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Gifts / Contact Us 7/22/02_____________________________________________________
Dear folks,
May God bless you! Thanks for the Great site!
Yours in Christ,
Troy (Pikeville, North Carolina)
5/26/02_____________________________________________________ (Note: in personally answering the following E-mail, I felt it would be less confusing to insert my responses right into the body of the E-mail. My comments are in Green.) -Monk Preston, President, The Prayer Foundation ™ Dear Mr. Monk Preston,
(Response:)
"Mr." is not necessary, we use "Monk" as a
title. It's use in this way is unique to our Ministry, because
we also allow and grant "Full Monk Status" to Female
Monks); most monks use the title "Brother." I
also have the title, Reverend, which I seldom use, except for legal
purposes: see our page Wedding
Celebration. I have been an ordained minister for
over thirty years).
I'm not sure if the last e-mail I received
was from you speaking of yourself in third person or another
just filling me in -- either way I thank you for the article on your
web site (Brief
History of Christian Monasticism, found listed under the
FEATURES Category), it
did clarify a bit of what I've been looking for. I would be
interested to see your sources (not from distrust mind you -- I
would like to study further).
(Response:) Different Monks (we currently have four here) take turns answering E-mails and posting Prayer Requests. We don't always sign our names.
Our sources are mentioned on our web site (see Book Reviews and
other pages for sources: "Life of St. Anthony" by
Athanasius, Athanasius:
Praying The Psalms; How
The Irish Saved Civilization
by Thomas Cahill and "Sun
Dancing" by
Geoffrey Moore are both reviewed on our site and are
excellent historical studies of the early Celtic Monks with
commentaries (also see our Movie Review: Brother
Sun, Sister Moon, on the early ministry of St. Francis).
Still, even with the aid of your last writing
I'm still somewhat confused about the purpose of The Prayer
Foundation ™
classification of "monk." If a monk by your terminology
is someone not in the clergy, not living a hermit's lifestyle or in
a separate community or believers, and not especially living by
means of any form of conduct or religious code above and beyond
the expectations of the Christian /
Protestant norm (with the exception of your required minimum of
15 minutes of prayer a week)....what real difference is there
between a "monk" and a "normal" Christian
believer?
Please do not take me as critical here -- I
honestly am trying to understand and I hold no pre-supposed notions
- but, from what I've found in my (admittedly little)
research is that "monk" has been reserved as a term for
individuals living religious lives above and beyond the general
populace. (Response: This is how we
also use the term, "monk": our "official
definition" is found below).
This seems to be the common thread in definition of the concept /
word "monk" regardless of religion across the world. I
know that much of the American church is going downhill -- but is a
minimum of 15 minutes of prayer a week enough to justify a
classification that by general linguistics and definition suggests an
individual bound to a strict religious code ("strict"
meaning much more than normal). Is 15 minutes of prayer a week
more than normal? I suspect I'm missing something and I hope
you could help me here.
The simplest way I could ask would be:
What makes a Prayer Foundation
™
monk different from a regular,
run-of-the-mill Christian?
-because the impression I've gotten
so far (at least from the web site) is that major difference
is minimal prayer, yearly dues and an I.D. card.
(Response:) We do not quite understand your above comments. We live the Monastic lifestyle full-time, devoting all of our time to prayer, Bible Study, fasting, and scripture memorization; and teaching about prayer, and practicing evangelism. No monks are ordained or have ever been so in history, unless they also pursue ordination as a separate course of study; this has always been true, whether by us, or by the Orthodox, Episcopal, or Roman Catholic Communions). So we are in a separate community of believers, and some of those who register with us would be considered religious "hermits." Some are also in their own community of believers. Some would be in none of the above.
You seem to be thinking that we are
making people into Monks. We are not. We only offer an
official recognition to those desiring it, to those who are already
"monks in their hearts." These persons have their
own monastic lifestyles, including fasting, in some cases praying
the traditional "Hours" of prayer, personal prayer, Bible reading and study, witnessing. Several have
begun their own small communities, some are religious Hermits, and
some are neither, but choose to combine monastic practices with a
"lay" family and career lifestyle (of course, you would
not be aware of this as we are, for they are corresponding with
us, not with you). It is true that we ask a minimum of 15
minutes additional prayer (in addition to their own
monastic practices) for the Prayer Requests that we receive on our
24-Hr. Prayerchain, but
we do not consider this to be much to ask of someone who desires
to participate in our Ministry.
