About five years ago, in the summer of 2009, together with my friends at Casa cartii Publishers, and Fr. Stelian Tofana, my friend and key partner in the Evangelical-Orthodox dialogue, I was involved in the launch of the Romanian translation of the book Three Views on Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism, published by Zondervan in 2004. Our special guest for the event, hosted by the University in Cluj, was Dr. Bradley Nassif, one of the authors of the book. During this visit to Romania, my friend Brad asked me if I am interested to contribute from my Word Vision budget to finalising a very interesting project called The Way, an adult Orthodox catechism programme using the methodology tested successfully by the Alpha Course. This was a seven years initiative of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (IOCS) in Cambridge, but it came to a halt, because of financial problems.
After a visit in Cambridge, where I met with the drafting committee led by Dr. David Frost, and a courtesy visit with Metr. Kallistos Ware in Oxford, after I have received the approval of the people I report to in World Vision, I have decided to fund the final stage of this project.
In October 2010 I had the pleasure to participate in the official launch of this catechism programme, that took place at St Botolph’s Orthodox Church in London.
Today, the programme is available for purchase on Amazon and, at the initiative of Patriarch Daniel of Romania and with the blessing of Metr Kallistos, the programme, called Calea credintei, was adapted for the Romanian context and is tested at the present time in selected parishes in most Romanian Orthodox bishoprics.
Recently, a gentleman in Canada, Maurice Cyril Chen, asked Dr. Frost from IOCS for the permission to post all The Way sessions on YouTube. The gracious permission being granted, Maurice is placing now all sessions on the web.
In the following days, I will be also posting them here, on my blog.
May they be a blessing for many!
Persona 