I have a song verse from Psalm 44.

Now, just like for us to meditate on the verse.

We heard with our own ears, O God, our fathers have told us the story

of the things you did in their days, years off and days long ago.

Who are the fathers of the church, and why do they matter today?

I chose this verse from Psalm 44, because you have this setting of Israel hearing from their fathers about the great deeds that God had done during the Exodus.

So we heard with our own ears of God, our fathers have told us the story.

And just as there were fathers, these holy patriarchs, the ancestors, who communicated to the children of Israel the great things that God has done,

so too in the Christian tradition we have fathers.

The fathers of the church are witnesses to sacred tradition.

And we're going to talk about what are the now traditional criteria for establishing who counts, so to speak, and who doesn't count as a father, and how with each one of those categories there's controversy.

And then we'll look at especially why would they matter today.

And I'd like for us then to be able to have a discussion after those two.

And we can talk about all sorts of things related to the fathers and why they matter.

Now in terms of thinking about the fathers's, one post-reformation set of criteria

given is four characteristics. And what I've done is I put them into a mnemonic device in terms

of a-ho, a-h-o-e. And that having a hoe, you can dig out the work that you need to do in terms of cultivating

a garden, all right?

So, you know, sometimes something funny can help you remember something.

So a hoe, dig it?

So the four characteristics are a antiquity h holiness of life oh orthodox teaching and e

ecclesiastical approval okay so with each one of these four we're going to give a standard account

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