Ancient Faith Radio presents Fr. James Early speaking at the Festival of Icons in Houston, Texas. Fr. James Early serves as the assistant pastor of St. Joseph Antiochian Orthodox Church in Houston, Texas, and the title of his talk is “From Baptist to Bosnia to Byzantium.”

Bobby Maddex interviews Fr. Lawrence Russell, priest at Church of the Annunciation in Santa Maria, California, about a truly remarkable Orthodox ministry, located in Adwa, Ethiopia, and the even more remarkable woman who started it.

On Friday, October 14, The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America announced an agreement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey regarding the rebuilding of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. John Maddex talks with Fr. Mark Arey about that agreement and where we go from here.

Bobby Maddex interviews Elizabeth Crispina Johnson, author of the Conciliar Press children's books And Then Nicholas Sang and What Do You Hear, Angel? Both books were illustrated by Masha Lobastov.

On this special episode of Ancient Faith Presents, Mr. John Tzavelas, a graduate of both the Toronto Orthodox Theological Academy and St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, speaks at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Winnipeg about the popular online film Zeitgeist and its claim that Christianity is a false religion.

Bobby Maddex interviews Paula Kappos, the President of Zoe for Life. This organization is an Orthodox Christian initiative, endorsed by the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas, that addresses crisis pregnancy, facilitates adoption, and engages in abstinence education.

Combined, Fr. John and Fr. Stephen have been involved with prison ministry for well over 50 years. From their experiences in this work, they speak on the important concept of "Ministry of Presence" that is truly vital for all Orthodox Christians to understand. This concept is brought to life by the stories they share from their ministries. This presentation was given in Houston as part of an Orthodox Christian Prison Ministry gathering. Fr. John Kowalczyk is the priest of St. Michael's Church in Jermyn, PA, the Chancellor of the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania, a Chaplain at S.C.I. Waymart's Forensic Treatment Center for over 27 years, teaches at St. Tikhon's Orthodox Seminary, and is the Director of their Field Education Program. Fr. John is a member of the Board of Directors of Orthodox Christian Prison Ministry. Fr. Stephen Powley is the priest of St. John the Baptist Church in Pueblo, CO, and is the Assistant Director of Orthodox Christian Prison Ministry. He served as a Prison Chaplain for almost 26 years until his retirement in August of 2010. During that time he served as a chaplain in every security level of prison from minimum to maximum.

Bobby Maddex interviews Lesia Maruschak of Studio IKONA, an art gallery in Ottawa, Canada, that will soon be hosting a four-day symposium titled Byzantium, which will feature the sacred art of Georgios Kordis and benefit the charity cure: blood cancer.

Bobby Maddex interviews Nicholas Muzekari, the publisher and editor of Aletheia Writing Magazine, a new literary publication geared toward Christian teens.

Learn about this wonderful resource for Orthodox women as we talk with Assistant Managing Editor Jane Meyer.

Bobby Maddex interviews Dr. George Demacopoulos and Dr. Aristotle Papanikolaou of Fordham University. Dr. Demacopoulos is the Fr. John Meyendorff & Patterson Family Chair of Orthodox Christian Studies at Fordham and Dr. Papanikolaou is the Archbishop Demetrios Chair of Orthodox Theology and Culture. Together they co-founded and co-direct Fordham's Orthodox Christian Studies Center.

Bobby Maddex interviews Nazo Zakkak, the Composer in Residence for the Antiochian Archdiocese in North America, about a new CD of American Orthodox music.

Bobby Maddex interviews Kyranna Mamalakis, Alexandra Mamalakis, and Regina Vasilopoulos of the Unfading Rose Byzantine Youth Choir. He also speaks with Sotiris and Georgia Vasilopoulos, who are the directors of the choir. The six discuss the new Unfading Rose CD Hymns to the Mother of God.

John Michael Boyer and Dn. John El Massih join us to talk about their new Byzantine chant CD for Nativity - Sun of Justice. This debut release by the ensemble PRÓTO presents traditional chants for the Byzantine celebration of Christmas, including selections from The Royal Hours, Vespers, Matins, and the Divine Liturgy. A deluxe 32-page booklet is included with full texts in Greek, Arabic, and English.

