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Differentiating the mature and immature masculine
Continuing the conversation about the mature and immature feminine and masculine. I will start looking at the masculine. In todays society we have a lot of the immature masculine going around. In fact there is a public caricature of what the masculine is that is solely based on the immature masculine and so for boys […]
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People are still having sex
I have been putting of writing this post for nearly a week now, I get both uneasy and angry just by thinking about it. Stephen Court wrote the following in his blog the other day: Evangelicals Encouraging Contraception for Singles? http://t.co/w0Y29aLA It turns out that 80% of American Evangelicals are going to hell. That is, […]
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Sacramentally branded
A few days ago I was talking to a friend who was showing of a beautiful griffon inked on her arm, I let slip that next time we’d see each other I would be branded, she looked at me nonplussed and said “you have always been branded”. I was stunned into silence by the […]
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The greatest honour
First I read it on facebook, then I read it on twitter, and then a whole blog post describing how I got beaten in the Schola at my own game (ground fighting). I get a bit bewildered at this, what’s the big deal? But I realise that I have been there to, when you are […]
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Faith, Trust and Pixie dust
Do you need faith in god to be a knight? The question was asked on my youtube channel. The simple answer is yes and no! You must have faith to be a knight! Faith is one of the Knightly virtues and there can be no Knighthood without faith. How will you be able to believe […]
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Why transparency is NOT a chivalric virtue!
Transparency is a buzzword in todays world and especially in the emergent circles. As a church we need to be transparent and as Christians we need to be transparent so that people can know that we are what we say we are and of course to battle all prejudice against both Christian faith and Christian […]
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What's in a name?
Names are powerful things especially when they describe you well. In the Bible names where given to reflect the parents hope or their expectations. In all sorts of warrior cultures names where given to describe a warriors prowess and aptitude or a name was given for the warrior to grow into. In the Guardian Angels […]
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The Warriors Path
I have long been peeking at Crazy Monkey Defence, as any faithful reader of this blog will know. I am attracted to CMD as a martial system not only due to it’s effectiveness but mostly due to its philosophy. The founder of CMD, Rodney King have just posted this article on the way of the […]
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It's MY IPod!
I have a brand new Macbook Pro, I had the older model that I bought just a few weeks before they released the new model. It was a great machine, great specs, great performance. But as the new model came out I got really sad. My machine was still a great machine but not as […]
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Why do I need sword fighting?
IMG_8545 Originally uploaded by gilbertdeschamps Last week I was asked by one of my students, why do I need to sword fight? The question was asked with the implication: as a Christian, why should I spend my time on this. The short answer was of course ‘You don’t!’ but as with everything, there is more […]
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Intergalactic towel day 2008
It’s that time of year again, to don our towels and march out proudly and celebrate Intergalactic towel day! The [[Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy]] makes the following statement about towels A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value – […]
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Holiness, Holiness is what I long for
I found this quote here, and it really spoke to me, it is the core beliefs of Opus Dei,1 Whatever one is to think of Opus Dei this statement rings true to me. This would be how I see holiness, and as I see Knighthood as being a holy warrior this quote illuminates the way […]
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WMA Camp report by Colin "Gabriel" Hatcher
WMA CAMP – JULY 12, 13, 14, 2007, IN RIGA, LATIVIA SPONSORED BY RIGA SCHOLA SAINT GEORGE (SSG) STUDY GROUP (GROUP LEADER PATRIK OLTERMAN); WARRIOR SELF DEFENCE (WSD) RIGA (FOUNDED IN 1999 BY PRINCIPALE PATRIK OLTERMAN) AND GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY THE SALVATION ARMY IN LATVIA AND SKANGALE SCHOOLHOME, SKANGALE, LATVIA Instructor: Mr. Colin Gabriel Hatcher […]
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The dedication of Anja
At the sunday meeting of our SSG & WSD camp we had Anjas dedication service held by Captain Artūrs Baltacis. It was a beautiful ceremony where we where all dressed in the medieval clothes appropriate for the event and with the Salvation Army Flag held high to tie the ceremony into the “Real world”. Colin […]
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First Knight
At the WMA Camp 2007 we had the great honour of awarding the order of the disciple Knight to Colin “Gabriel” Hatcher who is now the First Knight of the order. We had a small but powerful Knighting ceremony at the last day of the camp where Gabriel was dubbed. Later in the Ceremony Gabriel […]
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WSD celebration!
Today we finished of the WSD instructors course and ended our WSD – Womens self defence course with a graduation of our students. they all exceeded my expectations and showed unprecedented feats of warrior spirit, prowess and plain old whoop *ss! (pardon my french) So today I prodly present three new Compagnos, one new Scholar0 […]
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Chivalric virtue #5
Here is the next installment of the Chivalric virtues series, this time we are talking about generosity. Maybe in a much broader or deeper sense than what the word is usually assosiated with, but I think this is a core value in chivalry as well as in Christian life…. Please let me know what you […]
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Thoughts on loyalty
In our small group yesterday we watched Swing kids to provoke our thoughts on what [[loyalty]] is and what it means. The movie is about a group of teenagers who like swing music at the rise of Hitlers reign in germany. And the teenagers have to choose between going with the mainstream and becoming hitler […]
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Chivalric virtue #4
Here is the Knightschool talk on Loyalty posted on Youtube for your pleasure! [gv data=”http://www.youtube.com/v/t_xWynxKcq4″][/gv]
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Tying the knot.
As we are moving forward in our development of our WSD school we looked in to the issue of belts, and have decided that instead of the special belts made by Schola Saint George we will use ordinary Martial Arts belts with a specialized knot to give it a WMA styled look. This way any […]
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Chivalric virtue #3
Here is the Knightschool talk on honour, I think I will have to come back to this one as it is a very big subject. [gv data=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ILl2NfSR9G4″][/gv]
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Developing your Lion!
