After quite a few weeks in which I have
been struggling to come up with topics, and after tackling some more
controversial issues, I have decided to tackle something a little bit tamer and
discuss one of my heroes. Now I could be flowery with my wording and describe
him as the epitome of everything that led me to the Orthodox Church. However,
as I have stated before, there are several key players that through their work
led me to Orthodoxy. However, if I were
to pick a priest that has had the longest influence on my life, outside of my
own, it would be Father Josiah Trenham. For me Father Josiah has also left a
lasting impression on my protestant family, as he is one of my mother’s favorite
teachers of the scriptures.
Father Josiah Trenham, the founder
of Patristic Nectar Publications and parish priest at St. Andrew’s Orthodox
Church in Riverside, California, has been an ordained member of the clergy
since 1993 (geez almost as old as I am) and has been at St. Andrew’s since 1998.
He has ten children. Maybe its through all the years of studying Father Josiah
has done, maybe it is the ten children he has raised, but something about his
demeanor has resonated with me. Ever since discovering The Arena Podcast, I almost
exclusively listen to it alone. Then there is his YouTube channel. Patristic
Nectar takes daily, or nearly daily reflections and allows Father Josiah to
reach a multitude of people with the teachings of the Church Fathers. Father
Josiah has interviewed numerous people of various traditions, and has been
interviewed himself, for the likes of Fox News. Father Josiah is a staunch supporter
and believer in the teachings of the Church Fathers and the elders of the
church. He believes in maintaining and keeping true to the Orthodox witness and
not deviating from the path that God has outlined through His Church. While the
world around us is seeing the destruction of many of the tenants of the faith,
Father Josiah has been calling all Orthodox Christians and true believers to
remain strong in their faith and to not be dismayed with the goings on of the
outside world.
But what does this have to do with
the faith? What does this have to do with me? I tend to focus more on their
work that they have accomplished than discuss the impact that the person has
had on my life. While Father Josiah has
had an impact on my journey in Orthodoxy for many years, it was more recently
that he had a bigger impact. And yes, though the story I am going to relay in
just a few moments is more recent than that of the others, I cannot tell you how
many times before I became Orthodox, or even after I became Orthodox, that I would
read about Father Josiah. I still need to pick up a copy of Rock and Sand, but hopefully
that will be corrected soon. Now back to
my story of how Father Josiah had a more recent impact on my life. As I stated before, I love listening to The Arena,
and have been listening for quite some time. Up until April of this past year I
was a teacher and had to commute for work. Luckily, my mother was right across
the street, and worked at the elementary school while I worked at the high
school. Seeing this as an opportunity to share my love of Father Josiah with my
mother, I asked one morning if we might listen to the podcast. She agreed. Now I
knew that my mother is and probably always will be a Southern Baptist. Even though
I left that faith tradition and entered the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic
Church of Jesus Christ, I am thankful for the love of God and the desire to
seek out the apostolic faith that my mother instilled in me. Though I knew she
might disagree with some of the details of Father Josiah’s sermons, I was willing
to give it a chance and see where it would take us. To my surprise, after a
while Mom would request some mornings when she was feeling good that we listen
to Father Josiah. She found him to be a true man of God, as I had discovered myself
years earlier. We bonded over our love of the scriptures and our love of the teachings
of Father Josiah. Yes, I have a great
relationship with my mother, always have. This bonding that I am discussing is
a simple fact that we were able to find common ground in our faith despite the
obvious points of disagreement between the southern Baptists and the Orthodox
Church.
Whether it’s his constant use of
the term “Dear Ones” to refer to his congregation, or whether it’s the quotes
of various amounts of writings by the church fathers, Father Josiah Trenham packs
full his homily with information and lessons that we can take into our own
lives and use on a daily basis. Most recently I was listening to his homily on
Cheerful Mercy and how the Book of Acts is still being written today. Most people
believe that the time of the apostles has ended, but rather he showed through
the scriptures and his teachings that the Book of Acts is still being written
today through the Orthodox Church and the sending of missionaries both
domestically and internationally. Then there is his homily entitled Be Careful.
In his teachings on the gospel for this passage, Father Josiah teaches that
carefulness is a sign of maturity. Maintaining the commandments of Jesus and
being careful in our practices and our lives is a sign that we are becoming
more mature Christians.
Father Josiah also has grown and
developed the parish of St. Andrew’s in Riverside, California. I have always believed
that the one thing the Orthodox Church has been lacking here in America is an education
system. While it is fine to send our kids to public school, and to a private
school whether evangelical or catholic, these places will not instill in our
children the love of the faith and may often times cause more damage to the
salvation of the child than good. Therefore, he has established an Orthodox
academy to help raise children within the Orthodox faith and tradition. Then
there is the Rubidoux Cross. Where Father Josiah according to my research,
wanted to chain himself to the Rubidoux Cross on Mt. Rubidoux in Riverside,
after a lawsuit was filed against city by an atheist organization. What a show
of faith man! The cross being so important to us as Christians and Father
Josiah wanting to defend it, even at the chance of losing his own life, is inspiring.
I pray that if something like that comes to my home, that I would be willing to
do the same. Then there is the lawsuit that he recently won against Orthodoxy in
Dialogue. The heretic website slandered and totally defamed Father Josiah. But
through the grace of God, the heretics words were found to be untrue and scandalous,
and Father Josiah won the case. Father Josiah, as a defender of the faith, has
been repeatedly attacked, but also has willingly gone into battle for the
Orthodox Christian faith. In doing so, he has entered the Arena. That same arena
that many martyrs have entered into in the early years of Christianity. He does
not just lead by words, but also by example. He is my hero in the faith. He is someone that I wish I could emulate. I’m
sure he would tell me that I’ve picked the wrong person. I doubt it. There is
very few people that I can say I look up to more than Father Josiah Trenham. If
I could be half the Christian that Father Josiah is, then I believe there is a
chance for me yet. May God have mercy on us all, and may the Theotokos intercede
for us.
Amen.
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