Ancient Faith Ministries

Ancient Faith Ministries (AFM) is a pan-Orthodox media ministry and department of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. ^[1] Alongside its sales division (Ancient Faith Store), it includes four media outlets: Ancient Faith Radio (AFR), Ancient Faith Publishing (AFP), Ancient Faith Blogs, and Ancient Faith Films. It is headed by CEO John Maddex.

Overview

Ancient Faith Ministries is the product of a 2008 merger of two previously independently existing ministries, Ancient Faith Radio and Conciliar Press, with other ministry divisions being added later.

Conciliar Press formed in 1977 as the publishing arm of the New Covenant Apostolic Order, a group of thousands of Evangelical Christians who were in the process of adopting a historic, liturgical approach to Christianity and eventually renamed themselves the Evangelical Orthodox Church (EOC). With the reception of the EOC into the Antiochian Archdiocese in 1987, Conciliar Press became part of the archdiocese.^[2]

Ancient Faith Radio began in 2004 in the home of John Maddex, a former division manager of Moody Institute's 35 radio stations, who was attending All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago. Its initial form was Internet streaming of Orthodox liturgical music, with podcasts being added in 2005 with recordings of homilies from Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon, pastor of All Saints Church.

In 2008, Conciliar Press merged with Ancient Faith Radio to form Conciliar Media Ministries, becoming fully a department of the Antiochian Archdiocese. With the better brand recognition of the Ancient Faith brand, in 2013, the merged ministry was renamed Ancient Faith Ministries and the press division renamed Ancient Faith Publishing.^[2]

Ancient Faith Blogs was added in 2014, featuring weblogs from multiple writers, a number of whom are associated with AFR and AFP.^[3] Ancient Faith Films began production in 2015. In 2016, AFM launched Orthodox Christian Ebooks, a site dedicated to the sale of e-books from multiple publishers.^[4]

On several occasions, AFM has received funding from the Virginia H. Farah Foundation, a non-profit foundation that supports development in the Orthodox Church. ^[5]