WEBVTT

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Hey dear ones,
God bless you.

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Thanks for tuning in.

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I have a reflection for you today
that I'm entitling "Organized Religion".

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"Organized Religion".

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For 30 years,
I've heard as a pastor,

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as a priest of the church.

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I've heard reference
of organized religions

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by people who are frustrated 
with their religion.

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And who are abandoning 
their commitments

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and their promises to God
to practice it.

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And, I heard this 
from the very first days

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after my Ordination.

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When I was first ordained,
I was a mission priest.

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I had a very small mission,
a fledgling mission

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that we were organizing.

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And I was trying to win
one of my charges,

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one of my dear parishioners,
to a more faithful Christian life.

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And when I speak to him
about the importance

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of faithful attendance at worship,
and placing commitment

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to the sacraments and the preparation
for interception of the sacraments

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at the top of his list in his life.

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And he said to me,

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"Father, I just find that I feel 
much closer to God

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and I pray better in nature.

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So I like to go out in the woods,
instead of going to church."

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That was from the beginning
of my pastorate,

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and I've been hearing 
this ever since.

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In fact, I've heard two references
to people not believing.

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Serious Orthodox Christians saying
that they don't believe

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in organized religion anymore,
they aren't practicing religion.

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I've heard this twice in a week,
in a single week.

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So evidently, three decades 
after being ordained,

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this grotesque excuse
for abandoning sacred vows to God

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to practice our faith in the church,
hasn't lost its potency.

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It's still very commonly referred 
to as some sort of justification

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for not participating
in the community life

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in the sacred koinonia
of the church,

NOTE Paragraph

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and not remaining faithful 
to the church to the end,

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which is such an important thing
for Christians to do.

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In fact, all traditional religions,
all significant religions

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in human history
have been highly organized.

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There is no such thing 
as a influential world religion

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that isn't highly organized.

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And, certainly, the one true religion
revealed from Heaven by God

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to save the human race 
and redeem the cosmos

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is highly organized.

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It's highly organized.

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In fact, we see in the Old Testament, 
tremendous organization.

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We see Priests and Levites,
and their duties articulated

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in great detail, 
with levels of accountability.

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Sacrifices, the nature of worship
and how it's to be done.

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The organization of singers
and readers, on and on.

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So, in the Old Testament,
the Jewish faith was revealed by God,

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through Moses and developed
under King David,

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and the Prophets in great detail,
in great organization.

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And, in fact, 
Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself,

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Well, He loved to pray in nature
to His Father.

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He liked to retreat to the hilltops
and to pray in the gardens,

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and yet, He also participated
most directly and faithfully

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in organized religion, both
in the synagogue and the temple.

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He was faithful growing up
in Sabbath after Sabbath,

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participating in the worship
of the synagogue.

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And He kept all of the feasts
as God's faithful and true servant.

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And when Our Lord Jesus Christ,
in the fullness of His ministry,

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set forth for us the nature
of Christian worship

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and inspired His Apostles.

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He gave them also great
detailed instruction about organization.

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He had His three, He had His Twelve,
He had His 70.

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And then, by His Holy Spirit,
after His precious cross

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and His three day entombment,
and then His resurrection from the dead,

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and the descent of the Holy Spirit,

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He gave great detailed instruction,

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and inspired His apostles
how to organize the church.

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The church is His Body.
And it's not an invisible body.

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Bodies are highly organized,
thank God.

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And when they are not highly organized,
they collapse.

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And, so we see in the gospels
not only does our Savior make reference

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to the process of building His church,
but he guides the apostles very clearly

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on how to hear confessions,
how to retain and remit sins,

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how to deal with matters 
of church discipline.

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Texts like these are found 
in Matthew 16; Matthew 18; et cetera.

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And then as you see the acts 
of the apostles developing,

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you see the ordination
of the sacred deacons

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who were to assist the apostles 
and the apostles organizing their lives

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around prayer and the ministry
of the Word,

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and delegating many
charitable acts of the church

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to the diaconate, (Acts 6).

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You see in Acts, Chapter 14, verse 22,
Saint Paul ordained.

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That's a very highly organized action.

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He ordained presbyters, priests,
in every church.

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And in the Epistles, 
you see the detailed working out

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of the early organization
of the early church,

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including such things
as the nature of ordination,

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the laying on of hands, the bestowal of
spiritual gifts in ordination.

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Lists of qualifications 
for priests and deacons.

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You see guidance that Paul
provides bishops,

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like Timothy and Titus,
his spiritual sons.

