The World's Premier Online Orthodox Christian Homiletics Resource
Bible scholars and students! Since most contemporary preaching is primarily either therapeutic or exegetical, especially during Lent, we offer this little list for your exegetical homilies. These are principle examples of why the Septuagint Old Testament is the 'official' Old Testament of the Orthodox Church (that and the fact that the Masoretic text didn't even exist until 1,000 a.d.). Enjoy! Of the approximately 300 Old Testament quotes in … [Read more...]
Fr. Sergius Halvorsen was an early supporter of Preachers Institute, and we are very happy that St. Vlad's is taking homiletics seriously. We hope that the new hybrid D.Min. will also include a 'Homiletics' major, but this remains to be seen. Congratulations, Fr. Serge! Fr. Sergius Halvorsen Joins Faculty, Institutes Homiletics Course and D.Min. Hybrid Program February 18, 2011 • Deborah (Malacky) Belonick “Renewing St. Vladimir’s … [Read more...]
by Fr. John A. Peck Part Four of a Five Part series A Short History of the Liturgical Location for Preaching: The Ambo, the Pulpit and the Lectern. The Exterior Pulpit There is a wonderful history of outdoor, or exterior pulpits, attached to Churches. As stated previously, exterior pulpits were used for funeral orations in the churchyard, for the preaching of pilgrimages, or for the exhibition of relics, and were often built outside of … [Read more...]
by Fr. John A. Peck Part Three of a Five Part series A Short History of the Liturgical Location for Preaching: The Ambo, the Pulpit and the Lectern. The Pulpit The word pulpit comes from the Latin pulpitum, meaning a stage or scaffold. The most popular and consistent architectural 'solution' to a highly visible and clearly audible location in a Church has been the pulpit. The pulpit is the direct descendant of the ambo, as is an … [Read more...]
by Fr. Barnabas Powell We are republishing this article from our good friend, Fr. Barnabas, who is the priest of Ss. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene Church in Cumming, GA and blogger at Sober Joy, co-teaches the course PAST 7201 - Preaching: Proclaiming The Kindgom, with Fr. Nick Triantifilou, the president of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. Fr. Nick was the main professor, and Fr. Barnabas was the co-instructor. In this … [Read more...]
The Survey Says… Friends of Preachers Institute, thank you for participating in our online poll regarding a Doctor of Ministry degree in Orthodox Homiletics. During April and May, we asked you, our readers, what you would like to see in an advanced professional degree in Orthodox homiletics. The specific question was: What would you like to see in a Doctoral program in Orthodox Homiletics? All in all, there were 194 respondents. Each … [Read more...]
by Fr. John A. Peck TAKE THE POLL! When we were in the early stages of discussing the mission and goals of the Preachers Institute, one that stuck out was the opportunity for advanced, intensive study of homiletics among Orthodox clergy. We decided early on that the professional degree (D. Min.), not an academic degree (such as a Ph.D. or a Th. D) would best fulfill our vision, as it was the preacher on-the-ground, in the parish preaching … [Read more...]
Congratulations to our Bloggers who signed up for the 30 (40) Days of Blogging. Today is the 40th day! Your marathon journey has come to an end! Axios! I want to thank everyone for participating. I've been reading your blogs, and I must say, I'm impressed with your work and the incredible labor that went into it. We will repeat this exercise next year, starting (once again) on Nov. 15th. In the meantime, I want to especially congratulation some … [Read more...]
by Fr. Jonathan Cholcher Sermons can always be better, that is, more effective. Improvement does not happen by accident, but by the deliberate process of understanding key elements of sermon effectiveness and constantly evaluating one’s performance based on these criteria. Three key elements, or criteria, are suggested by the ancient writer Plutarch’s likening of public speaking to the successful exercise of playing catch (On Listening, 3). … [Read more...]
The Art of Speaking Workshop by Fr. John A. Peck Having returned from the “Art of Speaking” Workshop, I find myself happily surprised. In the two decades I’ve been listening to Orthodox homilies, in many parishes in many states, I’m quite confident in saying that (in my experience) most Orthodox preaching is generally poor. By most I mean a good 90%, and by poor I mean it's just plain weak. I'm sorry to say it, but this is my … [Read more...]
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