Wow!
How edifying most of the posts in this thread!
Thank you Ioannis for starting this conversation.
And I thank you trully because it is very good for me to be reminded of the significance of the gift my parents and godmother brought me to by having me baptized in the Church as a baby. Glory to God.
I also wonder dear Ioannis whether your priest meant something a little different. In general I have not heard much Orthodox Theology about where the Holy Spirit goes and what He does apart from when they talk about the Holy Spirit infussing our Holy Sacraments or making God\'s work \"happen\".
So maybe your dear priest was saying that we Orthodox do not consider Sacraments of other Churches valid (so we don\'t consider their Communion the same as our Holy Communion or their Ordination etc)
I have not read nor do I understand very well the concept of \"energies\" of God versus His Being nor how or why it is the Holy Spirit who was necessary for Christ to get into our Panaghia (Theotokos) pure womb! Why couldn\'t Christ just go by Himself? (of course I don\'t really have that question, I accept that Christ is not completely separate from the other 2 persons of the Holy Trinity).
But again I do not understand these things very well. I just suspect that perhaps that\'s all your priest was referring to and not that the Holy Spirit is not present everywhere!
I also have to say I liked the way Pleebloo was able to explain that heretics are in fact Christians. Perhaps it sounds so bad in English but all it means is that their beliefs depart from the Truth. It does not mean that they are all of them knowingly or unknowingly forever damned. No! The heresy is damned and those that cling to it and deceive others to it willingly and in knowledge (the false prophets that Christ Himself warned us about e.g. in Mark 13:22).
For those who are just raised/born into it or decide to join it without full understanding we do believe that Christ takes charge in the matter.
Our beloved Lord wants everyone to be saved! It\'s true. And He can do it wherever each person is.
For us it is to abide in Truth and defend it appropriately.
I don\'t think that the word \"herecy\" is inherently bad. Not at all. It is useful to be able to name the Turth and separate it from falsehood. It is not good when it\'s only used to judge others only to make ourselves feel better as if we are more holy or deserve more love than others.
That\'s bad thinking and useless since thankfully it is not a competition for who will be more holy, but a competition against our own selves to be more sanctified every single day.
May we all help each other, forgive and also even speak out and correct in a loving manner so we can run the race with help.
\"We reach salvation all together, but to Hell everyone goes alone\"
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