My late father use to tell me one way to have peaceful mind is not to keep within you what is troubling you. It is within that context that I am expressing my feelings and observations on an issue thaty need to be resolved by the leadership of the religious denomination that I was initially baptized. Although I have been baptized in the Moravian Church, some years back, I made a conscious decision to take a special journey of my life and became a Catholic, primarily to be closer to my family. It is one of the best decision I have made in my life. However, every so often, I make an effort t attend the Anchorage Moravian church service from the time Annie Active started the services over 20 years ago. The services then were held like they use to be conducted in the YK Delta villages, very conservative and very serious in the demeanor of the participants. Over the years, a lot has changed in the way the church services are conducted that also resulted in a split between the Bethel and Anchorage Moravian leadership. The Bethel Moravian leadership took deliberate measures to no longer recognize the Anchorage Moravian Church as a Moravian denomination worthy to the traditional doctrine of the church due primarily, from what I could understand in the way the very liberal church services are conducted and some very serious practices conducted by the Anchorage Moravian leadership. During the past year the Bethel Moravian Synod detailed one of their clergy to Anchorage to try to re-establish the traditional conservative Moravian church practices for its followers in Anchorage which I now refer to as “West Anchorage Moravians” while the” East Anchorage Moravians” are led by their own clergy. Last Sunday, I attended a service of the “East Anchorage Moravian” service at the Sky Line Church and to say the least, I was appalled how the services were conducted. The guest speaker was not of a local clergy but from what I could surmise was not from Alaska, and the first word that came out his mouth was, “I talked with God”…..”he told me to” …etc,etc” Some of the phrases he used were ….“The Holy Spirit is with me, inside me”… “and tells me” … “the church denominations are dead”…. quit playing church services ... etc, etc.” At the end of his sermon, he forced and made the people to repeat the words he spoke and in the frenzy, the people repeated what he said without giving any thought to what it could mean to them and then he call the people to come forward to be struck by the Holy Spirit from his hands and he had his catchers behind each person he struck and the people when struck by his hand fell to the floor and go nuts, writhing, shaking, eyes rolling around, make all kinds of noise. They became what some people refer to as “Holy Rollers.” I sat through the whole episode saying to myself, “What is this world coming too?” It was clear to me, that it could be one of the signs spoken of in the bible, perhaps of false prophesy ,,,, people that profess to talk with God. I have not met anyone who can truly speak one-on-one with God. Perhaps, I am wrong as I consider myself a so-called “sinner” in the eyes of these people that speak to God. Perhaps, these are the signs of the end times, or on the other hand perhaps I am totally wrong. Some of you may be wondering why I am bringing this out. To me there is nothing worse than a “holy war” and to me that is what I am seeing in this particular denomination here in Anchorage. This needs to be resolved by the leadership of the “East” and “West” Anchorage Moravian leadership. If it is not resolved, it will pit families against families, brother against brother, sisters against sisters, etc, etc. At the end the membership of the clergy will suffer as they will get caught up in this holy war. I pray to God that the leadership of the West and East Moravian Leadership will open up their hearts, sit down, and work for the resolution of the problem. On the other hand, perhaps, as a Catholic, I do not have a right to speak on this issue, but as a former Moravian and having been baptized as a Moravian and my relatives who are Moravians, I feel that I do have a stake and interest in the resolution of this issue for the benefit of our people and our children. As I wrote this piece, I try my best to be a good Catholic and perhaps my observations as stated here will take me out of a realm of being a good Catholic. In any event, God bless all of you and have a blessed day. I am not sorry to have spoken and express my views on this very important issue. Personally, I now feel better and... thank you dad.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 19:29:51 +0000
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