Featured Author of the Antiochian Archdiocese: Fr. Constantine Nasr
Fr. Constantine Nasr has served more than twenty-five years as the pastor of St. Elijah Church in Oklahoma City, OK. A graduate of St. Vladimir's Seminary, Fr. Constantine is a pioneer in American Orthodoxy in terms of Missions and Evangelism. During the past twenty-five years, because of his efforts and the efforts of those he recruited to assist him, St. Elijah has had the joy of welcoming hundreds of people who have embraced the Holy Orthodox Faith. By God's grace, Fr. Constantine has helped establish numerous missions in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and Colorado, and has helped train many men who have become priests, deacons, sub-deacons and readers.
Fr. Constantine has published five books to assist his brothers the clergy: The Bible in the Liturgy; Journey through the Divine Liturgy; Resource Book for Mission and Evangelism; Memory Eternal: Selected Eulogies; and A Practical Guide for Priests & Pastors. He has just completed the first draft of his life-long project, Antony Bashir: Founding Father of the American Orthodox Church, and he hopes to write a book on marriage. He has lectured at our Orthodox seminaries and parishes in the United States and Canada, and he broadcasts the Spread the Word podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.
Standing beside him, helping him to carry the weight of the ministry, have been his wife Sharon, his children Constantine and wife Mandy, and Philip who have borne the weight of the ministry with him.
Featured
A Practical Guide for Priests and Pastors
(Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5)
INTRODUCTION
My purpose in writing this book is to share what I have learned through thirty years of ministry with my brothers in the Lord, the Christian clergy. There are so many hidden challenges in the ministry. It is my hope these observations will prove beneficial to seminarians and others just beginning in the ministry in meeting these challenges. I also hope it will be a welcomed reminder to those already well underway that they are not alone, and that others have traveled the same road.
I am privileged to have been reared in a priestly family. I am a 9th generation priest. From my youth up I have been schooled in the challenges and responsibilities of the priesthood. From my father, the late Zachariah Nasr, I learned first hand to rely upon the working and guidance of the Holy Spirit as the truest and greatest teacher in the priesthood. In addition to the guidance of the Holy spirit, the wisdom and experience of others is also beneficial. Whatever success I have had was guided, corrected and strengthened by our father in Christ, Metropolitan PHILIP Saliba, Primate of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America, His Grace Bishop ANTOUN Khouri, His Grace Bishop DEMETRI Khoury, His Grace Bishop BASIL Essey and my brothers the priests from whom I received encouragement and guidance through the years: Archpriest Paul Romley of Los Angeles, CA; Archpriest John Khoury of St. Paul, MN; Archpriest John Elias of Jacksonville, FL; Archpriest George Shalhoub of Detroit, MI, Archpriest Antony Gabriel of Montreal, Canada, the late Archimandrite Gregory Aboud of Brooklyn, NY; the late Economos Michael Simon of New Jersey; the late Protosyngelos Ellis Khoury of Grand Rapids, MI; Archpriest Nicholas Dahdal in Chicago, IL; and all the many others too numerous to mention.