POKROV Russian Orthodox Church Melbourne
These podcasts are a collection of sermons, talks, theology discussions and lectures that take place at the church or with the parishioners and are based on Orthodox Christianity. They are thoughtful and meant to be provocative in thinking about God and the Church. Most services are now livestreamed and can be seen on YouTube.
POKROV Russian Orthodox Church Melbourne
Session 13 – The Holy Spirit (Reader Zachary Armstrong)
The Holy Spirit can easily be overlooked in discussions about God. The role of God the Son – Christ – is so central that it cannot be missed, and His discussions about His relationship with His Heavenly Father throughout the Gospels means that we do not overlook the Father.
However, while the presence of the Holy Spirit as described explicitly in the Bible is smaller, we can see the work of the Spirit more clearly both by exegeting certain texts deeper, as well as by examining the theology of the Spirit – or Pneumatology – that was laid out by the Church Fathers in councils and dogmatic treatises. In this session, we will investigate how the Spirit interacts with believers in the Church and the world as a whole, especially focusing on His role as “Paraklete” or Comforter. We will also look at the ways in which the Spirit relates to the Trinity, especially in seeking to combat ideas that subordinate the Holy Spirit to either of the other Persons of the Trinity. To end this discussion, we will look at why the Orthodox Church refused to accept the insertion of the fililoque in the Creed.