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The whole section known
as the Pastoral Epistles,

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1st and 2nd Timothy
and Titus;

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absolutely chock full
of detailed organizational guidance,

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given from Saint Paul
to the early church.

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1st Corinthians, 
details on the celebration

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of the Holy Liturgy
and the distribution of the Eucharist.

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If someone doesn't believe
in organized religion,

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they don't believe 
in Jesus Christ.

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And they don't believe 
in the church that He established.

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And they don't believe
in the Bible.

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The New Testament climaxes
with the Books of the Apocalypse

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in which heavenly worship
is revealed.

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The great door to heaven
is open and John sees

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what's going on
in the next life,

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and, what do you know?

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The worship of God around His Throne
is highly organized.

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As is, the new heavens
and the new earth.

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So, dear ones, this is not
a good thing to say,

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"I don't believe in organized religion."

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That doesn't mean that the truth faith,

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the Christian faith, 
is externalisitic.

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Organized religion
doesn't mean externalistic.

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It just means serious,
and big, and old.

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And, if fact, you would expect
the Holy Church,

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which is 2000 years old,

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and has been growing
and filling the world,

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and winning men and women
to salvation for the last 2000 years.

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You would expect that she would be
highly organized and developed.

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And, in fact, she is.

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It doesn't mean externalistic.

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If we are externalistic,
then we're not being true

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to the core organization
of our faith,

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which Our Lord and Savior gave 
to us, which is to build from the heart.

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Our faith is a matter
of the purification of the heart

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and the transformation
of the inner man.

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But, we're real men 
with real bodies.

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Collectively, our koinonia
has real structure to it.

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And the church isn't just 


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an invisible reality
of spiritual communion,

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but also a tangible reality 
of loved expressed,

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and sacraments consumed.

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And people, body and soul
being healed and transformed.

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Usually people say comments like this 
about organized religion,

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"I don't believe in organized religion."
And they 'poo poo' organized religion.

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Because somehow they have suffered
from aspects of the organization.

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Perhaps they have been abused
by this or that leader in the church.

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Or, they've suffered some
terrible injustice.

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Or, they've been slandered
or hurt in some way.

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And, so this is a protective mechanism
in their minds.

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They're overreacting to the fact that
the church is not perfectly organized,

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and not perfectly living her life
because the church

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on earth, while true,
is not perfect.

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And, that has been the case
since the time of its founding.

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Read the Acts of the Apostles 
and look at how many traumas

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the holy Apostles had to work through
and to guide the church through.

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That didn't allow people to say,

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"Well, I don't believe 
in the organized church

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that the apostles were establishing
everywhere, in fulfilment

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of their obedience to Christ."

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If you separate yourself

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from that community 
and from its organization,

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you separate yourself
from Christ,

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because those that receive 
the apostles, receive Christ.

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And those that rejected
the apostles, rejected Christ.

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So, this is my encouragement.

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If you ever think that thought,
banish it.

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That you don't believe 
in organized religion.

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You certainly do
if you're a believer and a Christian.

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And if you have suffered, 
don't allow yourself to overreact.

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Instead, invest more in the church.

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Contribute to her proper organization.

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From the heart, 
and in the body.

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Contribute to her health by
a greater investment

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to the integrity 
of the body of Christ.

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We absolutely believe in 
and love the organized religion,

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which the most Holy Trinity 
has bequeathed to man

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as the locusts


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in the church of Communion 
with Him.

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God be with you dear ones.

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I ask your prayers.

00:11:00.718 --> 00:11:02.346
(Narrator)

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Patristic Nectar Publications 
is pleased to present

00:11:04.595 --> 00:11:09.228
the proceedings of the 2022
annual PNP conference,

00:11:09.228 --> 00:11:13.864
entitled Holy Orthodoxy:
Presenting the Christian Faith.

00:11:13.864 --> 00:11:16.314
This seven lecture series
is designed

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to present a broad exposure
of the contours of the Christian faith.

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Both to prepare
inquirers and catechumens

00:11:23.563 --> 00:11:26.196
for holy baptism,
as well as deepening

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and renewing the faith
of believers.

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These lectures are delivered
by a collage of catechists.

00:11:32.381 --> 00:11:35.862
Four by the deeply respected petrologists,

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Archimandrite Maximos Constas

00:11:39.097 --> 00:11:41.267
with additional single lectures

00:11:41.267 --> 00:11:45.898
by Father Josiah Trenham,
Father Bogdan Bukur and Dr. Tikhon Pino

00:11:45.898 --> 00:11:48.128
for these as well as other conferences

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and available titles,

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please visit our website

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at patristicnector.org

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(Music)