Father Nik's Sermons & Such

What Does the Episcopal Church Teach?—Christian Doctrine in the Anglican TraditionDiscussion 1: Doctrine, Dogma, & AdiaphoraIn this first discussion, we clarify our terms—namely, doctrine, dogma, and adiaphora. This is the first of three preliminary discussions before we turn our attention to the actual Doctrines of the Episcopal Church. 

Being Christian in a Secular Age: A PilgrimageSession 5—A New Kind of Secular: Glimpses of TranscendenceOver the span of five episodes, I'm joined by the Rev'd Justin McIntosh, Rector of St Paul's Episcopal Church in Ivy, Virginia to discuss Being a Christian in a Secular Age. In this fifth discussion, we put the theological movement known as Radical Orthodoxy in conversation with the understanding of our Secular Age that we have gotten from Charles Taylor, James K. A. Smith, David Bentley Hart, and Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm. We appeal especially to the work of John Milbank and Catherine Pickstock to re-orient ourselves to this Sacramental Cosmos that just is the Creation of the God revealed in Jesus Christ. This reawakening to glimpses of transcendence is more available to us now than it was to our immediate predecessors because the Secular is not actually the sphere of disenchanted, mechanistic atheism we've been told but a bustling marketplace of metaphysical ideas and spiritualities, where Truth and Beauty are constantly breaking in like shafts of light through stained glass windows.

Being Christian in a Secular Age: A PilgrimageSession 4—Dispelling DisenchantmentWhat is Disenchantment? And in our Secular Age, are we, in fact, Disenchanted, or are we simply enchanted by the story of Disenchantment? Over the span of five videos, I'm joined by the Rev'd Justin McIntosh, Rector of St Paul's Episcopal Church in Ivy, Virginia to discuss Being a Christian in a Secular Age. In this fourth episdoe, we explore the Myth of Disenchantment, to echo the title of Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm's book on the subject. We place Josephson-Storm's research and ideas in conversation with Charles Taylor's work in A Secular Age and William T. Cavanaugh's thesis in The Myth of Religious Violence.

Being Christian in a Secular Age: A PilgrimageSession 3: Out-narrating the Secular StoriesOver the span of four discussions, I'm joined by the Rev'd Justin McIntosh, Rector of St Paul's Episcopal Church in Ivy, Virginia to discuss Being a Christian in a Secular Age. In this third episode, we turn a critical eye toward the Master Narratives that underwrite the Social Imaginary of our modern, Secular Age and offer a different, more complex and nuanced story of our history. In this alternative (and more accurate) story, the Church and Christian faith are not a relic blocking the way of progress but, more often than not, an impetus for and an engine of human flourishing throughout the ages. For it is this same Christian faith that has inspired the greatest philosophers, artists, theologians, musicians, scholars, and scientists of history.

Being Christian in a Secular Age: A PilgrimageDiscussion 2—Stories of the SecularOver the span of four episodes, I'm joined by the Rev'd Justin McIntosh, Rector of St Paul's Episcopal Church in Ivy, Virginia to discuss Being a Christian in a Secular Age. In this second episodes, we trace the Master Narratives that underwrite the Social Imaginary of our modern, Secular Age and its correlative Exclusive Humanism. Here we draw on Charles Taylor's magisterial work, A Secular Age, as well as James K. A. Smith's How (Not) to Be Secular. Other sources for our discussion that remain yet unmentioned but are no less important are David Bentley Hart's Atheist Delusions, William Cavanaugh's The Myth of Religious Violence, and Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm's The Myth of Disenchantment. 

Being Christian in a Secular Age: A PilgrimageDiscussion 1—Mapping the SecularOver the span of four episodes, I'm joined by the Rev'd Justin McIntosh, Rector of St Paul's Episcopal Church in Ivy, Virginia to discuss Being a Christian in a Secular Age. In this first episodes, we reflect on Charles Taylor's A Secular Age and James K A Smith's How (Not) to Be Secular to describe the uses of the word "secular" and map out our present "Secular Age." 

Join Father Nik from the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in Doswell, VA and Father Charles from St Michael and All Angels' Episcopal Church in Columbia, SC for our 2021 Lenten Study: "Is Death the End?—The Resurrection of the Dead & the Life of the World to Come." Discussion 5: Baptismal Participation in the Resurrection

Join Father Nik from the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in Doswell, VA and Father Charles from St Michael and All Angels' Episcopal Church in Columbia, SC for our 2021 Lenten Study: "Is Death the End?—The Resurrection of the Dead & the Life of the World to Come." Discussion 4: The Life of the World to Come

Join Father Nik from the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in Doswell, VA and Father Charles from St Michael and All Angels' Episcopal Church in Columbia, SC for our 2021 Lenten Study: "Is Death the End?—The Resurrection of the Dead & the Life of the World to Come." Discussion 3: The Four Last Things

Join Father Nik from the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in Doswell, VA and Father Charles from St Michael and All Angels' Episcopal Church in Columbia, SC for our 2021 Lenten Study: "Is Death the End?—The Resurrection of the Dead & the Life of the World to Come." Discussion 2: Jesus' Resurrection & the General Resurrection, or: Take It From the Guy Who Actually Came Back

Join Father Nik from the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in Doswell, VA and Father Charles from St Michael and All Angels' Episcopal Church in Columbia, SC for our 2021 Lenten Study: "Is Death the End?—The Resurrection of the Dead & the Life of the World to Come." Discussion 1: Popular Opinions and Other Bad Ideas

An Invitation to join Father Nik from the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in Doswell, VA and Father Charles from St Michael and All Angels' Episcopal Church in Columbia, SC for our 2021 Lenten Study: "Is Death the End?—The Resurrection of the Dead & the Life of the World to Come."

