Fr. Theophan Whitfield
Is your parish committed to ministry to the poor and suffering?
That question is at the heart of Priest Theophan Whitfield’s Servant Parish Project, a research study Fr. Theophan has been completing as part of his Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) work at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. On October 26, 2019, Father Theophan spoke to Ancient Faith Radio about the project.
“So often, it’s easiest to allow your parish ministry to those on the outside to slip and slide a little bit—not because it’s devalued, but it’s just the easiest thing to sort of neglect,” he explained on the podcast The Second Liturgy. “And so, from a practical point of view, I’ve always wondered about how we can approach ministry to the poor and suffering that sort of elevates its urgency in a way that makes sense with our tradition and with our wider mandate to preach to the nations.”
“The Doctor of Ministry program at St. Vladimir’s allowed me to just explore a lot of options: Biblical resources, theological resources, to do some field work, and to begin to bring into focus with greater clarity something we can begin to do with parishes to meet that need.”
Research results and analyses from The Servant Parish Project are published on Fr. Theophan’s project page, at ServantParish.org.
Father Theophan is also an alumnus of St. Vladimir’s Seminary, having graduated with a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree in 2010, and he currently serves as priest at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Salem, MA.
