www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall nationalities

What is your nationality? What is your religion? This is not a survey to be racist it's just to see whose the majority here

This poll is just for fun but please be serious in your responses[I don't expect a Rael to come or something]

What is "a Rael" please?

Have you noticed ikons of the Virgin Mary, especially the one on my avatar,Matka Boska Czestochowska, looking at you and watching as to keep you from harm?

RP

From the standpoint of nationality I am part Irish, and part Rusyn. (it would depend on what boundary my grandfather considered his nationality. His birth certificate indicates Austria-Hungary which is a region that has had multiple boundary changes as the result of two major wars and communism as well as changes in the post communist times.) Therefore I could only put <b>other</b> as my nationality. Being born in America, I would have to say that I am an American of mixed ancestry. I suspect there are many on this board who would be in a similar position.
Nationality is a difficult thing to qualify in thisway with the migratory changes of the past few centuries thrown in. If it (nationality) serves to enlighten us as to our heritage, it is good. If it is used to mark iniquities (particularly of other nationalities) it is not good.

As to religion, <b>I</b> definitely consider myself a cradle Greek Catholic. Though some see that as being more "latinized". Perhaps "orthodox Greek Catholic" might be a better description? Just little "o" orthodox as to not create waves for those who cannot see Orthodoxy and Catholicism as having some common ground.

Having said that......

Ja Rusyn byl, jesm i budu....
(forgive the lack of diacriticals)

Steve

Tomasz,

I suspect that some searches of past polls will give you some good indications as to our religious mix here, which we tend to proudly distinguish (rightly or wrongly :rolleyes: ) to a finer level of detail than your poll offers. Personally, I think our reasons for defining ourselves more precisely err on the side of positive - we are proud of the heritage that each of us brings here, whether we were born into it or have come to it. We are very aware of and, I believe, rejoice in the rather extreme diversity of our fellow members (many of whom we call friend, though we've never met except on this screen), Catholic - of every stripe, Orthodox - similarly distributed across the spectrum, and Protestants.

The nationality factor hasn't previously been explored, as far as I know, and I'm unsure how important it is. I haven't seen anyone making a secret of theirs; certainly there are a few who are over the top and whose ultra-nationalism occasionally makes others of us cringe. Your groupings are not all those which I would have chosen, seeing that you didn't separately specify one major ethnic group represented here and that, in other instances, you choose to group nationalities that have some inherent historical issues between them. The requests for specific identification in posts of nationalistic/ethnic/racial characteristics in certain instances (e.g., Asians) - although unlikely to reveal info that folks haven't previously revealed or isn't already known - smacks a bit of latent racism that doesn't auger well for your poll or its intentions.

All in all, I'm unclear as to your intentions and don't think the poll will settle well with folks whom you've already agitated muchly in the week just past.

Many years,

Neil

All in all, I suspect that your poll will not be

I am "none of the above"

However, my name is Polish from recent migration and I have British protestant ancestors that arrived in North America before 1700.

I defy categorization, so I didn't vote!

I do not think a poll of this type is very useful. It seems to make assumptions about people that really tell us more about the questioner and less about the facts.

We can carry on friendly discourse without it.

Michael

A "Rael" is a member of the cult that claimed it cloned a baby. I think the proper term is Raelian.

http://www.rael.org/

As for the "fun" poll, the categories not only make little sense, they are unintentionally (I hope) divisive.

You can identify yourself as "Irish or British" as a single choice? That's like having a category that says "Cat or Dog."

"Polish or Slovakian" as a single choice for two West Slavic ethnicities separated by a thousand years of history?

And there's no place to identify yourself as a Rusyn, an ethnic identity wrapped up in the Byzantine Catholic Church and at least one Orthdox jurisdiction (ACROD)?

No, I'm not saying those churches are Rusyn, but rather that they have been a crucial part of a traditional expression of "Rusyn" identity (whether you use that term or any of its other forms).

--Tim

I really cannot fit into these categories either and so I can't vote.

But really - I am beginning to wonder if Tomasz does know how to construct a poll.

This is not going to be fun - and may well prove very divisive again.

Under 'religion', I can't find the button for JEDI.

Voted "Asian", but I've got Han Chinese, Mongol Chinese, bits of Byzantine (heaven knows that probably includes Greek, Roman, Levantine, Asian Minor...) and Slavic blood in me... where's the "Mongrel" button?

btw, anyone notice my resemblace to Genghis Khan? =p

Dear RP,

I'm "Ukrainian-Polish-Lithuanian-Romanian-French-Russian-Scottish-Italian-Austrian" - on my father's side . . .

And I'm a particular Byzantine Orthodox Greek Catholic in communion with Rome of the Ethiopian/Old Believer/Celtic amalgamated tradition.

Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to get that off my chest . . .

Alex

Where is this "Rome of the Ethiopian/Old Believer/Celtic amalgamated tradition"? Sounds like their services would be fun!

