Join us for part three in a three part series with Fr. Christopher Knight on Science and the Christian Faith, hosted by Fr. Chris Metropulos. In part three (Thursday, April 28) we’ll discuss, “Evolution and God’s action in the world“
You can purchase Fr. Knight’s book, Science and the Christian Faith: A Guide for the Perplexed from Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
Part 1: History and context of the current debate. This episode also features an OCMC Missionary highlight with the Jones Family (bio below).
Episode 1 OCMC Highlight:
Michael and Meghan Jones were both received into the Orthodox Church as children during the 1980’s together with their families, though on opposite sides of the country. They both were raised by loving, Orthodox parents who made many sacrifices to build Christian communities in which to raise their children, which has shaped and prepared Michael and Meghan for foreign mission service.
They have four children: Catherine (8), Anastasia (7), Cecelia (5), and Elliot (2). Michael worked as an administrator with the State of Alaska for several years before leaving public service to start a small construction business. Meghan is a professional teacher.
The Jones family was drawn into missionary service quite unexpectedly, when they learned about the apostolic ministry of the Holy Metropolis of New Zealand in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa and felt a strong calling to participate. The Joneses will be serving as needed throughout the metropolis: coordinating building projects, teaching the liturgical arts, conducting catechism, building community, and supporting the indigenous people of the South Pacific islands who have embraced Holy Orthodoxy.
Part 2: What is science and how should theology interact with it?
Episode 3: Evolution and God’s action in the world
Episode 3 OCMC Highlight:
Steve Sarigianis grew up in Connecticut and attended the St. Barbara parish in Orange. In 2010 he graduated from the University of Connecticut with a BA in Psychology, and after a year of reflection & attention to the heart, he was compelled to study theology at Holy Cross, entering in the fall of 2011. Steve served on six short term mission teams and was president of the Missions Committee for three years while at the “Holy Hill.” After his solo mission trip to Guatemala in 2013, he discerned the Lord was calling him to long term mission service. He graduated Holy Cross in 2015 with an MDiv and soon after began working as a Pastoral Assistant at Archangels Church in Stamford, Connecticut, under Fr. Harry Pappas.
Theophani Sarigianis grew up in New Port Richey, Florida. Her family, and in particular her grandfather Nikitas Damianakis, were centrally involved in planting Saints Raphael, Nicholas, & Irene church in Palm Harbor. The memory of her late pappou, the spirit of these three miraculous Saints, and her family’s guidance helped Theophani make the decision to attend Hellenic College in 2012, and her keen interest in religious freedoms at the Ecumenical Patriarchate lead to her developing an interest in Orthodox mission work. As a student Theophani was involved in the campus Missions Committee and explored a vocation in missions while making several short-term trips. In 2016, she graduated from Hellenic with a BA in Religious Studies. She is active in parish life, primarily with youth ministry, Sunday School, and Seniors ministry.
Steve & Theophani first met in 2012 at Hellenic College Holy Cross. They shared a calling to serve Christ as missionaries and from this developed a close friendship, and in time a loving relationship. After completing their studies, the two served together on an OCMC team to Kenya in 2016 lead by the late Bishop Athanasios Akunda. He would later marry them at Holy Cross chapel in 2017. Now together, they look forward to serving the Lord in Albania under the leadership of Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos.
Shaped by a life of service to Christ’s Church, Fr. Christopher has dedicated
himself to using all the tools God has placed at his disposal to spread the light of
Orthodoxy across the United States of America and around the world. Speaker,
Radio Host, Professor, Founding Father of the Orthodox Christian Network
(OCN), Pastor, Leader of 12 Pilgrimages to the Holy Land and the Ecumenical
Patriarchate, Author, Father, Grandfather and Defender of the Faith.
As founder, host, and executive director of the Orthodox Christian Network he
shepherds a dynamic and rapidly expanding ministry bringing joy, hope, and
salvation in Jesus Christ to close to 1 million people a month in more than 190
countries. A nationally known radio personality, Fr. Christopher co-hosted the
groundbreaking, internationally televised Epiphany Celebration of Tarpon
Springs, Florida in January 2006, presided over by Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew and seen on the Hallmark Channel. He was also featured in a
2012 television broadcast on TLC entitled “4 Weddings.” In May 2014, he
offered live English commentary from Rome via Radio Vaticana and EWTN for
the worldwide televised broadcast of the historic meeting of Pope Francis and
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Jerusalem. In November 2014, he
returned to Rome to provide the English commentary on a second Radio
Vaticana/EWTN worldwide televised broadcast, this time on the occasion of
Pope Francis’ visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul in celebration of
the Feast Day of St Andrew. He worked alongside a team of professionals from
the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America on these broadcasts. Currently
serves as Vice President, International Association of Digital Media Orthodox
Pastoral Care.
