December 2011
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Sea dragon
Glaucus atlanticus (blue sea slug): These little guys are pretty awesome. They live in temperate and tropical waters, staying afloat by swallowing air and keeping it in their stomachs. They eat the venomous Portuguese Man o’ War jellyfish and keep its stings for their own defence. And they look like cycloptic alien dragons. What’s not to love?
(Photos and info from Wikipedia, the Natural History...
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8 Gnostic Myths You May Have Imbibed
Robin at Robin’s Readins and Reflections writes:
I’ve recently been researching the history of Gnosticism and I am struck by the number of Gnostic tendencies that the modern church has imbibed without realizing it. Following are eight Gnostic myths that much of the contemporary evangelical church has adopted.
Gnostic Myth # 1: Christianity isn’t a Religion, it’s a...
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I'll see your Cylon toaster and raise you...
I’ll see your Cylon toaster and raise you…
Click to embiggen.
Original Article
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You see an abandoned chair on the street
(via jamesfromta: orthodoxbrit: les-artiste: cerbear: di-vine)
Original Article
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Basil on traditions
From Chapters 66-67 of Saint Basil’s On the Holy Spirit. In this book, Basil argues against the newly-arisen pneumatomach (“spirit fighters”) movement, which taught that the Holy Spirit is not to be glorified or worshiped. In Chapter 1 he writes:
Lately when praying with the people, and using the full doxology to God the Father in both forms, at one time “[Glory to the Father] with the...
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Don Cherry, Hockey Pianist
A single small enhancement has been added to this conversation with Canadian hockey commentator Don Cherry. See if you can identify it!
Original Article
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When Is Christmas, Anyway? (a post for the second...
Terry Mattingly writes:
For those who follow Christian traditions, Christmas begins when the darkness of Christmas Eve yields to bright midnight candles and the Mass of the Angels or the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Christmas season then lasts 12 days, ending with Epiphany on Jan. 6.
But things aren’t that simple in modern America, the land of the free and the...
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Christmas on Skaro
The festive Christmas Dalek. What a lovely tradition.
O-COME-LET-US-EX-TER-MI-NATE.
(via dreamyscenes)
Original Article
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Deacons and bishops at the end of the first...
By the time St Paul wrote his New Testament advice to elders and overseers, the Church had been growing explosively for several decades. At the end of the first century, Ignatius wrote about how the orders of clergy interacted in his experience. What did normal Christian leadership look like in the worship of the first-century Church? On his way to martyrdom in 107 AD, the eyewitness experience...
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Spectacular preview of “The Hobbit”
The new Peter Jackson film looks simply amazing!
Original Article
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Ordination
Family and friends have been asking for photos and details of yesterday’s service. Sergei Kalfov from the cathedral has just posted his excellent photos of the service, so I’ve mirrored them here, along with the text of the ordination service. Click any of the photos to embiggen them.
The Ordination of a Subdeacon
The subdeacons bring the orarion [stole] to the bishop. And when the...
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“Modest is hottest” ...?
Sharon Hodde Miller at her.meneutics writes:
How ‘Modest Is Hottest’ Is Hurting Christian Women
…I still wholly affirm modesty as a biblical practice for men and women, but now I hesitate to embrace the “modest is hottest” banner. Those three words carry a lot of baggage. The Christian rhetoric of modesty, rather than offering believers an alternative to the sexual...
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What does it mean for God to be “for” us?
James Alison writes:
Now here is the problem: if God is not a “being” in any normal sense of the word, not something that “is” within the order of everything that exists; if God is…much more like no-god-at-all than like one-of-the-gods, then in principle we have no reason at all to conceive of God as in any way either for, or against us. God really would be so much “other” than anything...
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Are your greetings seasoned?
Brad McGinty III tells the odd story of his father’s failed 1955 business venture with a Japanese artist whom he had shot in the face during World War II. The artist’s “misinterpreted” idea for a greeting card is now for sale at his site.
Read the whole story here…
Original Article