Bobby Maddex interviews Dean Triantafilou and Stacey Mason of International Orthodox Christian Charities. Stacey Mason has worked in international relations for 15 years. Over the years, she has visited over 35 countries and has earned advanced degrees in international affairs. Stacey has served as Director of Operations for International Orthodox Christian Charities, or IOCC, for the last 5 years, where she is responsible for relief and development programs in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the US.   Constantine “Dean” Triantafilou has been leading IOCC for over two decades, where he brings a deep commitment to serving the Church and others.  Starting in the field, he has held several leadership roles within IOCC and served as a board member with international and domestic alliances, giving him a unique perspective on the organization and the humanitarian industry. As Executive Director and CEO, Dean guides IOCC’s strategic priorities and direction. 

Bobby Maddex interviews Razvan Porumb from the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge, UK. Together they discuss distance learning degree programs, upcoming lecture series, the wealth of content on the institute's YouTube page, and more! All of this can be found on the IOCS webpage.

Ancient Faith Radio welcomes the Executive Director of the Orthodox Christian Missions Center, Fr. Martin Ritsi, to our studio. The phone number for OCMC was misstated in the interview. The actual number is 1-800-GO-FORTH.

Have you downloaded the new AFR app yet? If so, this little tutorial will help you navigate. If not, get it now in either the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store for Android.

In this episode Bobby Maddex interviews Fr.Dragos ; principal of the Institute for Orthodox Christian studies that has existed in Cambridge in the United Kingdom for 25 years. IOCS is a pan-Orthodox place of education, of outreach with a mission to provide Orthodox postgraduate studies. If you would like to donate please visit iocs.com.ac.uk.

Bobby Maddex, the director of Digital Media for Ancient Faith Ministries speaks with Monique Neal the head mentor of the Cerci Institute and its new Greek language apprenticeship. If you would like to contact Monique you may @ Monique.c.neal@gmail.com. To check out Cerci Institute go to ccinstitute.org

Bobby Maddex speaks with Dn. Joseph Matusiak, Ellie Bernasol, Ilmari Hayrynen, and Gabi Moussa about their experience at the 2023 Suprasl World Fellowship of Orthodox Youth event, held in Poland. To donate to this project please visit http://suprasl.org http://www.suprasl.org http://www.facebook.org/suprasl2022 http://www.instagram.com/suprasl_wfoy OR reach out to Dn. Joseph Matusiak @ jmatusiak@suprasl2022.org

Bobby Maddex interviews the participants of the inaugural Ancient Faith Lampstand Institute, an introductory media training forum for Orthodox Christians aged 18-23 who are interested in learning skills in digital media and applying them to the service of the Church

Brief profiles of the 97 hostages who remain unaccounted for after last year's Hamas-led attacks. / BBC News

An eloquent essay from a former Gaza resident. "In the past year, I have lost many of the tangible parts of my memories." / The New Yorker

Computer analysis finds Donald Trump's Trump's rally speeches now lasting an average of 82 minutes, compared with 45 minutes in 2016. / The New York Times [+]

Three people with severe autoimmune conditions have gone into remission after being treated with bioengineered, CRISPR-modified immune cells. / Nature

Psychologists say Dungeons & Dragons has potential benefits as a group therapy technique. / Ars Technica

Underground electronic and experimental music are burgeoning in Asia. / Pitchfork

And why not: a synthesizer in a browser window. / jake.fun

A researcher on artificial life and intelligence says anybody who encounters an extraterrestrial should try to kill them—as a means of communication. / Nautilus

Researchers are using drones to search for a female partner for "the world's loneliest plant." / The Conversation

Botanists have grown a long-lost tree species from a 1,000-year-old seed. / CNN

A new book brings together images of trees from over the centuries. / The Guardian

See also: A Loch Ness maritime pilot thinks he's found "Nessie" with sonar imagery. / The Irish Star

Because it's October: a starter kit for reading horror, and an oral history for Home Depot's 12-foot skeleton. / LitHub, VICE

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Due to some unforseen events, we missed a couple days last week. Sorry about that! All is better and we appreciate the readers who reached out.