How Did We Get the New Testament?—Part 15: "Hearing the Living Voice of the Word of God" with Father Nik Forti & The Rev'd Dr Ross Wright for The Fork Church of St Martin's Parish Adult Christian Education

How Did We Get the New Testament?—Part 14: "The Formation of the Canon" with Father Nik Forti & The Rev'd Dr Ross Wright for The Fork Church of St Martin's Parish Adult Christian Education

How Did We Get the New Testament? Part 13: "Writings of the Apostolic Fathers: Epistle of Barnabas, Shepherd of Hermas, First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, & the Epistles of Ignatius of Antioch" with Father Nik Forti & The Rev'd Dr Ross Wright for The Fork Church of St Martin's Parish Adult Christian Education

How Did We Get the New Testament? Part 12: "The Book of Hebrews & the Revelation of John" with Father Nik Forti & The Rev'd Dr Ross Wright for The Fork Church of St Martin's Parish Adult Christian Education

How Did We Get the New Testament? Part 11: "The Gospel of Thomas" with Father Nik Forti & The Rev'd Dr Ross Wright for The Fork Church of St Martin's Parish Adult Christian Education

How Did We Get the New Testament? Part 10: "The Gospel according to John & the Johannine Epistles" with Father Nik Forti & The Rev'd Dr Ross Wright for The Fork Church of St Martin's Parish Adult Christian Education

How Did We Get the New Testament? Part 9: "The Gospel according to Luke & the Book of Acts" with Father Nik Forti & The Rev'd Dr Ross Wright for The Fork Church of St Martin's Parish Adult Christian Education

How Did We Get the New Testament? Part 8: "The Gospel according to Matthew" with Father Nik Forti & The Rev'd Dr Ross Wright for The Fork Church of St Martin's Parish Adult Christian Education

How Did We Get the New Testament? Part 7: "The Q Source and the Didache" with Father Nik Forti & The Rev'd Dr Ross Wright for The Fork Church of St Martin's Parish Adult Christian Education

How Did We Get the New Testament? Part 6: "The Gospel According to Mark" with Father Nik Forti & The Rev'd Dr Ross Wright for The Fork Church of St Martin's Parish Adult Christian Education

How Did We Get the New Testament? Part 5: "The Catholic Epistles" with Father Nik Forti & The Rev'd Dr Ross Wright for The Fork Church of St Martin's Parish Adult Christian Education

How Did We Get the New Testament? Part 4: "The Disputed Letters of Paul" with Father Nik Forti & The Rev'd Dr Ross Wright for The Fork Church of St Martin's Parish Adult Christian Education

How Did We Get the New Testament? Part 3: "Paul & the Undisputed Letters" with Father Nik Forti & The Rev'd Dr Ross Wright for The Fork Church of St Martin's Parish Adult Christian Education

How Did We Get the New Testament? Part 2: "Oral Tradition & First Writings" with Father Nik Forti & The Rev'd Dr Ross Wright for The Fork Church of St Martin's Parish Adult Christian Education

How Did We Get the New Testament? Part 1: The New Testament & Its World Father Nik Forti & The Rev'd Dr Ross Wright The Fork Church of St Martin's Parish Adult Christian Education

This sermon was preached on the Second Sunday in Lent — March 8, 2020 — at the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.

This sermon was preached on the First Sunday in Lent — March 1, 2020 — at the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.

This sermon was preached on the Last Sunday of Ordinary Time after Epiphany — February 23, 2020 — at the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien help us get over the hermeneutic of suspicion and take St Peter's reflection on the event of the Transfiguration seriously. Note: A parishioner who is a former Librarian asked me to clarify that the Library of Congress (and all academic libraries) has a section for Literature and that novels aren't placed willy-nilly in the stacks.

This sermon was preached on the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time after Epiphany — February 16, 2020 — at the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.

This sermon was preached on the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time after Epiphany — February 9, 2020 — at the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.

This sermon was preached on the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, commonly called Candlemas — February 2, 2020 — at the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.

This sermon was preached on the Third Sunday after the Epiphany — January 26, 2020 — at the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.

This sermon was preached on the Second Sunday after the Epiphany — January 19, 2020 — at the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia

This sermon was preached on the First Sunday after the Feast fo the Epiphany, The Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord — January 12, 2020 — at the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.

This sermon was preached on the First Sunday of Christmastide — December 29, 2020 — at the Fork Church of St Martin's Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.