Orthodox Christian Network announces launch of new programs
The Orthodox Christian Network [OCN] is pleased to announce a number of new programs to be launched during Great Lent for our listeners in the United States and around the world. OCN has now established a partnership with Amazon.com and The Orthodox Marketplace of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. Listeners will find a portal to each of these locations on OCN’s website at myocn.net where they can have direct access to the many titles authored by the guests who are featured on OCN programs. In addition, a number of special offerings will be featured during Great Lent to support the faithful in their spiritual journey to Pascha.
OCN will also be launching two new podcasts: “Harmony of Thunder” by the Rev. David Smith and “Beyond the Veil” by Dr. Eugenia Constantinou.
“Harmony of Thunder” will explore the exciting history of great and powerful preaching in the Orthodox faith! Saints from long ago and preachers from today have challenged and inspired us to higher and higher levels of spiritual growth. Each week Fr. David Smith will guide listeners as he examines one of these great sermons and shares the great blessing God has granted us through them. The title Harmony of Thunder comes from a sermon of St. John Chrysostom in which he points out that even though the voices of all the great preachers sound like thunder, they all contain a unified message, and so possess a harmony that natural thunder does not.
Fr. David Smith was born to a United Methodist family in upstate New York and after sensing a call to the ministry he attended Asbury Theological Seminary. While receiving his seminary degree, Fr. David discovered the Orthodox Church, and he and his family became Orthodox in 1988. Fr. David has served churches in London, Ontario, and Utica, New York as a priest of the Antiochian Archdiocese, and has recently transferred to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Fr. David is the author of two books, “Mary Worthy of All Praise” (Conciliar Press, 2003), and “Christianity and Pleasure” (Regina Orthodox Press, 2008). Fr. David received a Doctor of Ministry degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 2000. Fr. David is attached to St. Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Church in Syracuse, New York, and works full time as a nursing home administrator in Athens, Pennsylvania. He and Presbytera Donna have been married 25 years and have four children.
The second new podcast is “Beyond the Veil” which will explore the Apocalypse in the Orthodox Tradition. The Book of Revelation gives rise to many questions. Such as, who wrote the book of Revelation, when, and why? What are we to make of its strange symbols, such as 666 or the mark of the beast? Why don’t we read from Revelation in the services of the Orthodox Church? Are we living in the end times? Why don’t Orthodox Christians set dates for the end of the world but others do? Will Christ return to rule over the earth for 1,000 years? What about “the rapture?” If Revelation is prophecy, does it have any message for us today? Presbytera Jeannie discusses the Revelation of St. John and its most famous passages in the tradition of the Orthodox Church.
Dr. Eugenia Constantinou holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Religious Studies (1980) and a Master of Arts degree in Practical Theology from the University of San Diego (1992). She received a Master of Theology degree (Th.M.) from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in 1996 where she specialized in Orthodox Theology and Patristics. She also received a Master of Theology (Th.M.) from Harvard Divinity School in 1998 where she specialized in the New Testament. She had also previously earned a Juris Doctorate degree from Pepperdine University School of Law in 1985 and has been a member of the California Bar since that same year. Pres. Jeannie received her Ph.D. at Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada, in 2008, writing her doctoral dissertation and the translation from the original Greek on “Andrew of Caesarea and the Apocalypse in the Ancient Church of the East.” Andrew of Caesarea wrote the most important patristic commentary on the Apocalypse for the Orthodox Church. The commentary will be published by Catholic University of America Press in their series, The Fathers of the Church. Dr. Constantinou has been teaching Biblical Studies and Early Christianity at the University of San Diego since 2002. Previously she taught New Testament at Hellenic College/Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology from 1998-1999. She also taught a course on the Patristic Exegesis of Scripture at the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute in Berkeley, California, the Gospel of John at the University of California at San Diego, and World Religions at Cuyamaca College in El Cajon, California. She is married to Fr. Costa, and is simply “Mom” to Christopher, who is 17 years old.
The Orthodox Christian Network is one of the official agencies of SCOBA, commissioned by our hierarchs to create a national, sustainable and effective media witness for Orthodox Christianity throughout North America. OCN produces the only nationally syndicated Orthodox Christian radio broadcast, as well as several other outreach programs, including DVDs and Internet-based media, in direct collaboration with our sister SCOBA agencies (e.g. IOCC, OCMC, & OCF), as well as with various Orthodox Christian jurisdictions and pan-Orthodox, para-church organizations. Our goal is to engage the broader culture of North America with Orthodox Christianity’s rich theological, spiritual and moral heritage, and to thereby strengthen the Orthodox Church’s witness and contribution to the culture in which we live.