On the latest episode of Mission Possible: Orthodox Parenting Today, Antiochian.org staff member and writer Ginny Nieuwsma speaks with Kh. Maggie Hock, head of the Archdiocese Department of Marriage and Parish Family Ministry. The discussion centers around meeting the challenges of raising children in the Orthodox Faith.
Internet Ministry
The Department of Internet Ministry was created in Spring 2008 to serve the communications needs of our Archdiocese by providing a professional-quality Internet publishing platform at our official website, www.Antiochian.org. The Archdiocese website had previously been built and maintained by the Department of Communications and Information Technology, before this department was closed and its responsibilities divided. In recognition of the need for our Archdiocese to make more fruitful use of new media, the Department of Internet Ministry was launched to focus exclusively on improving the presentation on the World Wide Web of our vibrant life and work.
As the Church has always done, our Archdiocese seeks to use well the tools of our society to communicate with each other, and with the world beyond. And the Internet is the most significant communications technology of today, despite being so new that we are still coming to grips with its place in our lives. Well over a billion people across the world are estimated to use the Internet every month, including 250 million North Americans, over 70% of our continent’s population. This revolutionary communications tool has rapidly become a necessity rather than a luxury for any organization with a message to share.
What does this mean for our Archdiocese? It means that we've had to start building with what we have: the wisdom and expertise that exists across the workers and ministries of our Archdiocese, and the information and stories they need to communicate; the different audiences with different needs that make up the more than 50,000 monthly visitors to our website; the technology platform that has been built to make this website possible. Our work at the department falls in to several different categories: administrative, technical, design, and editorial.
The department is chaired by Douglas Cramer. For more information, please contact us at editor@antiochian.org, or visit our Site FAQ page.
Kh. Maggie Hock Speaks with Ginny Nieuwsma on OCN
OCN Announces New Podcast: "Mission Possible: Orthodox Parenting Today"
Ft. Lauderdale, Fl – The Orthodox Christian Network is excited to announce its newest addition to its already dynamic and ever evolving list of Podcast Channels – a series dedicated to Orthodox Parenting. Rev. Dr. Christopher T. Metropulos, the Executive Director of the SCOBA Agency said, “We are truly excited to offer this new channel dedicated to assist parents raising children in the Orthodox Christian way. OCN welcomes with pride Ginny Nieuwsma, a dedicated mother of six along with the professionals who will be asked to appear on the program”.
The podcast is titled “Mission Possible: Orthodox Parenting Today” and will be available on OCN’s newly enhanced and upgraded web site www.myocn.net.
Audio Available of Department of Internet Ministry Presentation at Archdiocese Convention
Click here to listen to Dept. Chair Mr. Douglas Cramer's presentation at the general assembly of the 2009 Archdiocese Convention.
More audio from the 2009 Convention is available from Ancient Faith Radio.
Antiochian.org Launches Youth and Family Section
The Antiochian Archdiocese is home to a range of ministries laboring for the sake of our youth and our families. Although all of these programs together encompass a broad range of activity and age groups, all share the same goal: to encourage full participation in the life of the Church through worship, witness, service, and fellowship. All of these ministries are looking for ways to build up our youth and help Orthodox parents navigate the challenging parenting climate of today.
Dept. of Sacred Music and Antiochian.org Launch Improved Library of Liturgical Music
The Dept. of Sacred Music has long maintained one of the most popular sections of this website, a library of hundreds of pieces of official liturgical sheet music for use by our parishes. Now this library has been improved with a new interface for users, and many other changes to the software supporting the catalog. The new design will make it possible in the future for the department to work in collaboration with Antiochian.org to add audio tracks to accompany the sheet music, and more.
Currently, the library is highlighting the music for the upcoming Archdiocese Convention.
Click here to visit the Sacred Music Library.
Click here to visit the Department of Sacred Music, chaired by Christopher Holwey.