Contributed by Fr. Christopher Metropulos  

Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The Orthodox Christian Network (OCN) is pleased to
announce a number of new programs to be launched during Great Lent for
our listeners in the United States and around the world. OCN has now
established a partnership with Amazon.com and The Orthodox Marketplace
of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. Listeners will find a portal to each
of these locations on OCN's website at myocn.net where they can have
direct access to the many titles authored by the guests who are featured
on OCN programs. In addition, a number of special offerings will be
featured during Great Lent to support the faithful in their spiritual
jouney to Pascha.

OCN will also be launching two new podcasts: Harmony of Thunder by the
Rev. David Smith and Beyond the Veil by Dr. Eugenia Constantinou.

Harmony of Thunder will explore the exciting history of great and
powerful preaching in the Orthodox faith! Saints from long ago and
preachers from today have challenged and inspired us to higher and
higher levels of spiritual growth. Each week Fr. David Smith will guide
listeners as he examines one of these great sermons and shares the great
blessing God has granted us through them. The title Harmony of Thunder
comes from a sermon of St. John Chrysostom in which he points out that
even though the voices of all the great preachers sound like thunder,
they all contain a unified message, and so possess a harmony that
natural thunder does not.

Fr. David Smith was born to a United Methodist family in upstate New
York and after sensing a call to the ministry he attended Asbury
Theological Seminary. While receiving his seminary degree, Fr. David
discovered the Orthodox Church, and he and his family became Orthodox in
1988. Fr. David has served churches in London, Ontario, and Utica, New
York as a priest of the Antiochian Archdiocese, and has recently
transferred to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Fr. David is
the author of two books, Mary Worthy of All Praise (Conciliar Press,
2003), and Christianity and Pleasure (Regina Orthodox Press, 2008). Fr.
David received a Doctor of Ministry degree from Pittsburgh Theological
Seminary in 2000. Fr. David is attached to St. Sophia's Greek Orthodox
Church in Syracuse, New York, and works full time as a nursing home
administrator in Athens, Pennsylvania. He and Presbytera Donna have been
married 25 years and have four children.

The second new podcast is Beyond the Veil which will explore the
Apocalypse in the Orthodox Tradition. The Book of Revelation gives rise
to many questions. Such as, who wrote the book of Revelation, when, and
why? What are we to make of its strange symbols, such as 666 or the mark
of the beast? Why don't we read from Revelation in the services of the
Orthodox Church? Are we living in the end times? Why don't Orthodox
Christians set dates for the end of the world but others do? Will Christ
return to rule over the earth for 1,000 years? What about "the rapture?"
If Revelation is prophecy, does it have any message for us today?
Presbytera Jeannie discusses the Revelation of St. John and its most
famous passages in the tradition of the Orthodox Church.

Dr. Eugenia Constantinou holds a Bachelor's Degree in Religious Studies
(1980) and a Master of Arts degree in Practical Theology from the
University of San Diego (1992). She received a Master of Theology degree
(Th.M.) from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in 1996 where
she specialized in Orthodox Theology and Patristics. She also received a
Master of Theology (Th.M.) from Harvard Divinity School in 1998 where
she specialized in the New Testament. She had also previously earned a
Juris Doctorate degree from Pepperdine University School of Law in 1985
and has been a member of the California Bar since that same year. Pres.
Jeannie received her Ph.D. at Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada, in
2008, writing her doctoral dissertation and the translation from the
original Greek on "Andrew of Caesarea and the Apocalypse in the Ancient
Church of the East." Andrew of Caesarea wrote the most important
patristic commentary on the Apocalypse for the Orthodox Church. The
commentary will be published by Catholic University of America Press in
their series, /The Fathers of the Church/. Dr. Constantinou has been
teaching Biblical Studies and Early Christianity at the University of
San Diego since 2002. Previously she taught New Testament at Hellenic
College/Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology from 1998-1999. She
also taught a course on the Patristic Exegesis of Scripture at the
Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute in Berkeley, California, the
Gospel of John at the University of California at San Diego, and World
Religions at Cuyamaca College in El Cajon, California. She is married to
Fr. Costa, and is simply "Mom" to Christopher, who is 17 years old.

The /Orthodox Christian Network/ is one of the official agencies of
SCOBA, commissioned by our hierarchs to create a national, sustainable
and effective media witness for Orthodox Christianity throughout North
America. OCN produces the only nationally syndicated Orthodox Christian
radio broadcast, as well as several other outreach programs, including
DVDs and Internet-based media, in direct collaboration with our sister
SCOBA agencies (e.g. IOCC, OCMC, & OCF), as well as with various
Orthodox Christian jurisdictions and pan-Orthodox, para-church
organizations. Our goal is to engage the broader culture of North
America with Orthodox Christianity's rich theological, spiritual and
moral heritage, and to thereby strengthen the Orthodox Church's witness
and contribution to the culture in which we live.