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A FEW WORDS OF INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my official web site.

From the start this will be a rather self conscience and sometimes obsessively personal indulgence.

Yes, I want it to be a home for interesting ideas that reflect my religious, social and ultimately my personalized worldview. I hope it will evolve enough to feature a variety of expressions and that throngs of spiritually minded bystanders and internet cruisers will find it and

hang out for awhile.

I cannot make promises about what you will find over time or how often there will be something new to read, listen or look at. I wish I could. At the least it will be a place to connect with my life and work. Now that may get old in a hurry so I better find a way to keep it updated. Perhaps in time we can add video and audio presentations and a series of articles and opinion pieces. Maybe we can toss in some creative poetry and add a podcast.

Hey, I know … I can get a live video cam deal going where you can watch me type articles and look for my misplaced reading glasses and also watch the parrot bite the toes of a retired Orthodox priest convert while he grimaces in pain.

Thanks for coming bye. I hope you will come back again. Oh yah – leave a name and a return email and maybe I can drop by your internet mailbox sometime.

In closing I want to remind you to dare to believe that Christianity is true, Jesus Christ is the Savior of mankind and the Bible really is the Word of God !

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty

The Story

Reginald Heber (1783-1826) was a Bishop in the Church of England. He wrote the hymn Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty in 1826 for Trinity Sunday* celebration. After Heber's unexpected death at age 43, his wife found the song amongst some of his writings, and passed it on to noted musician John B. Dykes (1823-1876), who composed and arranged the hymn for publication.

Heber wrote the lyrics for 57 hymns. During his lifetime his most famous hymn was "From Greenland's Icy Mountains," which exhorted missionary efforts to be made in the more difficult and remote cultures and climates. The hymn that has stood the test of time on earth, and whose words echo the ongoing worship of heaven, is the beautiful Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.

The Words

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;

Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!

God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,

Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;

Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,

Who was, and is, and evermore shall be.

Holy, holy, holy! though the darkness hide Thee,

Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;

Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,

Perfect in power, in love, and purity.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth,

and sky, and sea;

Holy, holy, holy; merciful and mighty!

God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!

WHAT IS IN A NAME?

Athanasios Paul is an ecclesiastical name given by the Orthodox Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria at the time of his ordination to the priesthood in 1994.

His birth name Robert remained in common use throughout his early ministeral career from 1973 through 1991. He briefly served as a license minister in the Adventist church in the 1970s before establishing an independent ministry. He pastored and did evangelism from 1977 to 1990, prior to a four year formation and preparation period, which included living in Egypt and Northern Africa for a year ... finally being ordained the Apostolic priesthood.

Ordination in many Orthodox and Roman Catholic orders may recommend and sometimes requires a new name for the newly ordained. The Coptic Patriarch selected the two names Athanasios and Paul - After the famous 4th century Bishop turned Patriarch, St Athanasios The Great who defended the deity of Christ against Arianism and after St Paul, the Hermit the first solitary monk on record from Thebes.

The former Pastor Robert Thompson has been recognized by those two names ever since. Taking an early retirement from active priestly ministry he has crossed a cultural bridge and recently identified with American Evangelicals and Adventism in particular in a renewed commitment to Bible oriented Gospel faith.

On October 30, 2010 he rededicated himself through a personally chosen symbolic act of immersion in the water of baptism. He still honors the sacramental baptism at the hands of the highly esteemed Orthodox Patriarch. The re-baptismal act is just a symbol of returning to a biblically dependent rather than a tradition dependent Christian faith

Fr Athanasios Paul aka Robert Thompson will still be known as Athanasios or simply Athans but will no longer use the title Father.