The Story of My Involvement with THE WAY – An Introduction to Orthodox Christianity

In May 2009, Bradley Nassif, Professor of Theology at North Park University in Chicago visited Romania for the launch of the Romanian translation of the book Three Views on Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism (J. Stamoolis, (gen. ed.), Grand Rapids, Mi.: Zondervan, 2006), which took place at the University of Cluj. During that visit, Dr. Nassif told me about an Orthodox project that might benefit from any potential support I could provide through the budget I was managing as part of my World Vision responsibilities for the Middle East & Eastern Europe Region, as Director for Faith in Development. The project, formally initiated in June 2004 at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (IOCS) in Cambridge, under the leadership of Professor David Frost, later Principal of the college, was called THE WAY (it took its name from the earliest term by which followers of Christ referred to themselves), and aimed ‘to teach basic Orthodox Christianity as a journey of life, centred on Christ, in terms that communicate to a secular and largely pagan world’.

The Way – An Orthodox Adult Catechism

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.