Fr. Dcn. Ananias Sorem, PhD is the founder of Patristic Faith. He is an Orthodox apologist and teaches philosophy at Fullerton and Carroll colleges. To learn more about Father’s educational training, his current academic work, and his traditional Orthodox teachings, click here.
In our conversation, Father and I talk about Orthodox MontaNIKA, a successful conference he has put on for past three years. As a person who just so happens to have planned and executed another recent conference – the greatly anticipated Philip Ludwell Orthodox Fellowship Inaugural Conference – I wanted to compare with Father the wild ride of event planning for such large, pan-Orthodox gatherings. We not only chat about our conferences’ shared mission of knowing that “God is a community” and that where “seeds of the Word are planted,” spiritual fruits will grow, but we also touch upon the lies spread about our respective organizations and events by some within the Church, including clergy. Father calls them “the haters,” and so we discuss their disgusting disdain for the “Orthobros” (a term he coined and one we should take back from the subversives who are wont to malign young men seeking a relationship with Christ and healing from the Church), Southerners, and in fact all converts, and what we’ve both learned from our respective conference-planning experiences. Much to the haters’ dismay, though, turns out that “What’s impossible for men is possible for God.”
Download this podcast, watch on YouTube or Odysee, or listen here.
Be sure to check out Fr. Andrew Moore’s “A Report From MontaNIKA,” info on MontaNIKA’s edifying Men’s Retreat, and a few of my essays which are relevant to this podcast: “Come Home, Y’all,” “Stirring the pot,” “Love your neighbor as yourself – except if he’s a Dixian,” “We ain’t skeered … but they are,” and “Piety-signaling priests.” And please pray for us all. ♱
Comments
Hi there. Thanks so much for your uplifting and informative content. I am particularly grateful for the reminder that God is in charge and we aren’t alone. It’s far too easy for me to forget these days.
I hope you and your family are well.
Author
What a nice and uplifting comment from you, Melissa. 🙂 Thanks so much for listening/watching/reading my stuff. And yes, let us never forget that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”