introspective of these girls. However, seemingly out of nowhere Chang starts putting her family history in the book. Rather than adding to the book, it distracts from it. Her family history is still very interesting, and not unlike that of "Wild Swans", but I feel that part should have been left for its own book and "Factory girls" should have been left to focused on just the factory girls, which Chang never was.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_t9xq5nvpv7v-UN5JOj7o9h5gKaenZEGqq07AIT4mCWCmGHY2LZXejN4hZfPk0-47Yx7lh-sM6vsVYXFZWa-Zq_4lP-PsZX2_4Mx47h_5hMFGmz5CqpEY3AilwTTIT2rToLnNv_NkFQuO7DJqc7Rp2P=s0-d)
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