The Christian Education Department of the Antiochian Orthodox Diocese has made the Book of Exodus the focus of our Sunday School year 2025-26 and the summer’s Bible Bowl. Brainstorming ideas of teaching the Teen SOYO class, my partner advisor, Philip Riske, brought up “The Life of Moses” by St. Gregory of Nyssa as a goodContinue reading “Rethinking Exodus: A Forgotten Pursuit of Virtue?”
Category Archives: Early Church History
Where Did Christianity Come From?
Call No Man Father?
Visitors to my YouTube channel may be put off by the title Father Deacon John Gresham. In the Orthodox Church, I am officially Father Deacon, Reverend Deacon, and since I was ordained in the Arabic speaking Antiochian Archdiocese, Abouna Shamas. I don’t fly off the handle when people only refer to me as “Deacon” sinceContinue reading “Call No Man Father?”
Tertullian: Teaching the Truth of Ancient African Christianity
“Be in the world, but not of the world,” is a familiar phrase among Christians. But, where is it written explicitly in the Bible? What is the book, chapter, and verse? Answer: It isn’t explicitly written in the Bible. This is a maxim that is attributed to one of the earliest and best known teachersContinue reading “Tertullian: Teaching the Truth of Ancient African Christianity”
West Point Orthodox Christian Chapel 