Israel reportedly says any attacks on Iran will target its military, not nuclear or oil facilities. / CNN

Republican campaigns spend more money at Shake Shack and Jimmy John's while Democrats eat at Sweetgreen and Le Pain Quotidien. / The Washington Post [+]

People whose homes were damaged by recent storms are likely to be forced to "build up or move out." / Heatmap

Related: Emergency workers in North Carolina were withdrawn for fear of trucks of armed militia "saying they were out hunting FEMA." The local sherriff's office says otherwise. / The Guardian, Citizen Times

Nepalese teenager Nima Rinji Sherpa breaks the record for the youngest mountaineer to summit Earth's 14 highest peaks. / BBC News

A team finds the remains of one of the first climbers to attempt Mount Everest. / National Geographic

Prior to the 20th century, oyster reefs covered more than 1.7 million hectares across European oceans. / Bloomberg [+]

Do more people die from heat or cold? Cold, but most die from "moderate cold." / Sustainability by numbers

The amount of tents on the streets of San Franicsco is down 60% since July 2023. / The San Francisco Standard

New Yorkers deploy "anti-influencer architecture" in neighborhoods popular with TikTokers. / Curbed

See also: A nonprofit called Mothers Against Media Addiction aims to follow the model of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. / The Information

Fitness bros on TikTok participating in "locktober" may not know the term's history as a chastity kink. / Them

Author Rumaan Alan's solution for his midlife crisis is to get tattooed with things he doesn't want to forget. / Esquire

An argument for skipping wellness and personal development for "wasteful intervals of pure, delicious nothingness." / The Good Question

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Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick journeys into the hollers of central Appalachia and encounters one of the least-known forms of American Protestant religion, exploring their faith, their music and one of their churches, through the eyes of an Orthodox priest raised in that tradition.

The release of Windows 11 is still a number of months away, and we're still learning a lot about Microsoft's latest operating system update. In addition to the confusion about hardware requirements, there have been questions about other necessities.

Fr. Pat again addresses the "transcendentals," this time explaining how the Incarnation is the manifestation of truth, goodness, and beauty.

Fr. Pat shares his homily from the Sunday of the Paralytic.

Part of our communion with God is our connection to the saints; chief among them after the Theotokos are Peter and Paul.

In the parable of the Vineyard and the Vinedressers, Jesus is not giving a moral teaching, as might be expected, but rather is presenting His own story about His relationship to God and to the people of Israel. Fr. Pat discusses this.

In this homily from the Sunday of St. Thomas, Fr. Pat comments on three things that jump out at him from the Gospel text of John 20:19-31.

In the story of the healing of the paralytic in John 5, we learn about sin from three sources: the paralytic, the opponents of Jesus, and Jesus himself.

The parable of the Publican and the Pharisee teaches us much about prayer. Father Pat looks at three things: the meaning of the temple, the issue of repeated prayer, and authenticity when speaking with God.

To put on Christ necessarily involves a great deal of studious application; indeed, we are obliged to study Him. Fr. Pat looks at the account of the healing of the crippled woman in Luke 13 and gives us three ways we can endeavor to look like Christ.

Father Pat looks at the encounter with the Samaritan woman through the lens of Jesus' statement “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)

In this homily from the Sunday of the Man Born Blind, Fr. Pat considers with us light and darkness, both in this story and in our lives.

In the parable of the sower and his seed from Luke 8, we learn about parables themselves, and as with all parables, we’re admonished to find ourselves in Jesus’ words.

In Jesus’ circumcision, God’s own flesh is marked by the sign of the covenant; Jesus' circumcision was the ratification and fulfillment of the prophetic dimension of the rite. Fr. Pat discusses three verbs associated with the Hebrew word Berith (covenant).

It is imperative always to follow the light—never the darkness. The light is given to us in Christ our Lord and conveyed through the teaching of the Church.

In the raising of the son of the widow of Nain, a liturgical parallel to the raising of Lazarus, Luke declares Jesus as Lord and Victor not only over death, but over everything.

