The second of the pre-Lenten Sundays draws our attention to the Prodigal Son and his departure—and return—to his father’s house. In this week’s episode, Archimandrite Irenei examines the Fathers’ testimony to this event, found in the Church’s hymns, and examines the nature of sin as exile in every Christian’s life.

This week, in anticipation of Forgiveness Sunday, Archimandrite Irenei explores a series of patristic texts that deal with the imperative of forgiveness, and the need to forgive as the gateway into the life offered by Christ in the Church.

In his third lecture, Dr. Demetrios Katos addresses the ways in which theology is scientific, why we should never say “mere symbol” in Orthodox thought, what we mean by essence and energies, what we mean by a personal God, and how the Bible and other sources are used in theology.

In his fourth and final lecture, Dr. Demetrios Katos discusses questions such as: In what way might the Eucharist or baptism be a mystery and what does it reveal about God? What are some ways in which we become aware of the Church being more than simply our local community? Finally, what does it mean to be a truly sacramental Church?

On Friday, September 14, 2007, as we celebrate the Exaltation of the Cross, St. Vladimir's Theological Seminary launches a new era.

On November 10-13, the Orthodox Church in America will convene its 15th All-American Council in Pittsburgh. It is a significant event as a new Metropolitan will be elected. Ancient Faith Radio is honored to be the official media partner for the Council and will be there in November to make the sessions available for those who cannot come. We will also bring you the announcement of the new Metropolitan as well as an interview with him. In a series of interviews leading up to November 10, we will talk with various representatives of the OCA in anticipation of this historic event. In this first interview we talk with Fr. Andrew Jarmus, the Director of Ministries and Communications for the OCA and provide some basic information about the event including the process followed in electing a new Metropolitan.

Fr. Eric Tosi is the General Secretary for the Orthodox Church in America and he talks with us about the logistics of the upcoming All-American Council in Pittsburgh November 10-13. Please note, the main hotel is full but an overflow hotel is available if you plan on attending.

Archpriest Gregory Hallam who publishes his sermons here on the Voice from the Isles podcast also hosts on the UK Antiochian Deanery website a three-year diploma in Orthodox theology. The course has the bishop’s blessing, and a distance learning option is available. Fr. Gregory offers this taster podcast from the third year, Lecture 61. If you are interested in this course please visit this web page for details:- http://www.antiochian-orthodox.co.uk/e-quip.htm

Dr. Brad Nassif is our guest to talk about an opportunity to hear Met. Kallistos Ware at North Park University in Chicago February 22-23.

Bobby Maddex interviews Andrew Boyd, the Director of Youth, Young Adult, and Campus Ministry with the Orthodox Church in America, about the OCA YouTube Challenge for Orthodox high school and college students.

Bobby Maddex interviews Dr. Nicholas Reeves, assistant professor of liturgical music at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, and Dr. Peter Bouteneff, an associate professor of systematic theology at St. Vlad’s, about an upcoming concert at Carnegie Hall featuring the music of Arvo Pärt.

Meet the host of the new live call-in show on AFR: Faith Encouraged Live with Fr. Barnabas Powell! It begins September 14 at 7:00 Central/8:00 Eastern on the Talk Station and will be heard on the second and fourth Sundays of every month. Orthodoxy Live with Fr. Evan Armatas continues on the first and third Sundays.

Bobby Maddex interviews Presvytera Kerry Pappas, the Coordinator for Seminarian and Clergy Couple Care of the Center for Family Care of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, about an upcoming conference on marriage titled "Oneness: Growing and Protecting the Blessed Communion."

On this special edition of Ancient Faith Presents, Fr. Evan Armatas, Priest at St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church in Loveland, Colorado, and the host of the live call-in program Orthodoxy Live, speaks at a Clean Monday Retreat at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church in Greenwood Village. The title of his talk is “God’s Call and Our Response.”

Bobby Maddex interviews Chaplain Patrick Tutella and Jason Irwin, the individuals behind both the organization Caring Connections in Corrections and the new book In the Shadow of the Forty-Foot Wall.

