Fr Ted Paraskevopoulos (D.Min. ‘24) presented his doctoral research in a webinar titled “‘A Failure to Die’: Countering Death-Denying Culture through Orthodox Catechism,” at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 7, 2024. Director of the Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) program, the Very Rev. Sergius Halvorsen, gave introductory remarks and hosted the Q&A session after Fr Ted’s presentation. Close to 200 registrants from across the United States and Canada signed up to hear Fr Ted speak on how Orthodox Christians are called to understand death from an Orthodox Christian lens rather than a modern, secular perspective.
During his talk, Fr Ted elaborated on his motivation for undertaking this project, saying that the modern tendency to avoid and obscure the awareness of death is contrary to our faith as Orthodox Christians and hinders us from embracing “the temporary nature of earthly existence… [and] the hope of eternal life through Christ.” Furthermore, our contemporary reluctance to engage with our own mortality blocks us from truly encountering Christ and the Cross, “the symbol of Christ’s sacrificial love and redemption for humanity.”
Fr Ted gave a brief overview of his doctoral project, where he surveyed Orthodox Christians who had recently converted and the clergy who catechized them. The survey was designed with two goals: to compare and contrast the catechism experience to the impact it had on people’s lives afterward, and “to ascertain the level of quality of the catechetical approach as well as to identify any deficiencies.”
In his conclusion, Fr Ted spoke eloquently on the ways contemporary catechetical teaching could be augmented in the areas of eschatology, death, and the afterlife. Webinar attendees submitted a range of questions, offering Fr Ted the opportunity to further explore the copious research he conducted for his D.Min. final project.
The D.Min. final project, the webinar presentation slides, and the recording of the webinar presented by Fr Ted Paraskevopoulos are available via the links below.
Read Fr Ted Paraskevopoulos’ Final Project
See Webinar Slides
Watch the Webinar Recording
About the Doctor of Ministry Program
The Doctor of Ministry degree at St Vladimir's Seminary enhances the practice of ministry for ordained and lay ministers in the Orthodox Church. The program integrates enhanced competencies in pastoral analysis with skills necessary to lead students to an advanced understanding of the nature and purposes of ministry. Working in communities of teachers and learners, the students gain deeper knowledge about the practice of serving others in Christian love as they grow in spiritual maturity as ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The D.Min. program at St Vladimir's Seminary provides priests, chaplains, and other pastoral professionals with advanced knowledge and skills in order to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who are suffering. Integrating doctoral-level academic work with pastoral spirituality, this program will help you to acquire and refine the skills to minister to those whom God has called you to serve. Please consider joining us in a doctoral program that will give you an opportunity to foster deep and lasting friendships as we engage in work that contributes to authentic spiritual and pastoral renewal. The next D.Min. cohort will commence in Fall 2024.
The Doctor of Ministry program is made possible in large part thanks to Protodeacon Peter and Tanya Danilchick through their generous support to the Danilchick Family Endowment for Pastoral Studies.
About the Speakers
Fr Ted Paraskevopoulos
Fr Ted Paraskevopoulos, D.Min., has been serving in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada since 2006 where he was ordained a deacon and served the communities of St Nicholas and Prophet Elias. It was at Prophet Elias that Fr Ted was ordained a priest, and then was sent to his first community of St Demetrius in Winnipeg, Manitoba. After serving for six years in Winnipeg, Fr Ted returned to Toronto and assumed the leadership of Sts Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church, where he continued to serve until March 1, 2023, when he assumed his current position of parish priest at the community of Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Holding a bachelor of theology from the Patriarchal Toronto Orthodox Theological Academy, Fr Ted received his Master of Arts in Theology and his Doctor of Ministry from Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. Fr Ted taught Pastoral Theology at the Orthodox School of Theology at Trinity College, University of Toronto from 2015-2018 and has been the Professor of Pastoral Studies at the Patriarchal Toronto Orthodox Theological Academy from 2014-present.
Fr Ted is married to his wife, Joanna, and has three children; twins Katerina and George, and a younger son Angelo.
The Very Rev. Sergius Halvorsen
The Very Rev. Sergius Halvorsen (M.Div. ‘96; Ph.D., Drew University, 2002) is Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Rhetoric at St Vladimir's Seminary and serves as director of the Doctor of Ministry Program. In addition to teaching homiletics and rhetoric, he also teaches courses in Christian education and the sacred art of narrative. Fr Sergius is a priest of the Orthodox Church in America, he is attached to Holy Transfiguration Church in New Haven, CT, and has contributed to a number of "Archangel Voices" recordings. He currently lives in New Haven, CT, and serves part-time as a chaplain at Yale New Haven Hospital. He loves gardening, hiking, biking, and reading biographies and fiction.
