In this Student Spotlight Interview, we get to know Seminarian Andrew Prather. Andrew and his wife, Amber, are both M.Div. students going into their final year at St Vladimir’s Seminary. They met as first-year classmates in Fall 2020, married the following year, and welcomed their daughter, Elizabeth, in August 2022.
Andrew has distinguished himself on campus through his community service assignment as the student photographer; for the past three years, he has documented campus events and feast days with stunning, carefully composed images. In this conversation, Andrew describes his background, his thoughts on the importance of quality photography in Orthodox parish and community life, and his commitment to pursuing the academic study of theology at St Vladimir’s Seminary.
Please tell us a little bit about yourself, Andrew.
I'm from Pella, Iowa. I attended St Nicholas Orthodox Christian Church of the OCA Diocese of the Midwest in my hometown. At Central College, I double majored in religion and computer science. Then for nine years after college, I worked in a hospital IT department, specializing in PACS medical imaging. I was unhappy with my job and started thinking about what to do next. One day, the thought popped into my head: “I could go to seminary”. And so I looked into that, and here I am.
What is your degree program and year of study, and what has been particularly impactful for you during your time at seminary?
I’m an M.Div. student in my final year here at St Vladimir’s Seminary. Of course, one of the most impactful things about my time at seminary was meeting my wife Amber and having my daughter, but also the professors have been very impactful for me, both inside the classroom and out. They really care for the students. Some of the memorable classes I took were The Psalter by Fr Silviu Bunta, Hebrew by Dr Legaspi, Church History by Dr Tudorie, and Old Testament and Patristics by Fr Bogdan.
What has your community service been during your time at seminary, and what have you learned from this experience?
In my first year, I was on the meal team in the refectory, but throughout that year I started getting more and more requests to photograph services and that became my primary community service assignment at the start of my second year. I had photographed some liturgies and ceremonies before seminary, but I was mostly a landscape photographer. Now, I mostly photograph people, liturgies, ceremonies, and events. So my focus has completely shifted, and I've learned quite a bit about photography here.
Looking forward, I've been trying to gain experience so that I can continue to work in photography after seminary. Throughout my time here, I’ve taken on more and more work, including photographing fellow seminarian families, for family photos or for their special occasions, such as baptisms and ordinations. So I’ve started my own small photography business and hope to continue it after seminary, if possible.
Is there a special need to take photos of these moments at seminary? How is it meaningful?
Yes, not just here at seminary, but in parishes in general. Basically, I think every parish should have a photographer, or at least on occasion, pay a photographer to come in and take photos. And the reason for that is to build our presence on the web, particularly on our websites. At one point, I started looking through parish websites and found that while there are some beautiful parish homepages, the majority of websites out there are not very well done. They might have images, but most of the time, they're low quality, they're blurry, they’re not contributing to the website, or they're very old. And it just brings down the quality of the website. So I think that's one area in which photography can be impactful within Orthodoxy; it can be a missionary tool.
Andrew serving as photographer at a seminarian ordination in 2021
The photo taken from Andrew’s perch on the ladder in the vestry
What are some ways you hope to grow during your last year at seminary?
We can always grow spiritually and personally and so that is a priority, but I think one thing that I need to work on is academics, especially areas like language and knowledge of many different theological topics. Sometimes there can be a sense that the students who are choosing to take the academic classes over the pastoral classes might be “doing seminary wrong”, or striving to do what they excel in, rather than pursuing spiritual or pastoral improvement. However, for me, I never came in pursuing ordination–I came in originally as an MA student. And after my first semester, I switched to the M.Div. So in the past few semesters, I've been embracing the academic side of seminary, as I aim to determine if that's my future. I feel I should give that my focus and see where it goes.
We’re not all called to pastoral ministry, and I don't exactly know what my call is. I go back and forth on whether I want to pursue ordination every other week, which for right now means it's not something I'm pursuing. So for the last few months, I've kind of embraced that. I don't have to worry that I'm taking the wrong classes. I've loved all the elective classes that I've taken. And I don't regret any of the choices that I made to take those classes–they've been a formative part of my journey here.
It seems you’re making the important point that Seminary is not only for those who will become priests, they are also for those who seek to grow spiritually and serve the Church in lay ministry or academic research.
Yes, for example, one of our classmates who just graduated, Mitchell Sophia Matias (M.Div.’23), she's a chaplain educator. My wife Amber will receive her M.Div. next year along with me; she won’t become a priest, but she hopes to use her degree in future ministry within our parish life, or possibly in a missionary capacity. With the MDiv program, we get a well-rounded, multidisciplinary academic experience. It’s useful for priests, but also for those who aren’t seeking the priesthood. So there are many different things you can do to serve the Church as someone who was blessed to complete a seminary education.
Andrew and Amber Prather after their engagement, March 2021. Photo credit: Sarah Werner
How can St Vladimir's Seminary community members pray for you and your family?
We do still have to get through this last year at seminary–my wife's a full-time M.Div. student and we have our one-year-old daughter. Childcare can be a tricky business here, especially as it's so expensive. There are times when we have classes and commitments at the same time. We have a plan right now for this semester. Last semester, at this time, we also had a plan, but it fell through in the third or fourth week, so I'm not holding my breath. I'm also going to be doing Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) throughout the school year, in addition to weekly assignments, reflections, and papers. So I might just ask for prayers that we navigate this busy seminary schedule well this year.
What would you say to those who choose to support the Seminary with their donations?
I just say thank you to those who donate to the seminary. Especially for the student scholarships, those really help students. As someone in a family with two M.Div. students, the scholarships have really helped us and allowed us to be here. We couldn't do it without the scholarships.
Even if you're not donating to the scholarship fund, donating to the seminary does help out in many different ways. As you've probably heard many times, we live in a very expensive area and so it’s very expensive for the seminary to keep operating and to give all these opportunities for the students, but also to have an impact on the Church. It requires the donations of supporters.
So thank you for your donations and your generosity. We students really appreciate all that you guys do for us.
Andrew Prather’s photography can be found at andrewpratherphotography.com. Here are a few of his favorite shots from the past two years at seminary.
