"laestadian, apostolic, gay, lgbtq, ex-oalc, ex-llc, llc, oalc, bunner" LEARNING TO LIVE FREE: FinnFest 2006?

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

FinnFest 2006?

Calling all former Laestadians: Let's meet in Astoria, Oregon next July. We can attend the FinnFest, do a little genealogy research, and share stories. The dates are July 26-30. Anyone interested?

16 comments:

  1. Many Trails Home9/27/2005 08:07:00 PM

    Sounds great. I'm coming. And I will do my best to sign up two of my sisters (one is a regular poster on this site). And we'll see if we can get our cousin from Lummi Island to come too; methinks you know him as well. I have never been to a Finn Fest, so two birds with one stone. MTH

    ReplyDelete
  2. FinnFest 2006 in Astora-Naselle will certainly be worthwhile. It won't be nearly as big as Marquette, but there will be a lot to do. I dabble in genealogy. I am quite certain there will be some genealogy resources available. Right now I am particulary interested in TRV (Tornio River Valley) ancestry.

    ReplyDelete
  3. me too----LLLreader

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Blog owner, yesterday I wrote a post under Amazing Grace. I didn't realize at that time I needed to do the word verification. Is my post somewhere around? or is it just gone?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Many Trails Home9/30/2005 12:18:00 PM

    Regarding Sami ancestry: There is no official knowledge of Sami ancestry in that side of my family. That said, I am absolutely certain there must be. My father was a classic phenotypic Sami: short (5'4") and black haired. And when I saw pictures of Sami women in the Sami Spirit calendar, I would have sworn they were pictures of my paternal aunts; spitting images. They all immigrated from Vadso, which is on the Arctic Ocean in Lapland. That's as much as we will ever know, probably, as being Sami was considered almost shameful in those days and nobody bragged about it. I am hoping to go to Lapland next year, especially to learn more about the Sami. I also plan to visit this delightful old Catholic nun who moved with the Carmelites to Finland to establish a mission there: imagine, the Catholics proselytizing the Finns! She sends me "epistles from Paula" every Christmas. Life is full of curious twists and turns, is it not? MTH

    ReplyDelete
  6. There is a discussion going on back under Amazing Grace about what the differences are between the OALC, FALC,and ALC. In 1868 Raattamaa (Laestadious's right hand man) sent a strong letter to some preachers who were warring over the issue of cold jumping. He said, "Stay together, keep the unity". Apparently that message was lost along the way. I had always heard it preached, growing up in the OALC, that the other branches of the Apostolic church were dead faith. I can't keep this real clear, but in 1946 Gunnar Jonsson and Art Niska made some kind of alliance. There was a break in the church then over issues like women not wearing aprons, and men wearing white shirts and modern hats, along with other issues like TV and such. I never have found out when the Brush Prairie OALC and the Hockinson Apostolic Church split. These splits in the church are so against what Laestadius and Raattamaa wanted. I suspect it is just the ego of some of the men leading these different branches that has caused these divisions.

    ReplyDelete
  7. All I can say is "WOW"!

    In a time when our very society
    is in peril, if preachers are
    wasting your time discussing
    such trivial things as:

    Women wearing aprons.
    Men wearing white shirts
    and wrong hats ,etc.

    And few men from Sweden walk in,
    grab your song book and censor
    some of your favorite songs.

    I would think there would be a
    stampede for the exits !

    ReplyDelete
  8. I happened to visit the Catholic Carmelite nunnery in the woods outside of Helsinki just two weeks ago with a group from the Orthodox students' association. Unfortunately we were a bit late for our appointment and the nuns were busy with their chores and were not able to spend much time with us, but they were very friendly and served us tea and cookies. We were also able to participate in their evening vesper. Some of the nuns were American so it might very well be the same group of Carmelites. I haven't heard of any others in Finland.

    ReplyDelete
  9. As far as I was taught, the differences between the ALC and the LLC (split 1973) were that the ALC was "the leniency." The ALC believed that when Peter denied Christ 3x, that if Peter were to have died right then, he would still go to Heaven. The LLC said that Peter was no longer a believer and would have gone to Hell at that point.

    The LLC have such fear of dying with any sin on their conscience because they believe that to do so would condemn them to Hell.

    I've heard that a recent statement going around the LLC (unoficially, as most of those types of statements are) that if someone was sitting on a barstool and fell over and died at that moment, that person would go to Hell because he had committed the sin of drinking.

    The whole point of Christianity is that Christ has already died for our sins. We cannot work our way to salvation; it is Grace that saves us. Of course, we want to lead lives that God wants for us, but because we are human - we are bound to fail and to sin. Just because we sin, doesn't mean we aren't saved - it means we are human! Christ is the only one who made it through life without committing sin.

    I wish that LLC members could understand the meaning of Grace - that Christ died to save me just because! Because he loves us - not because we deserve to be saved. He knew we were sinners before he went to the cross - and he willingly died anyway!

    And no, this doesn't mean that I believe I can commit any sin I want to or that I don't have to worry about my salvation, but that this changes my whole focus on how I view and live my life. I want to do what God wants for me, not because I'm afraid of going to Hell if I don't, but because it's so amazing that he has given his Grace so freely to me. And he knows I am human and therefore imperfect and therefore will err and will try to do better - but I cannot win my way to Heaven by constant confessing sin - that is a separate matter from Grace.

    If I hurt someone, I want to ask their forgiveness - as one human asking another.

    If I hurt myself, I want to ask forgiveness of myself.

    If I hurt God, I want to ask God's forgiveness and help to help me do better.

    It's interesting - I always felt the difference between a "church" sin, like listening to the radio and a (real) sin, like lying or hurting someone's feelings unnecessarily. The first made me feel horrible on the outside and jeez, now I'd have to confess it; the second made me hurt on the inside and want to ask that person's forgiveness.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think you probably meant the 1973 split between the LLC and the FALC, not the ALC?

    ReplyDelete
  11. ex-mplsllc, im wonding, what is your age and gender? and how long have you been out of the LLC?

    ReplyDelete
  12. ex-llc. I am a 38 year old woman. I left "the church" when I was 21.

    And you?

    ReplyDelete
  13. exllc is 17-18(I think) Male. Just left the church in July/August this year. I thought I'd answer since he didn't.

    ReplyDelete
  14. re: losing your salvation.. I'm ALC and here's how I've heard it from someone who would be considered very conservative within our denomination, as well as I can describe it at the moment: God looks at our hearts to see if Christ is living and abiding there. This is where our perfection and assurance comes from.. because our flesh is never going to be perfect! If we had to depend on perfecting our flesh none of us would be saved. (And, I would add.. if we are abiding in Christ, we do not have to worry or have fear about dying no matter what we are doing) It's not like living with one foot on a banana peel and one foot in the grave, as one of my high school teachers used to say about grades. :-). We can have peace and assurance by truly believing, and not doubting, that Christ has paid it all. His sacrifice really IS sufficient! That said, this freedom and salvation did not come cheaply and we should not take it lightly. Jesus suffered and died on our behalf, and through the Holy Spirit living in us, we want to live in ways that are pleasing to our Heavenly Father. Yes, part of this is developing good and wholesome habits and character.. but a large part is the Holy Spirit working through us in ways we do not always know or comprehend. We don't have to set out to be 'do-gooders' necessarily.. the fruits of the Spirit will make themselves known, regardless of how many times we fall, and fail.. We are still His and it will show.
    Off my soapbox now :-)
    signed, "Hon"

    ReplyDelete