The Samaritan Woman whom Jesus meets at the well has, like many people today, a disordered life. Fr. Pat offers reflections on how this disorder afflicts the soul.

Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon discusses three types of witness, with special focus on the witness we call “the faith once delivered to the saints.”

In this reflection, Fr. Pat considers what we have to learn from those in the Nativity story who look into the sky and ponder the moon and the stars.

We all have schedules and agendas, and we’re mindful of our own and of those with whom we interact. Using stories from the Gospels and Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Fr. Pat considers with us God's schedules and hidden agenda.

The account of the devout centurion that appears in both Matthew and Luke, but not in Mark, and obviously it is Matthew's version that we are considering today. The centurion serves as a model, I believe, for how Christ our Lord is to be approached, unless Christ our Lord is to be approached as a figment of our own imagination or simply as a projection of what we want out of religion.

Fr. Pat preaches on the Parable of the Rich Fool found in Luke 12:16-21.

In Romans 8 Paul asserts that God causes all things to work for good to those who love him. Fr. Pat examines this thesis in regards to general history, in the lives of individuals, and in the life of Christ, the supreme example of this.

Using as a jumping-off point the Parable of the Vineyard in Matthew 21, Fr. Pat asks the same question asked by Nathaniel in John 1.

Most people don't keep their new year's resolutions. Is it because we're too busy trying to do more rather than be more?

If we don't keep our car's gas tank full, it will stall. Do we keep our spiritual gas tanks full?

We talk a lot about our souls. But what about our bodies? Are they important? Are they saved?

The Cross was an instrument of death. How did it become an instrument of life? And what can that teach us about being the bee?

How do Christ and the Church teach us to read the Bible? Here are three things you need to know!

"Thoughts" are the imaginings and fantasies that can distract us from God. And they can turn into action after they enter our hearts. So how do we deal with the thoughts that bother us? Instead of fighting them, we can turn away from them.

Walking into an Orthodox Church can be pretty overwhelming. Join Steve as he offers a quick tour of what you'll typically see, and what that can teach us about our path to salvation.

Vestments are more than decorations: they reveal something important about our relationship with God and the role of our clergy.

The Orthodox author Dostoevsky once said that "beauty will save the world." What does beauty have to do with our salvation and relationship with God?

“Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16) Adults fear that young people will grow up and stop being Christians. But no one ever fears that a kid will stop rooting for their favorite sports team. Why? We'll look at how the life of a sports fan can challenge the way we share the Faith with others. Because our goal isn't simply to make people loyal to our religion: it's to give them a taste of holiness and inspire them to be saints. If we're going to raise people to be faithful Orthodox Christians, we need to start here. As always, we've prepared a FREE downloadable workbook to help you act on what you'll learn: mailchi.mp/goarch/bethebee154

Kevin Allen's guest is Fr. Stephen Freeman, the pastor of St. Anne Orthodox Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the host of the "Glory to God" podcast. They discuss the idea of "beauty" and its lack in our secularized culture, as well as how to live a sacred life in a secular culture.

Host Kevin Allen talks with Faith McDonnell and Ralph H. Sidway about the rising tide of Christian intolerance and genocide—the intentional killing of people for their Christian faith—and why global Christophobia is rarely covered by Western media or addressed by the United Nations. Faith McDonnell is the Director of Religious Liberty Programs at the Institute for Religion and Democracy and the author of the book Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda's Children. Her blog is titled "Juicy Ecumenism." Ralph H. Sidway is the author of Facing Islam and the blog of the same name.

One of the most challenging and important jobs a parent has is to talk to their children about sexuality in a way that incorporates the various spheres of life – biological, emotional, relational, social, and spiritual. In this episode of Ancient Faith Today, host Kevin Allen speaks with Dr. John T. Chirban, author of How to Talk With Your Kids About Sex, about ways to prepare for this most important parental responsibility.

Father Daniel Rogich (PhD), author of the book Becoming Uncreated: The Journey to Human Authenticity, is Kevin's guest as they discuss a growing trend in the Millennial generation regarding religious belief.