Celsius1014

I'm an Orthodox Christian and planning a very simple and traditional burial without embalming and a plain biodegradable box. I'm currently trying to figure out if there is any value in going through the funeral industry for any of it or if I need to enlist some non squeamish friends with an SUV and dry ice. So not everyone who wants options is a huge hippie. Preaching to the choir I'm sure.

As an Orthodox Christian I 100% do not agree with this interpretation, but the Catholic Church references Matthew 16:18-19 when Jesus says, “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it“ and that He will give Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven to mean that Jesus was founding the church by deputizing Peter to speak for Him and the entire Church in the future.

Other Christians interpret this to mean that Jesus was building the church on Peter’s confession two verses before that where Peter tells Jesus that he knows He is the Son of God. Arguments ensue over whether renaming Peter with a word that means “rock” means that we should interpret this as being about Peter himself or whether Jesus was acknowledging his rock solid faith and confession. On the other hand, in verse 23 Jesus calls Peter “Satan” and says he is an offense to him for something else he said… so it’s not really as straightforward as the Catholic church likes to say it is.

And for whatever it’s worth, Peter founded several other churches in other cities in addition to Rome (such as Antioch) which are still flourishing today, so it also isn’t at all clear that even if this was to be taken literally that the only way to follow Peter’s legacy is to be Roman Catholic… but hopefully that answers your question.

In my current state you don't have to use the industry for any of the body prep, and can get a death certificate on your own, but you do have to have a vault. I'll probably end up paying a cemetery for opening and closing etc. My priest is actually trying to get teams of people from the church to do body prep and transportation together, so maybe by the time I die it'll be a non issue.

What do you consider to be your biggest temptation as a priest? I'm Orthodox and in my church everyone kisses the priest's hand, he gets a lot of authority over the lives of the parishioners, etc. I don't know for sure but I imagine for your average Orthodox priest is at risk of developing an inflated ego. Is it the same with you guys? I think if I were living a celibate lifestyle outside of a religious order (which I guess I am as a single person) I'd imagine my biggest challenge would be isolation and maybe secrecy/ double life stuff - but being a pastor may minimize that sort of thing.