At the beginning of the 2014 ecclesiastical year, Professor of Philosophy Dr. Bruce Foltz, an Orthodox Christian and faculty member at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL, will offer a free and public lecture at St. Vladimir's Seminary on "The Truth of Nature." The talk will contrast today's post–modern assumptions regarding the environment with the patristic and historic Christian understanding of what it means to care for God's creation. The lecture, to be held in the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium in the John G. Rangos Family Foundation Building on the Yonkers campus, will be followed by a question and answer session and a reception in the Rangos Building's atrium.  

His All-Holiness Bartholomew, archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, who received the degree of Doctor of Divinity honoris causa from St. Vladimir’s in 1997, has designated September 1st as a day dedicated to the protection of the environment. As such, the student–led St. Herman's Society for Orthodox Ecology is sponsoring the event, which will also include a tree-planting ceremony at 6 P.M. and the "Akathist in Praise of God's Creation" offered by campus clergy in Three Hierarchs Chapel.

The St. Herman's Society was founded in 2010 to address issues of ecological stewardship. In the 2012–2013 academic year, it organized a cleanup of Crestwood Lake and partnered with the local organization "RiverKeeper" to set up a display about Hudson River environmental concerns.

LINKS

• Download the flyer for "The Truth of Nature"
• "A Hudson River Journey" Exhibit at St. Vladimir's
• Ecology Group Sponsors Crestwood Lake Clean–Up
• Download a PDF flyer of all Fall 2013 events at SVOTS