Bobby Maddex interviews Natalie Kapeluck Nixon, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry; Fr. John Haluszczak, the priest at St. Vladimir’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the Chaplain of St. Thomas Chapel at All Saints Camp in Emlenton, Pennsylvania; and Larry Kopp, the Manager of All Saints Camp.

Bobby Maddex interviews Dr. David Chalmers, the musicologist-in-residence at Paraclete Recordings, about the All-Night Vigil, composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

At the dinner following the 33rd Annual Schmemann Lecture at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary, Dr. Charles Ajalat, the former chancellor for the Antiochian Archdiocese and the co-founder of International Orthodox Christian Charities, presented a plan for a governing structure of the world wide Orthodox Church. Also see transcript below. Earlier in the evening, Dr. Ajalat received an honorary doctorate in Canon Law. Here he is with his January 31, 2016, proposal.

John Maddex interviews Kevin Allen about the new live call-in program coming to Ancient Faith Radio on April 22. Learn about the topics and plans as well as how you can be involved,

Bobby Maddex interviews Fr. Thomas Colyandro and Hieromonk Mark about the new Orthodox Monastery of the Mother of God, Joy of All Who Sorrow in Monteagle, TN. Listeners can learn more and help support this amazing monastery here.

North Korea launches an intercontinental ballistic missile, perhaps looking for attention prior to the US presidential election. / USA Today

The Economist magazine endorses Kamala Harris, saying "being independent and being opinionated" aren't in conflict with each other. / Semafor

Election officials in battleground states are trying—and mostly failing—to fact-check Elon Musk in real time. / CNN

An argument that social scientists don't seem to know how to incorporate the nonlinearity of chaos. / Aeon

Unrelated: Dodgers fans set a Metro bus on fire after their team wins the World Series. / KTLA

Facebook is auto-generating militia group pages. / WIRED

Users report still being able to use Microsoft's controversial AI-powered gender classifier. / 404 Media

Schools are banning Crocs because the shoes are said to be a distraction, and dangerous. / Fortune

Related: How the font Comic Sans became the Crocs of typefaces. / FastCompany

An eating tour of eastern France's choucroute garnie, pretzels, and pork knuckles. / The Financial Times [+]

Diwali and Halloween overlap this year, producing "Diwalloween." / The Washington Post [+]

An annual favorite, a round-up of "mundane" Halloween costumes from Japan. / Spoon & Tamago

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Fr. David Bozeman, Fr. James Bozeman, and Fr. Christopher Foley discuss their experience as members of the band Luxury and introduce the new documentary about that experience. The entire band suffered through an accident in the early Nineties that led to their conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy. Here is the trailer for the documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y4jIPn96Ig.

⁠The story of the Orthodox Deaconess is largely unknown today. When did they exist, and what was their function? In recent decades, there has been a call for restoring the female diaconate, causing no small debate between Orthodox proponents and opponents.⁠ In the first special edition of Ancient Faith Today Live, Fr. Tom Soroka and John Maddex take a deep dive into the topic with a full-length audio documentary, which will feature scholarly experts from both sides of the issue and reflect upon the views shared and what we can conclude about the Church’s wisdom on this issue today.

Fr. Tom Soroka and John Maddex will dive into the topic of Universalism and speak with Orthodox panelists who fall into one of three categories: Confident Universalists, Hopeful Universalists, and those who say Universalism was condemned as a heresy. We read in Scripture that God is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9). But we also read that It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that comes the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). There are those who claim that, since Christ died for all, we can be assured that all will indeed be saved and not face eternal condemnation. This is called “universalism” or “apocatastasis.” Was this teaching condemned by the Church? Who among the Church Fathers embraced universal salvation?

Fr. Pat explains how the calling of the apostles and the miraculous catching of fish are indications of the great crowds that would come to Christ upon hearing the Gospel.

Fr. Pat examines the story of Christ calling his first disciples under three aspects.

Fr. Pat explores three ways of looking at Protagoras's infamous assertion.

Fr. Pat discusses three moral fallacies that corrupt the conscience.

Fr. Pat examines three components of the parable.

Fr. Pat addresses three aspects of Great Lent.

