My birth name is Elliott Pardee. However, I typically use my (to be) chrismation name "Seraphim". I'm 21 years old. I live in Michigan. I am an Orthodox Christian, aspiring mathematician, and aspiring servant of Christ.
My type on the *Myers-Briggs Type Indicator* seems to be around **[ISTP](https://www.16personalities.com/profiles/91f653537feab)**. My last two indicators are in the middle, so I can also be in the range of **ISTJ, ISFP, or ISFJ**. On the *Enneagram*, I seem to be **6w5 (Enneagram 6 with a Five-Wing)**. For the *Big 5 Personality Inventory*, I received the following scores: **Openness to Experience: 3.0/5.0 (60%), Conscientiousness: 3.0/5.0 (60%), Extraversion: 3.4/5.0 (68%), Agreeableness: 4.1/5.0 (82%), Neuroticism: 3.1/5.0 (62%)**
I would describe my disposition in life as **optimistic realism**. I hope for the best in all things, however I am able to realize whether people or events will act in a certain way due to certain circumstances.
I prefer **colder temperatures over hotter ones**, I will typically keep temperatures around **62-70° F (16-21° C / 289-294° K)**. Preferred vacation spots include **forests, mountains, and anything in between**.
As mentioned earlier, I am an **Eastern Orthodox Christian**. I am a **catechumen** in the **Orthodox Church of America**. I am in the **Bulgarian Diocese of Toledo** under **Archbishop Alexander (Golitzin)**. After some discernment, I believe my patron saint is **Saint Seraphim of Sarov**, whose name I will take after and whose life I will strive to imitate. **Saint Seraphim, pray for me.**
Being the developer of BibleBot, this didn't come without a **fascination with the Bible**. I find translations interesting in and of themselves, but that doesn't imply that I don't have favorites. Out of the translations available, my rankings are:
1. Orthodox Study Bible - While this may appear biased initially, I find the Septuagint OT much more pleasurable to read than the Masoretic Text. If I could, I'd strip away all the study notes and pages in order to have a nice pocket Bible of just the unique text and translation used.
2. RSV (*with Apocrypha*) - The RSV was the first modern English translation to consider the Orthodox usage. With the successor NRSV, these are the only Bibles with the full Orthodox canon (including 4 Maccabees, only accepted in the Georgian Orthodox Church). While I would endorse the NRSV just as equally, I find the gender-neutral language to become a burden in many places where it shouldn't be.
3. NKJV - I enjoy the Psalms/Proverbs and the Byzantine text used in the NT. I own a pocket NKJV and it does well on-the-go.
Next is my **theological stances**. This doesn't go too deep beyond general theology, but if I find ever a need to add more, I'll be sure to do so.
In terms of **soteriology** and how that comes about, I agree with the Apostolic churches in the belief of **synergism** and the **salvation process outlined by St. John Cassian**. While God certainly makes the first move (and that a person cannot), it is required for salvation to cooperate with Him. I affirm **unlimited and unconditional election**, but **I do not affirm total depravity or any other related ideas**.
I believe the Bible is **infallible** in matters of doctrine, historical account (Genesis before Abraham aside), and moral teaching. However, I have seen evidence for both sides of inerrancy and I can't find myself to make a reasonable conclusion without contradiction.
On **gifts of the Holy Spirit**, I am **continuationist**. However, this does not mean that the average person can start speaking in tongues immediately following conversion. Gifts of the Holy Spirit are more prevalent through sanctification, as we see with many saints having the gift of prophesy.
Finally, the issue dividing the Oriental churches from the Eastern: **Christology**. I find both miaphysitism and Chalcedon's definition to be agreeing with each other, but from different perspectives. Language use aside, I have found no disagreement with Orientals about Christology.
I would consider myself an **audiophile** in the sense that music plays a very important role in my life. It feels as though I've had a soundtrack to my life, and I associate songs to various times in my life when I had listened to them the most.
While I listen to many genres, the majority of what I listen to ends up somewhere around **metal, post-hardcore, punk, post-/grunge, hip hop, and electronic** music.
My favorite artists from different genres, but still keeping it broad:
- Heavy metal: Avenged Sevenfold, Disturbed
- Metalcore: Killswitch Engage, early Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet For My Valentine
- Nu metal: Linkin Park, Slipknot
- Other rock: My Chemical Romance, Rise Against, Dope, The Offspring, Crossfade, Breaking Benjamin, Seether, Foo Fighters, Three Days Grace, Megadeth, Anthrax
- Hip hop: Kendrick Lamar, Logic, J. Cole, Eminem, Kid Cudi, Chance The Rapper, Childish Gambino, Atmosphere, Macklemore, Lil Dicky, Run The Jewels
- Electronic: deadmau5, Daft Punk, Haywyre, Swedish House Mafia, Knife Party, Stromae
Being musically-inclined, I also play **bass guitar** and am learning **electric guitar and piano**. I own a **Ibanez SoundGear SR300EB** bass and a **Ibanez GIO GS171** guitar. I record using **Ableton Live 10** and a **Blue Snowball** microphone. I also try my hand at producing hip hop beats, where I use VSTs like **Massive, Serum, and Reaktor**.
I love to learn and I certainly love to give back in the sharing of knowledge. That being said, I'm a **small editor of Wikipedia and OrthodoxWiki**. While I've only got a handful of decent contributions on Wikipedia, the majority of my contributions are fixing typographical/grammatical errors or adding minor clarifications. I'm typically open to teaching anything I know if requested.
Another major hobby of mine is **moderating communities**. In November 2016, I founded **Christcord (formerly The Christianity Discord Server)**, one of the largest Christian Discord servers. That being said, I'm no longer staff or a member of it and I don't encourage anyone to participate there. The community has made drastic turns and it certainly isn't what it used to be. In September 2018, I took on ownership and eventually refounded **Oikonomia, An Orthodox Christian Community** on Discord. I've moderated and even created a handful of insignificant game servers but the only game server I moderate now is [**Exhibition Roleplay's DarkRP**](https://exhibitionrp.com) server.
