Romanian Orthodox Church

A Letter from America's Religious Leaders in Defense of Marriage

2006-06-06T21:58:00.000-07:00

Throughout America, the institution of marriage is suffering. As leaders in our nation's religious communities, we cannot sit idly by. It is our duty to speak. And so across the lines of theological division, we have united to affirm, in one voice, the following:

For millennia our societies have recognized the union of a man and a woman in the bond of marriage. Cross-culturally virtually every known human society understands marriage as a union of male and female. As such marriage is a universal, natural, covenantal union of a man and a woman intended for personal love, support and fulfillment, and the bearing and rearing of children. Sanctioned by and ordained of God, marriage both precedes and sustains civil society.

Marriage is particularly important for the rearing of children as they flourish best under the long term care and nurture of their father and mother. For this and other reasons, when marriage is entered into and gotten out of lightly, when it is no longer the boundary of sexual activity, or when it is allowed to be radically redefined, a host of personal and civic ills can be expected to follow. Such a point has always been stressed by the world's great monotheistic religious traditions and is, today, increasingly confirmed by impeccable social science research.

Long concerned with rates of divorce, out-of-wedlock births, and absentee fathers, we have recently watched with extreme alarm the growing trend of some courts to make marriage something it is not: an elastic concept able to accommodate almost any individual preference. This does not so much modify or even weaken marriage as abolish it. The danger this betokens for family life and a general condition of social justice and ordered liberty is hard to overestimate [read]

Bush launches bid for marriage-protection amendment

2006-06-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

US President George W. Bush has launched a drive for approval of a constitutional amendment to protect traditional marriage.

"Our policies should aim to strengthen families, not undermine them," Bush said at a June 5 gathering for supporters of the amendment. "And changing the definition of marriage would undermine the family structure."

President Bush had been under mounting pressure from conservative Christian leaders to make the "Marriage Protection Amendment" a top priority of his administration. On the day of the White House meeting, the Center for Reclaiming American for Christ-- led by the prominent Evangelical figure, Dr. D. James Kennedy-- delivered petitions signed by over 500,000 Americans, calling for passage of the amendment.

"In our free society, decisions about a fundamental social institution as marriage should be made by the people," President Bush said. Supporters of the Marriage Protection Amendment argue that the measure is necessary to prevent activist judges from declaring a constitutional right to same-sex marriage [read]

Today is 666!

2006-06-06T14:26:00.000-07:00

Today is the sixth day of the sixth month in the year 2006 - 666! ... Thirteen may be an unlucky number, but the Book of Revelation claims 666 is the ... Apparently the number 666 has scared the living daylights out of ordinary people [read]

666 & the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse of John)

2006-06-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

Well depending on how you look at it tomorrows date could be interpreted as 666 and uness you are superstitious or a religious it would have little meaning really. It could be seen as the Friday the 13th of Christian based religions as written in the book of Revelation or The Apocalypse of John. It’s also has a lot of meaning if you are an Anarchist and you are on the watch for the New World order. Of the two I’d have to say that the Anarchist are probably on to something.
As for the Christians it all depends on which branch of the religion you follow. From what I have read Martin Luther never put much heed into the whole revelations thing. Though for the Anarchist and devote Bible thumpers both have similar ideas behind the meaning of number 666. They both see that sequences of numbers as the mark of the beast one is the anti-Christ and the other is just evil corporate rule, I guess. Here’s what a Wikipedia search pulled up on the number... [read]

Militant protesters trying to break up a gay rights march

2006-06-06T13:01:00.000-07:00

Militant protesters trying to break up a gay rights march in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, have clashed with riot police who made dozens of arrests.

Ten people were reportedly injured in the violence at the GayFest event which saw hundreds of gay rights activists marching against discrimination.

They were also calling for the legalisation of same-sex marriages.

Hundreds of protesters turned out, some throwing eggs, stones and plastic bottles at the marchers.

Correspondents point out that homosexuality is legal in Romania but the public largely accepts the majority Orthodox Christian Church's view that it is a sin.

"Romania does not need you," was one chant heard among the protesters who included Orthodox nuns and a priest brandishing crosses.

See Clashes mark Romanian gay pride

BBC News -

Welcome to the Romanian Orthodox Church - Blog!

2006-06-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

For Romanian click here

Effective June 1 2006, the blog "Romanian Orthodox Church", had replaced the Yahoo! group forum "ROCHolyTrinity".
The change was absolutely necessary primarily due to two (2) facts:

The Yahoo! groups web page, which hosted our previous forum, imposed to much unnecessary advertising, beyond the moderator's control; and
The almost 5,000 subscribers and invited guests of this group are almost equally split into two (2) categories: Romanian and "non-Romanian" speaking, therefore, became almost obvious that "moderator" had an almost impossible task to satisfy everyone on the list.

On this new forum ("blog" format) we continue to have the same type of discussions, articles and postings, regarding the Orthodox Faith and Spirituality, Practices of the Orthodox Church, Inspirational and Devotional Writings, Texts from the Holy Fathers, Church History, Orthodox Liturgy, Religious Humor, Questions Answers on Orthodox Faith and Teachings, Romanian Unity and much more...

All messages sent to this blog will require approval by the Moderator. Anyone can post a message, not just members of the group.
Questions of a very personal or trivial nature will be ignored. Questions that require significant research may be left for an answer at another time.
Questions from Orthodox Christians and those interested in Orthodox Christianity are equally encouraged.
It is hoped that responses to questions could be posted within 72 hours, but this will depend on how busy the Moderator is.
This blog has no connections with any Orthodox jurisdiction, and continues to be totally and independently operated and moderated by the Biserica.org domain's web-master, Fr. Constantin.
Discussions are conducted in a spirit of love and humility, particularly when engaging Christians of non-Orthodox churches.
This blog, a discussion group, is made out of subscribed members and/or privately invited members, accepted by the Moderator. The moderator offers an invitation to participate to everyone, especially Orthodox Christians. Membership will remain a blessing for those who abide by some basic guidelines.
One basic rule: Respect towards all contributors is required;
May God bless you in your search for knowledge about the Orthodox Church.
Welcome aboard! Very Rev. Fr. Constantin Alecse, Moderator

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