On Sunday evening, September 15, at 7 o'clock, St. Vladimir's Seminary will host the first Father John Meyendorff Annual Memorial Lecture, featuring The Very Rev. John H. Erickson, dean of St. Vladimir's from 2002–2007, as speaker. The lecture, titled "'Does Christian Tradition Have a Future?' Father John Meyendorff's Question Revisited," will be held in conjunction with SVOTS Alumni Days scheduled for September 15 and 16. Father John Erickson will also be awarded a Doctor of Canon Law degree (honoris causa) at an academic convocation just prior to the lecture, and he will preside at the Divine Liturgy and offer the homily in Three Hierarchs Chapel on Sunday morning.

Protopresbyter John Meyendorff joined the faculty at St. Vladimir's Seminary as professor of Church History and Patristics in 1959, while holding successive joint appointments as lecturer in Byzantine Theology at Harvard University's Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, and as professor of Byzantine History at Fordham University. He also was an adjunct professor at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary, and lectured widely on university campuses and at church events. He held the position of St. Vladimir's Seminary Dean from March 1984 until June 1992.

A prolific author, Fr. John's publications included the critical text and translation of Byzantine theologian Gregory Palamas (1959), as well as a number of books in the fields of theology and history, such as A Study of Gregory Palamas (French ed., 1959; Engl. 1964); The Orthodox Church (1963); Orthodoxy and Catholicity (1966); Christ in Eastern Christian Thought (1969); Byzantine Theology (1973); Marriage, an Orthodox Perspective (1975); Living Tradition (1978); Byzantium and the Rise of Russia (1980); The Byzantine Legacy in the Orthodox Church (1981); Catholicity and the Church (1983); and Imperial Unity and Christian Divisions: The Church 450-680 AD (1989). His books have been published in German, Italian, Russian, Greek, Finnish, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Serbian, and Polish.

For information about "Alumni Days" on Sunday, September 15th and Monday, September 16th, contact Pdn. Joseph Matusiak, 914-961-8313, x328.

Download a PDF flier of all Fall 2013 Events at SVOTS here.

Email a JPG flier of all Fall 2013 Events at SVOTS here.

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It is only in the light of Christ's Resurrection, which is also a liberation from fear and insecurity, that Jesus' Sermon on the Mount becomes truly meaningful. "Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you.... Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume... Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat and what you shall drink... Do not be anxious about tomorrow."

These precepts would be empty words only, if we were not "dead and risen" with Christ in our baptism, if the Risen Lord was not with us "always, to the close of the age" (Matthew 28:29). Our Easter greeting is a cry of victory over death and sin:

"Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!"

~Fr. John Meyendorff, April, 1973