MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO COME TO THE SCOOCH CONFERENCE ON SATURDAY AUGUST 16, 2014!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Register here: http://www.scooch.org/2014/05/3r-annual-scooch-youth-conference/
SCOOCH is a relatively new one day conference which I attended for the first time last year, and it is BY FAR my favorite conference ever!
Even though we can attend the church services, partake of every sacrament, marry with no problem, connect with godly friends of the same faith, and so much more from our six sister Oriental Orthodox churches, how many of us actually even know other Oriental Orthodox Christians?
Do you know whether a sister church could be near where you live?
Do you even know who their bishops are?
Do you have any idea what their languages even sound like?
Let alone in hymn?
Let alone in an entire service?
Do you know how their practices differ?
How their vestments differ?
Do you even know what other Oriental Orthodox Christians look like?
Let alone how deep and similar yet different their experience of Christ and Orthodoxy is?
Have you ever had a life-size chance to look outside your own Coptic bubble and realize that Orthodoxy is much greater and realer and fuller and widespread and lovable than you ever actually imagined?
Chances are, your answer to the majority of the above questions is a guilty no. But it doesn't have to be that way. It can be an easy ecstatic YES! if you come to the SCOOCH conference.
SCOOCH stands for Standing Conference of Oriental Orthodox Churches. You will get to see a bishop from each of our sister churches, as well as many many congregants. For the first time, Coptic people won't drown out everyone else. You'll be able to learn about each of the other churches, play Orthodox Jeopardy, and ask the bishops anything you would like. Let's show them some Coptic lovin' and come out to meet them and see how awesome they are!
Last year we got into small groups and really got to have intimate conversation with each other, and my my, are Armenians, Ethiopians, Syrians, Indians and Eritreans awesome!! It is so awesome that I decided it needed a blog post and not just a million google+ and twitter shares and texts that are all repeatedly ignored.
Yes, it unfortunately conflicts with the Spiritual Festivities competition in Philly, but if you're not serving there, come! (It was the only day we could get all seven bishops in one place at the same time, a rare event to witness in and of itself!)
You will see me there. Register at: http://www.scooch.org/2014/05/3r-annual-scooch-youth-conference/
Who else is coming?
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What is your position on the split between Coptic and Orthodox doctrine and teaching? Do those differences matter? I agree that it's good to pursue ecumenical unity and that is much easier with close groups like the Coptic and Orthodox churches as opposed to Catholic churches but that seems to imply that RCC doctrine is too far gone to be reconciled. What keeps the Coptic uniquely *not* Orthodox?
ReplyDeleteMany Thanks for your shared knowledge.