Centre Place

What are prophets and apostles, and how can we know whether they are truly speaking in the Spirit? What rituals count as “sacraments,” and how should they be performed?

After considering the letters of Paul and Acts, this Sunday we begin a journey exploring the most important early Christian texts that are not part of our canon. We turn first to the Didache, the earliest attempt to explain how baptism, prayer, and the Eucharist should be performed and why, and to define the roles of bishops, deacons, teachers, prophets, and apostles.

As we look back at the way some Christians understood their callings in the first century, we will consider how we are being called to live out our own discipleship today.

Can Greek philosophy help us understand the Bible? How much did Christian theology borrow from Plato and other philosophers, and did that distort the original message of Jesus?

Justin Martyr was a spiritual seeker born to a Greek family in Samaria at the end of the first century AD. He studied the Stoics, Aristotelians, Pythagoreans, and Platonists before converting to Christianity. Although he nominally rejected his philosophical training while embracing his new faith, he used the lenses and tools of philosophy to understand Christianity and explain it to his contemporaries.

John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will review the life and works of Justin Martyr, and consider their influence on later Christian theology and Christian attitudes toward the inheritance of Greek philosophy.

📅 Tuesday, July 7, 2026
⏰ 7:00 PM EDT