Let's see. So I'm Old-Rite Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic in communion with Rome of the Sarum tradition :p

Dear Patriarch Edward,

Or perhaps a "Mongroldbeliever?"

If so, I raise two fingers for you!

What do you mean you don't know where that tradition holds services?

It is precisely that tradition that consecrated you a Patriarch!!

And I see by your avatar that you hold to ALL the ancient canons concerning facial hair!

You are a man with a lot of pull!

As we Ethiopian wannabe's say, it is so difficult to find good staffs these days . . .

Alex

And I am a carbon-based life form.


Sharon

Thank you, Sharon!

Wise words from a wise lady...Let's reduce it to that...and start rejoycing in our love for Him who so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son for us!

1 Corinthians 12
13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free--and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

Gaudior, mindfully

I am convinced I am chocolate based.

I am made of star-stuff

Carbon, calcium, iron, silicon and chocolate

Forged in the fiery depths of unknown suns and blasted into the abyss of time and space

Hurtled across the ages, smashed into a lump of clay!!

By God who loves me!

Clearly you do not live in California. If you did the order of the elements and better qualifiers would be:

Silicone (no more info needed ) - chocholate (non-fatty) - iron (environmentally friendly) - Calcium (non dairy) - carbon (pure organic - non pencil eating related).

Hritzko

Hritzko

I've often thought that if one were to remove "caffeine" from my own physical makeup, I'd probably disappear entirely!



a pilgrim (who probably should have chosen the screen name, "C8-H10-N4-O2")!

Don't you mean the carbon, calcium, iron, silicon, and chocolated coalesced :p in the fiery depths.

ME Too

You don't have a choice on the list for me...

on my dad's side Sicilian, only Sicilian(but the Lord only knows what could be mixed up there, Greek, Ethopian, French, Arab, Moroccan????)

On my mom's side it gets a bit more complicated...Sephardic Jewish, Kurdish(found that out recently, when the family skipped Isabella's party they went straight to Kurdistan), Romanian(great-grandfather was a gypsy, converted to Judaism when he escaped the pogroms there and went up to Palestine and met my great-grandmother), and Israeli/Palestinian, since part of my great-grandmother's family eventually migrated over to Palestine from Kurdistan and married into a family that legend says, didn't leave in 70 AD when the Romans swept thru(how they accomplished that I have no idea, I was always told that ALL the Jews were forced to leave.)

If that's complicated, you should see my husband and kids' geneology...

I think I will go with the carbon based life form, sustained on caffiene and nicotine...

Vie

I really think that the poll should have had 2 choices for nationality. One for the fathers and
the other for themothers side I answered Ukranian for my fathers side as the more formal, but my mother was Slovak ( posisbly slovak Magyr) I think it is rare in America to have a 100% Nationality as would be common in Europe.

Chawan'ij Vie!

I am glad to know I am not the only one of Kurdi ancestry here. My ethnic origin is also very diverse (French, Greek, Spanish, Jewish, Kurdish) but... ezmani me espani/mexicani ye.

I can say that my culture is a Catholic culture, being part of the Eastern Church does not make me a stranger at all, I am very Nationalistic and in union with the Mexican people.

I look very Kurdish. When I went to Britain everybody thought I was from Pakistan (I wonder why) .

May I add cholesterol based to my origin?

I first found out about the Kurdish part a few years ago and didn't think much more about it, until I was reading an article about a one of the most famous Kurdish rebel generals. The man's name is Barrazoni, which is my great-grandmother's maiden name and which is the name they brought with them from Spain...he is probably related to us somewhere down the line but it's ironic since he is considered a conservative Moslem...we found it ironic because our family ended up there to escape having to convert to Catholicism, only to have one of them convert to Islam. My uncle and I think this might be what promted the family to then move on to Israel.

Vie

Are you talking about Mustafa Barzani?

http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/kurdish/htdocs/lib/barzani.html

--Tim

Yep, though in the article I first read his name was spelt the way my family originally spelt theirs. Considering how my family has always felt about Moslems, I had to laugh when I found out...

I didn't click on your link till after I had replied...the article you linked to gives more information than the one I first read, which was really about his son who now leads Kurdish rebel forces...this article was very interesting and I have sent a link on to my uncle...he might know all this already, but after I sent the first article I found, I hadn't heard another thing about it. He might have blown it off but this article will surely get his curiousity peaked.

Vie

Hmmmm, let's see...

- Sicilian (which probably includes Greek, indigenous, Arab, and maybe Jewish, Roman, etc.)

- Irish (probably includes indigenous and Celtic)

- Scottish (probably includes Celtic, Pictish, and Viking/Scandinavian)

- English (probably includes Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, and Norman)

So, my ancestry stretches from Scandinavia (or at least the Orkney Islands) to Palestine and North Africa).

Whew! Of course, no one compares to Alex!

Logos Teen