Fr. Christopher holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Hellenic College of
Brookline, Massachusetts, a Master of Divinity Studies Degree from
Brookline’s Holy Cross School of Theology, and a Doctor of Ministry Degree
from the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. His dedication to the family unit
drove Fr. Christopher to be certified as a Family Mediator by the Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court of the State of Florida. Fr. Christopher has also studied
extensively at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. He has served
the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese for more than 40 years. He has held many
different assignments as: Representative to the United Nations and United
States Missions; Assistant Priest St. Demetrios Cathedral, Astoria, NY; Dean of
the Assumption Cathedral in Denver, CO; Pastor of the Archangel Michael
Church, Roslyn, NY; Pastor of the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Ft
Lauderdale Florida, President of Hellenic College Holy Cross School of
Theology, Dean of Admissions and Registrar of the Hellenic College and Holy
Cross School of Theology; member of the Archdiocesan Council; President of
the Archdiocesan Presbyter’s Council for two consecutive terms; and council
member of the Metropolis of Denver and the Metropolis of Atlanta. He also
served as Vicar of the South Florida Conference from 1998-2011. In the
summer of 2008, he was elevated by His Eminence Metropolitan Alexios to the
rank of Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the blessings of the
Holy and Sacred Synod, the highest honor bestowed on a married clergyman.
Fr. Christopher and his late wife, Presbytera Georgia Mitsos, have six children
and four grandchildren.
With the blessings of His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros and Metropolitan
Gerasimos of San Francisco he was appointed as Interim Pastor of St. Nicholas
Greek Orthodox Church in San Jose, Ca in October 2021.
Fr. Christopher Knight is a Senior Research Associate of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge, England. He lives in Walsingham (a place of Christian pilgrimage since the eleventh century) where he is the parish priest of the Parish of the Holy Transfiguration. Until his retirement from secular employment, he worked as the Executive Secretary of the International Society for Science and Religion, which meant that he was in regular contact with most of the leading figures in what is sometimes called the science-theology dialogue. His initial interest in this dialogue arose, however, not from that experience but from the way in which his early education had culminated in a Ph.D. in astrophysics. (His degree in theology came later.) His most recent book - “Science and the Christian Faith: A Guide for the Perplexed” (SVS Press, 2020) - argues that there are specific Orthodox insights that provide new ways of seeing how theology and scientific theory may be seen as in harmony with each other.
Shaped by a life of service to Christ’s Church, Fr. Christopher has dedicated
himself to using all the tools God has placed at his disposal to spread the light of
Orthodoxy across the United States of America and around the world. Speaker,
Radio Host, Professor, Founding Father of the Orthodox Christian Network
(OCN), Pastor, Leader of 12 Pilgrimages to the Holy Land and the Ecumenical
Patriarchate, Author, Father, Grandfather and Defender of the Faith.
As founder, host, and executive director of the Orthodox Christian Network he
shepherds a dynamic and rapidly expanding ministry bringing joy, hope, and
salvation in Jesus Christ to close to 1 million people a month in more than 190
countries. A nationally known radio personality, Fr. Christopher co-hosted the
groundbreaking, internationally televised Epiphany Celebration of Tarpon
Springs, Florida in January 2006, presided over by Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew and seen on the Hallmark Channel. He was also featured in a
2012 television broadcast on TLC entitled “4 Weddings.” In May 2014, he
offered live English commentary from Rome via Radio Vaticana and EWTN for
the worldwide televised broadcast of the historic meeting of Pope Francis and
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Jerusalem. In November 2014, he
returned to Rome to provide the English commentary on a second Radio
Vaticana/EWTN worldwide televised broadcast, this time on the occasion of
Pope Francis’ visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul in celebration of
the Feast Day of St Andrew. He worked alongside a team of professionals from
the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America on these broadcasts. Currently
serves as Vice President, International Association of Digital Media Orthodox
Pastoral Care.
Fr. Christopher holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Hellenic College of
Brookline, Massachusetts, a Master of Divinity Studies Degree from
Brookline’s Holy Cross School of Theology, and a Doctor of Ministry Degree
from the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. His dedication to the family unit
drove Fr. Christopher to be certified as a Family Mediator by the Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court of the State of Florida. Fr. Christopher has also studied
extensively at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. He has served
the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese for more than 40 years. He has held many
different assignments as: Representative to the United Nations and United
States Missions; Assistant Priest St. Demetrios Cathedral, Astoria, NY; Dean of
the Assumption Cathedral in Denver, CO; Pastor of the Archangel Michael
Church, Roslyn, NY; Pastor of the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Ft
Lauderdale Florida, President of Hellenic College Holy Cross School of
Theology, Dean of Admissions and Registrar of the Hellenic College and Holy
Cross School of Theology; member of the Archdiocesan Council; President of
the Archdiocesan Presbyter’s Council for two consecutive terms; and council
member of the Metropolis of Denver and the Metropolis of Atlanta. He also
served as Vicar of the South Florida Conference from 1998-2011. In the
summer of 2008, he was elevated by His Eminence Metropolitan Alexios to the
rank of Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the blessings of the
Holy and Sacred Synod, the highest honor bestowed on a married clergyman.
Fr. Christopher and his late wife, Presbytera Georgia Mitsos, have six children
and four grandchildren.
With the blessings of His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros and Metropolitan
Gerasimos of San Francisco he was appointed as Interim Pastor of St. Nicholas
Greek Orthodox Church in San Jose, Ca in October 2021.
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