Richard Barrett, protopsaltis and choir director at Holy Dormition Greek Orthodox Church in Somerville, MA—and the co-host of A Sacrifice of Praise—interviews Amy Hogg, Samuel Herron, and Gabriel Cremeens, the individuals behind the new Trisagion School of Byzantine Music, an online Byzantine Chant training program whose mission it is to offer Byzantine Chant instruction in English with a focus on the ever-growing English-language repertoire available in Byzantine notation.

OCMC missionary Fr. Paul Patitsas joins us to talk about his work in New Zealand and Oceania.

Bobby Maddex, the Director of Digital Media from Ancient Faith Ministries interviews Dn Paul Zaharas from IOCC, who has been leading the USA Country Program since 2020. Dn. Paul shares details regarding the type of service work IOCC does and relates the history of the IOCC organization.

The White House sides with Israel's ground assault of Lebanon while much of the world calls for a ceasefire. / Al Jazeera

Meanwhile, Iran is said to be preparing to launch a ballistic-missile attack. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

A long profile of Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose new book criticizes Israel and the corrupting influence of power. "I'm sad, but I was so enraged." / New York Magazine

Things to watch for in tonight's Vance-Walz debate. / Wake Up to Politics

Helene slamming a small town in North Carolina may disrupt the global supply chain for microchips. / NPR

A nuclear plant in Michigan will be the first in US history to restart. / CNBC

Your weekly white paper: "A systematic review about similarities in dog-human dyads." / Science Direct

A fascinating survey of how religious believers are using new technologies in their daily practices. / rest of world

An audio dive into Google's new niche product Notebook, which can turn a bunch of PDFs into a convincing podcast. / The New York Times [+]

See also: Barry C. Lynn on "Liberal democracy's last stand against Big Tech." / Harper's

From July, have you seen the trend of new books using multi-panel illustrations on their covers? They're called "bento books." / I Need a Book Cover

A celebrated new short story collection is about "people who just can't hang." / The New Yorker

Also, have you noticed worse service at restaurants lately? For the sake of society, that might be a good thing. / Economist Writing Every Day

See also: Britain experiences a rise in "zebra striping," where pub patrons alternate between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer. / Semafor

Japan's smaller museums are praised for their elegance. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

Photographs of Japanese forests shimmering with fireflies. / Colossal

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In this new audio documentary, exclusive to Ancient Faith Radio, Bobby Maddex takes a trip to the Hogar Raphael Ayau Orthodox Orphanage in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Learn how the orphanage came to be, what takes place there on a daily basis, and why it is truly miraculous beyond measure.

Fr. Pat reflects on the story of Zacchaeus under three considerations: creativity, intuition, and incorporation.

In the Incarnation, God assumes not only human nature, but also human experience. With respect to this, Fr. Pat Reardon talks about human memory, human speech, and human resolve

In this homily from St. Thomas Sunday, Fr. Pat considers a person with a Stoic personality facing the great puzzle presented in the books of Job and Ecclesiastes.

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.

Fr. Pat preaches from Luke 13:10-17, the story of Jesus healing a crippled woman on the Sabbath. This homily was given on December 4, 2014

The heart of Feast of the Annunciation is evangelism in its most perfect reception, by a Woman who hears and believes the proclamation of the Gospel.

The call placed on every man’s life is to walk under the direct gaze of God. And the joy of heaven consists of gazing upon the transfigured face of Christ, and going from glory to glory, as much as we are able to bear.

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.

We're answering one of your questions, about how we can overcome laziness. How can changing our perspective help?

Christ asked His disciples something personal: "Who do you say that I am?" It's an invitation to do more than answer a question: He's asking us to share our relationship with Him. So who do you say that Christ is? And how is He active in your life? Share your answer and this video!

Our lives are chapters in a greater story. What part are you playing: the all-star athlete, the Greek American, the top of your class? What about the disciple of Christ? This week, let's refocus our lives in God's story, the greater story of salvation.

You've heard it before: you are what you eat. That's most true when we eat Holy Communion. Christian joins Steve to consider the amazing insights that Fr Alexander Schmemann offers in "For the Life of the World."

