Successful First Preaching Program Workshop
On November 1, St. Nersess Seminary launched its Preaching Program with an inaugural pilot workshop at the seminary in Armonk, NY. The workshop is the first in a series funded by the Lilly Endowment’s Compelling Preaching Grant awarded to the seminary late last fall. Arpi Nakashian, the grant’s Chief Program Officer, is responsible for directing the grant.
The first six clergy to participate attended the all-day session led by workshop leader Fr. James Hamrick, pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish, Lewistown, MD, a well-known leader in homiletics and preaching in the Orthodox Church. Two mentors representing both the Western and Eastern Dioceses – Fr. Vazken Movsesian and Fr. Davit Karamian – were also in attendance to work with the participants.
Fr. James led three lectures on iconic preaching, including: The Sacramentality of Preaching and Preaching with the Mind of the Church; The Context and Art of Iconological Preaching; and The Spiritual End and Response of Preaching, and Practical Considerations. Each of the lectures drew material from his book, Orthodox Preaching as the Oral Icon of Christ. “The instructor, who is an Orthodox Priest, is very familiar with our traditions” said Fr. Armash Bagdasarian, one of the participants. “His lecture about the sermon was both simple yet impactful. I gained confidence in my personal methods and will be using them when I give my own sermons.”
To model the preaching of Christ and many Church Fathers, Fr. James challenged the six participants (three priests and three deacons) to exercise the art of inductive preaching—creating oral icons of Christ from Scripture by means of imaginative and creative language, literary devices, word pictures, and stories as a departure from deductive preaching common today.
Prior to the workshop, each participant prepared a sermon to have ready. In the afternoon, participants met with Fr. James and the two priest mentors who reviewed and evaluated the sermons with the participants before they preached in the chapel.
“The outcome of this pilot workshop exceeded our expectations” said Arpi. “It was spiritually fulfilling to hear six of our clergy give their refined sermons on the same topic one after another: a practice rooted in the tradition of early Church in Jerusalem.”
To close out the day, Fr. Mardiros Chevian, dean, and Arpi Nakashian, expressed their great appreciation for all involved in helping to make the pilot workshop a great success. All were invited to a reception where the seminary gifted Fr. James with a beautifully carved Armenian cross. Clergy who attended the inaugural workshop were Fr. Mesrob Hovsepian, Fr. Armash Bagdasarian, Fr. Haroutiun Sabounjian, Dn. Yervant Kutchukian, Dn. Serop Krajekian, and Dn. Arman Shirikyan.