Featured Author of the Antiochian Archdiocese: Fr. Patrick Reardon
Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon is a well-loved Orthodox pastor, homilist, writer, and teacher. He is pastor of All Saints' Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and a senior editor of Touchstone Magazine. In the past forty years, Fr. Patrick has published more than 500 articles, editorials, and reviews in popular and scholarly journals, including Books and Culture, Touchstone, The Scottish Journal of Theology, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Pro Ecclesia, and St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly. As a guest lecturer, he receives invitations year-round to give retreats, homilies, lectures, and Bible studies.
Fr. Patrick is one of Conciliar Press' most prolific authors, with four books, including the perennial bestseller Christ in the Psalms. His titles also include: Christ in His Saints, The Trial of Job, and Chronicles of History and Worship. You can purchase Fr. Patrick's books online at Conciliar.
Fr. Patrick was educated at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky; St. Anselm's College in Rome; The Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome; and St. Tikhon's Orthodox Seminary in South Canaan, Pennsylvania.
Touchstone Magazine hosts a special blog for Fr. Patrick called Daily Reflections with Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon, which serves as a companion to the St. James Devotional Guide. A complete archive of Fr. Patrick's written Pastoral Ponderings series is available on the website of All Saints' Church.
You can listen to Fr. Patrick teach via his weekly podcast Pastoral Ponderings at Ancient Faith Radio, where you can also hear Fr. Patrick's weekly homilies.
Featured
Reflections on the 2009 Archdiocese Convention
In response to a popular wish for more information on the subject, it will be useful, I believe, to share my impressions of the recent Archdiocesan Convention. By way of organizing these reflections, I want to consider the varying expectations of those who attended the Convention. After all, those sundry expectations necessarily established the individual criteria for judging whether or not the Convention was a success.
I begin with Metropolitan Philip, who has presided over several such conventions during his long service as our Archbishop. As a steady listener and reader of everything he has to say, I was able to identify only one personal expectation mentioned by the Metropolitan---to wit, that everything at the Convention be public and transparent. He several times spoke of “the light of the sun” to describe what he wanted to prevail at that gathering.
By that criterion, Metropolitan Philip must be pleased by what transpired. He not only insisted on total openness of information at the Convention; he also took direct and effective steps to insure that such a policy would prevail. Chief among these was his provision that each part of the Convention would be broadcast over Ancient Faith Radio.
Metropolitan Philip should receive proper recognition and credit on this point, because the provision for radio coverage required a measure of resolve on his part. I violate no confidences by mentioning there were influential individuals at the Convention who endeavored to undermine the Metropolitan’s policy.
I am very glad he resisted those efforts, because scores of Antiochian Christians all over the country are already listening to those radio recordings and drawing their own conclusions about the Convention. Indeed, I encourage everyone to do so.