Sunday, April 19, 2009

Ancient faith spreads word in new ways


From this morning's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. (Love the hat)

While most Americans slept, Orthodox Christians gathered outside their churches last night carrying icons and candles for a midnight procession in which they would restore light to the darkened interiors, celebrating Jesus' Resurrection from death.

Easter -- Pascha in Orthodox parlance -- is the joyous highlight of their liturgical year. But most of their neighbors are oblivious to it because different church calendars and calculations usually set Orthodox Easter at a later date than the Catholic and Protestant Easter.

Now, thanks to Internet radio, Orthodox Americans can surround themselves with music and teachings of their church 24/7 on Easter and every other day.

Ancient Faith Radio at www.ancientfaith.com and the Orthodox Christian Network at www.myocn.net bring support to isolated believers.

"In my personal opinion, it's been the hand of God working in all of this," said the Rev. Tom Soroka, pastor of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in McKees Rocks and a popular teacher on Ancient Faith Radio.

"It's unquestionable that it has brought a daily presence of Orthodoxy into the lives of Orthodox Christians, for whom it's often impossible to come to church every day."

Orthodoxy developed in Eastern Europe and Asia when Christianity split into Orthodoxy and Catholicism in 1054, primarily due to conflict over papal authority.

More here-

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09109/963680-96.stm

1 comment:

Bruce Robison said...

Note that former Trinity faculty member Patrick Reardon, now a priest of the Orthodox Church, is featured in the article as one of the designers of the Orthodox web presence. Very nice to see such creative ministry.