Our homework for today was to read Philippians. Perhaps you’ll read along.
Today includes quite a long bus drive so we stopped to stretch our legs at a monument of a lion honoring Admiral Laomedon of Lesbos, a devoted companion of Alexander the Great.
There are miles and miles of olive groves along the road. Their green leaves have a silver/grey hue. Fascinatingly, olive trees are evergreen AND deciduous. They never drop their leaves. Greece doesn’t have the capacity to bottle olive oil here so they press the olives and send the oil to Italy where it is processed for sale and likely ends up on your dinner table. Olive oil would have been the type of oil used in the virgins’ lamps. It was also used to preserve water. A layer of oil protected fresh spring water in a bucket from harmful organisms.
We learned that the Turks controlled Greece and Northern Africa for a time and they brought a great deal of the culture. Cultural blending is called syncretism. In fact, baklava comes from an Middle Eastern dish.
Paul was known to be a visionary person who had revelatory experiences of Jesus in the Book of Acts, eg. on the road to Damascus. Paul did not have access to the Book of Acts when writing his letters. It was not like Jesus reading from the scroll Isaiah. Women played a part in Paul’s conversion. It was they who welcomed him to Macedonia.
We visited the place that is called, in Acts 16:9-12, “the place of prayer” where Paul encountered Lydia and shared Holy Communion and anointing after a lovely sermon by our Bishop based on v. 11+ on risking as Lydia risked as she welcomed strangers and was the first converted beyond the faith here through baptism at this lovely place. We sang “Sing Alleluia to the Lord” and “Shall we Gather at the River.”
Forum is the Latin word for market. In Ancient Greece it was the Agora.
Church is ecclesia and that word means “called out.” Paul felt called out into the world, the marketplace or agora to witness to his faith. John Wesley similarly was called into fields and factories to share the gospel.
The first time the word Christian is used is in Antioch and is found in the book of Acts. Paul was not a “Christian.” People had been called Followers of The Way. The authorities were always. Ringing Paul to the “theater.” There is a photo of the outdoor arena that was that “theater.”
Today includes quite a long bus drive so we stopped to stretch our legs at a monument of a lion honoring Admiral Laomedon of Lesbos, a devoted companion of Alexander the Great.
There are miles and miles of olive groves along the road. Their green leaves have a silver/grey hue. Fascinatingly, olive trees are evergreen AND deciduous. They never drop their leaves. Greece doesn’t have the capacity to bottle olive oil here so they press the olives and send the oil to Italy where it is processed for sale and likely ends up on your dinner table. Olive oil would have been the type of oil used in the virgins’ lamps. It was also used to preserve water. A layer of oil protected fresh spring water in a bucket from harmful organisms.
We learned that the Turks controlled Greece and Northern Africa for a time and they brought a great deal of the culture. Cultural blending is called syncretism. In fact, baklava comes from an Middle Eastern dish.
Paul was known to be a visionary person who had revelatory experiences of Jesus in the Book of Acts, eg. on the road to Damascus. Paul did not have access to the Book of Acts when writing his letters. It was not like Jesus reading from the scroll Isaiah. Women played a part in Paul’s conversion. It was they who welcomed him to Macedonia.
We visited the place that is called, in Acts 16:9-12, “the place of prayer” where Paul encountered Lydia and shared Holy Communion and anointing after a lovely sermon by our Bishop based on v. 11+ on risking as Lydia risked as she welcomed strangers and was the first converted beyond the faith here through baptism at this lovely place. We sang “Sing Alleluia to the Lord” and “Shall we Gather at the River.”
Forum is the Latin word for market. In Ancient Greece it was the Agora.
Church is ecclesia and that word means “called out.” Paul felt called out into the world, the marketplace or agora to witness to his faith. John Wesley similarly was called into fields and factories to share the gospel.
The first time the word Christian is used is in Antioch and is found in the book of Acts. Paul was not a “Christian.” People had been called Followers of The Way. The authorities were always. Ringing Paul to the “theater.” There is a photo of the outdoor arena that was that “theater.”
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