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Editor:  tim

Name:	Tim Powell
Email:	Send to tim
Home Page:	http://www.worldtimzone.com
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Society: Religion and Spirituality: Christianity: Denominations: Orthodox  (765)

Profile

I edit a number of NewHoo, oops, I mean the Open Directory Project categories. My primary focus is on (Eastern) Orthodox Christianity. I'm a Palm IIIxe owner and love it, so I also edit the Palm category.

To provide for myself, my wife, and family, I work as a User Interface Designer and Web Developer. I design the look and behavior of web-based products. I've also done C, C++, Java, Perl, and JavaScript programming, technical writing of programmer's reference manuals and user's guides, and graphic design.

Feel free to contact me about any Open Directory Project categories that I'm editing.

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For more complete details about me and the categories I edit and for a special note for editors, please read on...

- About My Journey to Orthodoxy -
I was raised a Christian in a family with a wonderful heritage of believers, preachers, evangelists, and missionaries going back many generations. From my earliest years, I sought God and desired to love Him. Although I had terrific parents and upbringing, I still felt like something was lacking in my faith. I longed for a church where people truly loved one another, where theology and worship went hand-in-hand and were important and true.

I began my quest by investigating deeper into my own Wesleyan-Arminian tradition in the United Methodist and Free Methodist churches. As I became more informed about the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, I learned that he placed great value on the Church Fathers and depended on the traditions and liturgy of the Anglican church of which he was a part. My search continued and increasingly became a study of the history of the church. Although I'd known Protestantism was a reaction against excesses and corruption in the Roman Catholic church and knew a few examples, I knew little more than that. I moved into studying Roman Catholic teachings and particularly the monastic orders and rules. The community aspect of monasticism was certainly attractive to me. The beauty and wonder of praying the Hours with the monks during a stay at a monastery greatly impressed me.

As I studied more, I found references to a mysterious part of the church I had never heard of called the Eastern Orthodox. Daniel Clendenin's book, Eastern Orthodox Christianity: A Western Perspective and Kallistos Ware's The Orthodox Way were enlightening and I highly recommend them to those who want to learn more about Orthodoxy. Of course you can't understand Orthodoxy by reading alone. A better explanation, catechism, prayers, and worship in the Orthodox Church showed me a world I'd hoped for, but never seen. As with the icons, it was at once foreign and yet intimately familiar. When I first participated in Orthodox worship, tears came to my eyes, and I knew I'd come home. Lord have mercy.

The web and the resources available on it have greatly helped me in my journey toward and in Orthodoxy. I believe that excellent directories such as the Open Directory Project, are necessary and important to others on this journey. I pray that my work here will be of benefit to them.

- About the PalmPilot -
For roughly ten years I used a Franklin Day Planner to keep track of everything. My friends used to joke about it being my "life". I grew frustrated with the overhead of making it work, however. I felt like I was always writing down information and appointments but forgetting them. The size (Franklin Classic) was also inconvenient at times. Since I spend most of my day in front of a computer, why not use it as an organizer? I purchased a Palm III and it was pretty much everything I wanted. It was better than I expected. And when its screen eventually broke (from dropping on a floor), I replaced it with a Palm IIIxe, which is even better. I can carry around most everything from my "life" without the bulk and it reminds me of appointments. Very cool!

- A SPECIAL NOTE FOR EDITORS -
I created the organization, structure, and descriptions and added most of the links in the Orthodox and Palm categories. In a collaborative project such as this, I believe it is very important for all editors to stay organized and in sync. As the oldest and most involved editor in the Orthodox category, I ask that new editors please contact me. I'd love to chat about goals, suggestions, and editorial guidelines for the categories, Orthodox Christianity, or whatever. Most of all I want this category to be well organized and useful.

To God be the Glory.