The Original Church
Spirituality/Belief
The Original Church, with Dr. James L. Papandrea, is an ecumenical Christian community exploring our common roots in the early Church for the purposes of spiritual growth and practicing the Christian faith. No politics, debates, or proselytizing, just "faith seeking understanding" from the perspective of the early (and medieval) Church and the Church fathers. Jim Papandrea is an author and Professor of Church History and Historical Theology.
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May the 4th be with you...

Yesterday, May 3rd, was the Feast of St. James...(es). And since my name is James, that should interest me. But I'm still not clear on "which James" - according to the Church, the feast day of James the son of Zebedee is July 25 (and so it makes sense that my dad, whose birthday is July 26th, is also a James). And then yesterday was the feast day of the "other" James (and my birthday is coming up, too, though I was named after my dad).

But you may remember that in The Journey, when we talked about the apostles, I mentioned that yesterday's feast day assumes that "James the Lesser" (James the Younger, the son of Alphaeus) is the same James as James of Jerusalem, a relative of Jesus who became the first bishop of Jerusalem. And yet, I do not think the evidence we have in the gospels about the Jameses supports the idea that this is the same person. I think there are 3 Jameses, and tradition has conflated James 2 with James 3.

So here's the handout I made back then, in case you want to see it again. It's called "Sorting Out the Jameses" and I invite feedback, comments, corrections, etc. What do you think?

Jim

Sorting_Out_the_Jameses.pdf
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In case you missed it, here's my Gospel Reflection

This was for March 24th, recorded for the Ascension App

00:02:57
The Journey is BACK!

Thanks for your patience - here is our next installment of The Journey - it's session # 96, but I'm also calling it PART 1 of a "miniseries" on John chapter 6.

Whoever watches it first, please let me know if it looks good or if there are any problems with it - I get through the first two sections of the text on the feeding of the 5,000.

Enjoy!

00:36:42
Name this movie...
00:00:08
Here's another song... Come Let Us Climb the Lord's Mountain

I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:

In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

I hope you like the song!

Here's another song... Come Let Us Climb the Lord's Mountain
Had a Great Conversation with Dustin Quick Last Night

It was pre-recorded - here it is:

Would you like some of my music on CD?

As I'm going through all my belongings as part of our move, I have come across some audio CDs of my old music, from when I had my band, Remember Rome - if any of you still have a CD player, and you would like me to send you some of what I have, send me the address to send them to at this email address: [email protected]

Some of these CDs are in their original cases, and some were demo samples, but either way, it's all original music written by me, and performed by me and my band back in the late 90s and early 2000s.

I'll be happy to find a good home for these CDs in case you might enjoy them, and because you all have been supporting me (and I haven't produced much content in the last month or so) I'll send you one or more CDs for free. Just give me an address.

Thanks!

In case you know someone going on pilgrimate this year...

Here's the link to the new edition of my Rome book on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Rome-Second-Pilgrims-Guide-Eternal/dp/B0F8TGTWZX

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