The Voice of Orthodoxy (December 8/21, 1967)

The “Voice of Orthodoxy” was a weekly Greek language radio program that was produced and hosted by Bishop Petros (Astyfides) of Astoria. He was occasionally assisted by Gerontissa Siglitiki who hosted portions of the programs. He would record and edit the programs on a “reel to reel” tape recorder in his office at the Cathedral of St Markella in Astoria. He would then have his deacon, Fr Nikodemos Kalantis, deliver them to the broadcast studios of WEVD in Manhattan. WEVD was a radio station that had programing in the Japanese, Yiddish, Russian, Italian, Spanish, English, and Greek languages. The station had as its tag line, “WEVD - The station that speaks your language.” Bishop Petros’ program was produced between the years 1967 and 1973. Thousands of Greek speakers in the Greater New York Metropolitan area would tune in to hear the program every Thursday evening at 7:30 PM. It is believed that the Voice of Orthodoxy was the first regularly scheduled program focusing strictly on the Greek Orthodox Faith in America. Recently, GOCTV has discovered some dozens of original ¼ inch magnetic “reel to reel” tapes of the “Voice of Orthodoxy”. We are currently in the process of digitizing them, translating them, adding English subtitles, and uploading them to the internet so that a new generation of the Faithful can be edified by them. This first program we have uploaded has as its subject, St Philaret the Merciful, some "Church News", and a discussion of why membership in Freemasonry is forbidden to members of the Church. It was broadcast on Thursday - December 8/21, 1967.

Orthodox Awareness

Bartholomew Prays at Iftar

Iftar, refers to the evening meal when Muslims break their fast during the Islamic month of Ramadan. Iftar is one of the religious observances of Ramadan and is often done as a community, with people gathering to break their fast together. Iftar is done right after sunset.

We report the following unchanged as it was published:

"The leaders of the Armenian, Roman, Jewish and Syrian communities of Turkey sat around the fasting Iftar dinner in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul." Read more...

Missions

Saint John of Kronstadt - Bunnell, Florida

St. John of Kronstadt Orthodox Church began as a mission parish in the year 2000, in a home chapel in Palm Coast, FL – a small town on Florida’s northeast coast located between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach. After two years, it became necessary to have services in area community centers, rented for Sundays and other Holy Days. Read more...

Youth

2023 Youth Conference

Please join us for the 2023 youth conference in Chicago, IL! To learn more, visit the home page or visit the conference website.

Ask A Priest

Fasting

Q. There seems to be a lot of variation in how people observe fasting, but my confessor told me to fast from oil on Wednesday and Friday. Oil is a pretty vague category, though, and I was wondering if I could get a more explicit description of what kinds of food and drink are excluded on strict fast days. Read more...