We are looking into courage in the knightschool and in SSG Riga we are starting to spar. For sparring a certain amount of courage is needed. The Lion in the Fiore system symbolises the bravery, courage and the chivalrous virtue of the fighter. In the segno the Lion holds a heart and it is my […]
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Knightschool squires are marching on!
Since we are diving deep into the virtue of Courage this week the first challenge of Courage was to confess deep dark secrets to a sister or brother of faith. I have to tip my hat to all the Squires of the Knightschool who faced this challenege with such bravado. Not only did they decide […]
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Chivalric virtue #2
[gv data=”http://www.youtube.com/v/bngj67E2LY8″][/gv] The knightschool talk on courage.
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Self control, what a glorious idea!
Tonight I am speaking at Riga 1 – One Way, about Gods calling on your life and how to find out what God wants you to do. And as I go over the subject in my mind I keep coming back to this wonderful thing self control. Say the word self control to a bunch […]
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Chivalric virtue #1
[gv data=”http://www.youtube.com/v/xjJOKDtYbyM”][/gv] Trying out some video blogging here is the first of the eight chivalric virtues as explained by yours tuly. To accompany the launch of phase II of the knightschool project.
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Fear not, I am with you!
Today we where visited shortly by Vic and Rose Poke whom held a short prayer at our coffe break. The word God had for us was from Isaiah 43:5 “Fear not, for I am with you…” And while most of us may shrug that of as something obvious I was struck by the incredible power […]
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Good Saint Georges day!
Today is the traditional day of Saint George the patron saint of Knights, Scouts, Canada, Catalonia, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Montenegro, Portugal, Serbia, the cities of Istanbul, Ljubljana and Moscow, as well as a wide range of professions, organisations and disease sufferers. Saint George is shrouded in Legend and no one really knows who he […]
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Graceful power.
I was reading Brian Price’s Boook of the Tournament this morning. There was this passage talking about why we do what we do, that is suit up in full armor and fight in the chivalric tournament. And aside from fighting for the romance and the dream, aside from honoring the chivalric form we have the […]
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The importance of virtue.
In my devotion yeterday I came across a piece of scripture that spoke to me about the Knightly virtues. 16:1 The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. 2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs […]
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A daily prayer
This prayer is credited to St. Ignatius of Loyola. A medieval warrior monk. It is a cry to God to become a true Knight, generous, serving, selfless in service of the greater good. A warrior of Love! Lord teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve You as You deserve. Teach me to give […]
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Prayer before battle
I got this sent to me on The Curia1 mailing list and I thought I’d share it. It is a fantastic prayer, aparently prayed by a templar knight before a battle in the holy land. Almighty God, Eternal Father, Lord of Lords, have mercy upon me, a humble knight in Thy Divine Service. Oh Lord, […]
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WMA Camp.
As the grand finale of the SSG studygroup Riga semester we arrange a three day Fiore weekend in the marvelous latvian countryside. It will be a retreat with good food, fantastic teaching held by Colin Hatcher and lots of fun filled fellowship. We will also open up the doors for the rest of the Latvian […]
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Calebs cadre on the move!
So yesterday it happened the finale of our soldiers courses. nine soldiers where enrolled and two adherents where welcomed into the Riga one fellowship. It was a glorious day! The service was fantastic, the worship was heavy with the spirit of God and His presence could be felt in every note of worship coming from […]
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What is Love? (Spiritual discipline part 5)
Throughout my life I’ve explored the concept of Love and found that the concept is always growing and changing before ones eyes the closer one looks. In the beginning I thought love only to mean romance1 but as I discovered more about the world around me I added the aspect of Eros2 but found that […]
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WSD level one testing.
Tuesday we had the first graduation of the WSD1 Riga group. This graduation was supposed to be held long time ago but due to injuries, illness and childbirth it was delayed. The four students up for their first test didn’t know what hit them as I announced that today was the day of their test. […]
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The race (Spiritual discipline part 1)
There is a race on, theres always a race. Bring a bunch of people together and the game is on. Who is the best, who is the greatest who is number one. It is true outside the church and inside the church. Who is the holiest, who is the best preacher, who has the deepest […]
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Oh how the great have fallen….
A little more than a year ago I was present at Dataphones (A swedish [[ISP]] where I used to be a System Administrator) anniversary party. The secret guestspeaker was Christer Sturmark who spoke eloquently and with great panache about the information society and how we have arrived where we are today. I was impressed not […]
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Eight years and counting…
Olterman family win the Bronze! Today is our eigth wedding anniversary. It is a miracle that we have made it this far. It also fills me with awe and wonder. If we can handle all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes and a sea of troubles, then there is nothing we cannot take on. […]
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The challenge…
Last week I was challenged by the instructor of one of Rigas swordfighting schools to a friendly sparring match. As I love to duel I could not resist but accepted willingly. I had met Nikolai once before at his school and I fought him by the rules they have there and I was delighted to […]
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Snow and sword fights in Bauska
Saturday morning I travelled out to Bauska to hold a full day WMA seminar. It was a clear morning fith bright sunshine and glistening snow everywhere. In Bauska we had gathered a group of 12 Young men and women who where eager to get started (The training hall was more than a little chilly) We […]
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Happy St. Crispins day!
Today is St. Crispins day. Maybe a good day to remember the war we are in and the cost to fight it. St. Crispin was a humble evangelist who worked as a shoemaker during the day and preached the gospel during the evenings. Together with his brother he evangelised the [[Gauls]] before meeting a very […]
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