You are correct, however, that there
are some differences between most "traditional"
monks and us: (1.) We preach the
"Born-again" experience and hold it in our Statement
of Faith (including our page: Plan
of Salvation). (2.) We allow
Married Monks. (3.) We allow Female Monks.
Also we do feel, as seen on our
page: Why Monks? that:
"All we mean by being a "monk" is to be a consecrated Christian, especially dedicated to the Word of God and prayer." This was also the committed lifestyle of the Apostles in the Book of Acts (Acts 6:4).
Please, again, I am honestly not trying to be argumentative or
critical of your lifestyle. I truly would like to understand.
We hope this has answered some of your
questions.
Yours in Christ,
Monk Preston
President, The Prayer Foundation ™
Knights of Prayer ™
Monastic Order
Thanks again for your
time.
- J.E.
__________________________________ A Total, Bible-based, Christ-centered, Evangelical Monastic Lifestyle Guidelines for training for Christian growth have been designed for our Knights of Prayer ™ Monks involving: Bible reading and study, recommended readings by Christian writers and teachers, scripture memorization, fellowship, witnessing, prayer, fasting, and other Christian disciplines. These suggestions may be found on our pages: 5/27/02_____________________________________________________ Dear Monk Preston, ...I have been through your web site and found it a most wonderful and intriguing ministry. We will be adding your site to our links at our next update. In the service of the Three In One, (The Rev.) Jack Stapleton St. Aidan Trust (Celtic Christian) 5/13/02_____________________________________________________
Thank you for having the wonderful site.
God's Blessings,
Brother Thomas
5/11/02_____________________________________________________ Wonderful site, very innovative
and Spirit-filled. 5/7/02_______________________________________________________ I accepted the Lord Jesus
Christ as my Savior on your site and it continues to be an inspiration
to me. In addition I tell anyone who will listen about your good
works. My attraction to your site was the simple beauty and and
clarity of the message and it continues to be the same today.
Your Brother in Christ, Note from The Prayer Foundation™: It is such a blessing to receive an e-mail like the one above, it is not possible for us to express it in words. We have corresponded with Doug for a year and never knew that he had accepted the Lord on our Site. If you have accepted the Lord on our Site, or it has helped to bring you to the Lord, please let us know. 5/6/02_______________________________________________________ I find it unfortunate that you no longer are receiving e-mail requests. Your site has become more complicated and difficult to use than when I first signed on last May and was saved. I was led to your site and it was simple, pure and effective. I found great comfort late at night, when I could make a request by e-mail and know someone cared. I don't know who is revising your site, but one characteristic that stood out on the old site was the statement of faith and salvation. That is your main goal, I feel and all the rest is flap. All the rest is a distraction. Examine what has made your site a success and who is trying to complicate it. What easier way for Satan to turn people away that have no computer understanding, than to complicate your site. I feel that you're trying to do to much with it, and eventually will lose those who need you most. Note from The Prayer Foundation™: We are still receiving e-mail prayer requests from all over the world (prayer requests from the U.S.A. can be sent to us by regular mail). Our "old" site is still here, we have just added new pages (we went online Nov. 8, 2000 with only 12 pages)! Those who are interested, may see our response to this E-mail by clicking on Response To An E-Mail. However, what we are interested in, is your response! Do you agree or disagree with the above E-mail? We would love to hear your opinions! (Please let us know how you think our site could be improved, if you have any thoughts in that area). 5/2/02_______________________________________________________
Your e-mail newsletter is really very good! I
am Proud to call myself a Monastic!
Tell the brothers and sisters that I will be
praying for them daily from now on.
Yours in Christ,
Brother Richard Dallas-Deacon
Knight Templar
Templars Church
(R.O.K.T.)
(Michigan) ____________________________________________________________
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