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On this very special episode of Come Receive the Light, guest host Kevin Allen speaks with NFL superstar Troy Polamalu and his wife Theodora Polamalu about their work with FOCUS North America. Tune in to hear them talk about their work to fight poverty in North America and to find out how you can help. Also with us are Matushka Marina Holland and Diaconissa Jennifer Park from St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in McKinney, TX. They're here to give families some tips on fasting and to tell us about their wonderful online recipe archive.
This week on Harmony of Thunder: St. Gregory Palams preached a sermon on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, and interpreted the parable according to a very complex method. Listen to Harmony of Thunder to hear Fr. David explore a great sermon by a great saint of the faith.
This week on Special Moments in Orthodoxy, Dr. George Democopoulos and Dr. Aristotle Papanikolaou continue their discussion about the life of "Blessed Augustine" and his legacy in Orthodoxy.
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury (second from left), was greeted by seminary Dean Fr. John Behr (far right), seminary Chancellor Fr. Chad Hatfield (far left), Metropolitan Jonah, primate of the Orthodox Church in America (second from right), and Matushka Juliana Schmemann (center) at the 27th annual Father Schmemann Memorial Lecture on campus.
On Saturday, January 30, 2010, Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, delivered the 27th annual Father Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture— this year titled “Theology and the Contemplative Calling: The Image of Humanity in the Philokalia”— and received an honorary doctoral degree from St. Vladimir’s Seminary. This is the complete speech, recorded live and brought to you via a co-operative effort by Orthodox Christian Network and St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary.
The complete program is quite lengthy, and for your convenience has been broken into four parts.
Part 1: Introductions and Awarding of the Honorary Degree
During his visit, Dr. Williams also attended Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Three Hierarchs in the seminary chapel, and had a lively and frank discussion with St. Vladimir’s theological faculty at a private brunch. After the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Jonah, primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), and the Anglican archbishop both publically expressed their desire for a deeper personal friendship and their hope for deeper understanding and cooperation between their respective communions. Four hundred people attended the lecture and ceremony, distinguished by an episcopal presence from both the Orthodox and Anglican faiths.
The Anglican archbishop received the invitation to be this year’s Schmemann Lecturer for his pioneering work in Russian Orthodox studies and his long-standing interest in Eastern Christian studies. His doctoral work at Oxford University focused on Vladimir N. Lossky, the famous mid-twentieth-century Orthodox theologian; and his first book, Wound of Knowledge, was a study of spirituality from apostolic times to the sixteenth century.
Dr. Williams’s lecture on the “Philokalia,” a collection of monastic writings ranging from the fourth through the fifteenth centuries, reflected his massive knowledge on the subject. Beginning and ending with quotes from Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s classic work, For the Life of the World, he delivered a discourse on the spiritual battle that human beings must wage in journeying from a self-centered life to a life in Christ, according to the writings of the Christian ascetics. Additionally, the Anglican archbishop thanked the seminary for its “overwhelming warm and generous welcome,” which, he stated, crowned his first visit to St. Vladimir’s in 1974, and was all that he “had hoped and prayed for.”