Last week, Steve and Christian talked about how receiving Holy Communion forms us into Christ's Body. This week, they reflect on the ways our good habits can build a "second nature" and form us into the people God made us to be.

“My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:8) Whether it's a mean comment or act of violence, why is it so easy to hurt people? And why should we care? We're all afraid of being weak, and will often hurt others to feel strong. Yet Jesus showed us that true strength often involves being weak: this is the way of love and the cross. As a special bonus, we've prepared a FREE downloadable workbook to help you act on what you'll learn. https://mailchi.mp/goarch/bethebee151

Does anyone notice any difference in you when you've met with the Lord?

Please notice how positive this message is (not like so many so called "Evangelists" of the modern era). Repent and then get on and do some good works in Christ Jesus.

Rather than zapping us, God choses to fix us.

"Saint Cosmas came from Bulgaria where his devout parents provided him with a good education in Slavonic and Greek. They wanted him to marry but he was drawn by the love of Christ and, unknown to them, made his way to the Holy Mountain of Athos to become a monk at the Bulgarian monastery of Zographou. On the feast of the Annunciation at the Monastery of Vatopedi, he saw a woman among those serving in the Church and in the refectory, and he was grieved at first to observe this breach of the monastic rule, but overjoyed when he realized that it was the Mother of God who had appeared to him in this way.   "He was clothed in the holy angelic Habit and, after some time, was ordained priest. One day, as he was praying before the icon of the Mother of God, asking her with tears how to achieve his salvation, he heard a voice saying, 'Let my servant withdraw to the desert outside the monastery.' He was obedient to the will of God and, with the blessing of his Abbot, lived in silence from then on. Some years later, he was found worthy of the grace of discernment of thoughts and of beholding things happening elsewhere, as well as of other spiritual gifts. In the course of many years, he was the spiritual helper of a great number of monks. At the end of his life, Christ appeared to him saying that he would shortly have a great trial to endure from the Devil. Indeed, the prince of demons made his appearance next day with a host of his servants bewailing and bemoaning their inability to annihilate their great enemy Cosmas, who had held them in check for so long and gained possession, by his virtue, of the throne in Heaven that had once been Lucifer's. Taking a heavy stick, the demon beat the Saint so violently that he left him half-dead. As God allowed, Saint Cosmas died in peace two days later, on 22 September 1323. When the fathers came from the monastery to bury him, the wild animals gathered round. They kept silent until the end of the service, but howled unusually loud as his body was covered with earth. Then having paid their respects, they made off into the wilderness. Forty days later, the monks came to take up the body of Saint Cosmas and translate it to the monastery, but it was no longer in the grave. Where it now is God alone knows." (Synaxarion)

Listen to this email instead ???? – Spotify – iTunes When I walked into the first floor of the Facebook building on University Avenue, in Palo Alto, I wasn’t sure if I was in a frat house or a startup. There were cables falling from the ceilings, people running around and I was told to […]

The post What I Learned Working For Mark Zuckerberg appeared first on Noah Kagan.

“We have 0% customer churn.” – said no SaaS marketer ever. Instead, what I hear all the time is: “If only we could keep growing without churn growing with us.” “If only we could get new trials to actually USE the product, they’ll see how great it is.” And even this story someone shared on […]

The post I spent 60+ hours analyzing onboarding emails for 127 SaaS trials. This is how the top SaaS retain users. appeared first on Coaching and training to scale your copywriting business, plus programs for new copywriters, startups, and marketers.

In today’s episode, I’m joined by PJ Taei, Founder and CEO of Uscreen, an all-in-one video monetization platform for content creators that helps them build their brands and grow their businesses. The creator economy has changed a lot since PJ first founded Uscreen in 2015. And in that time PJ has managed to grow Uscreen […]

In the end, your success or failure is a combination of what you control (your decision making) and what you don't (timing). Most people aren't really great at decision making. But that's something you can get better at. So let's move to the harder dynamic that we can't control – and that's timing. Everything in ... Read more

The post Premature Optimization is a Timing Mistake appeared first on Chris Lema.

Aryna Sabalenka continues her dominance over Zheng Qinwen with victory in the first match of the season-ending WTA Finals.