The Arena Reflection | The Path of Jesus and the Path of Satan
Mar 28, 2026
A reflection contrasts two deaths and two visions of life, exploring moral choices and competing worldviews. It highlights Patriarch Ilia II’s leadership and the Georgian Church’s dramatic growth. The talk contrasts population pessimism and cultural pressures with a call to choose a narrow, life-giving spiritual path. A closing exhortation urges commitment and blessing.
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Patriarch Ilia's Revival Of Georgian Orthodoxy
- Fr. Josiah Trenham recounts the simultaneous deaths of Patriarch Ilia II and Paul Ehrlich as providential contrasters of two worldviews.
- He details Patriarch Ilia's leadership rebuilding the Georgian Church from 15 dioceses and ~30 churches to 47 dioceses, 2,000 churches, and 3,000 priests in a nation of 3.8 million.
Patriarch Ilia's Personal Promotion Of Family
- Fr. Josiah shares personal memory meeting Patriarch Ilia II at the 2016 World Conference of Families where he spoke on Iconoclasm.
- He highlights the patriarch's public encouragement of marriage and family, even personally baptizing over 50,000 children to promote childbearing.
US Pressure Shaped Global Moral Policies
- Fr. Josiah argues American foreign policy once pressured nations to adopt progressive sexual policies by linking compliance to financial support.
- He frames that pressure as shameful interference that promoted moral change abroad, notably around same-sex marriage.