Fr. Pat discusses the parable of the servant and the debt he owed to the king.

In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, we see a Father who has lost a child who bears his image, a son running from himself, and an elder brother who is glad he is not like his younger sibling.

What exactly is the Sunday of Orthodoxy? Is it recognition of an achievement, or is it more than that? Fr. Pat explores the meaning of icons and the Triumph of Orthodoxy. This homily was preached in 2008.

Matthew 25:31-46, the Gospel passage for the Sunday of the Last Judgment, is about the judgment of history, meaning the judgment to which history itself will be subjected. Fr. Pat delivered this homily on February 23, 2020.

The calling of the first four apostles gives us a model of the calling each of us receives from Christ. Fr. Pat looks at three qualities of this calling.

Fr. Pat preaches from Matthew 15:21-28, the encounter of Jesus with the Canaanite woman.

In the Holy Communion, there is a change of substance. The bread and the wine have been transformed. We receive into our flesh the risen power of Christ.

The institution of the Twelve Apostles is the link between the Church and the Resurrection of Christ. Fr. Pat preaches from Acts 1:15-26. This homily was given April 2, 2015.

Being a disciple, a student of Christ, is very serious business. Fr. Pat discusses what it means to have Christ as a teacher.

Elder Porphyrios has been recognized as a saint! Are the rest of us called to be saints, too?

Jesus Christ is our savior, but what does He save us from? To answer that, we need to take a closer look at Creation and the Fall. God made us neither mortal nor immortal, but with freedom: we could choose to either move closer to God, the source of life, or away from Him, and find death. When Adam and Eve sinned they separated themselves from God and each other, creating the wounded, sick humanity that they passed down to us.

We all struggle with something. We're all broken. Every Holy Thursday, we see Christ on the Cross. We come face-to-face with our own brokenness, and the way Christ joins us in our pain. He brings light out of darkness, and life out of death.

Christians don't need to be afraid of Halloween. We can celebrate it as a day for fun, friends, and family, and use it as a chance to grow closer to God and each other.

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) Thanksgiving is a time to feel grateful. But that attitude of gratitude can go away as soon as we're done with the turkey. How do we keep it going? Saint Paul tells us to "give thanks in all circumstances." Because real gratitude is more than a feeling. As we see in the Parable of the Rich Fool, it starts with remembering one crucial thing. As always, we've prepared a FREE downloadable workbook to help you act on what you'll learn: mailchi.mp/goarch/bethebee158

“For Christians, [the Twofold Annointing] means that when a person is genuinely anointed by God’s Holy Spirit, he or she becomes both a king and a sacrificial offering: the two states are inseparable.” (Fr Timothy Patitsas, "The Ethics of Beauty") 2020 has been a rough year. Why does God allow bad things to happen? Why do bad things happen even to good people? People have struggled with theodicy (the problem of evil and suffering) for centuries. To answer that, we'll build on last week's episode and explore what it means to live sacrificially. As Christians, we're anointed by God for eternal life with Him. But that anointing comes with a call to sacrifice for the life of the world. Just like Christ voluntarily laid down His life for us, we can take up this call with joy and thanksgiving. To help you apply what you learn, we'll share a simple formula which we learned from Andy Root that can help you live sacrificially in your everyday life. As always, we've prepared a FREE downloadable workbook to help you act on what you'll learn: https://mailchi.mp/goarch/bethebee160

Kevin's guest is Rita Madden, host of the AFR podcast "Food, Faith, and Fasting." Rita is a Registered Dietitian who finds inspiration in the great role that the Orthodox Christian faith can play in her modern-day healthcare profession. Here she discusses caring for your health in a spiritually minded manner.

Guest: Perry C. Robinson, the editor of the popular Orthodox theology blog Energetic Procession, will share his perspectives on the perennial heterodox idea that God will eventually save/liberate everyone and why there is such a vibrant theological conversation on this subject going on within segments of Evangelicalism (Rob Bell).

Intel was once unrivalled as the world's chip maker. Now it's fallen behind its rivals.

The Laity of God is called to be the Royal Priesthood. So how might that be lived out? You need to become a world transformer!