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During the weekend of February 26–28, 2016, members of the Orthodox Inter-Seminary Movement (OISM) met at St. Vladimir’s Seminary for their bi-annual gathering, which was centered around the theme from the fall OISM meeting, “Expanding the Mission of the Orthodox Church.” The weekend offered a meaningful time of fellowship with students from other seminaries, and a timely reminder of the importance of building relationships across jurisdictional lines.
The weekend’s events began on Friday morning with a guided tour of the Byzantine collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, led by The Rev. Deacon Evan Freeman (M.Div. ‘09, Th.M. ‘12), lecturer in Liturgical Art at St. Vladimir’s. “The Metropolitan has one of the finest collections of Byzantine art in America, and it’s right on the doorstep of St. Vladimir’s,” remarked Deacon Evan. “Our tour allowed us to examine sixth-century silver chalices from Syria, a twelfth-century Gospel book that was probably originally made for Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, Late Byzantine and Russian icons, and many other beautiful works of art.”
On Friday evening, basketball teams from St. Vladimir's and St. Tikhon's seminaries traveled to Hooperstown in Mount Vernon, NY, and competed in their annual face off. The game is a well–loved tradition between the two schools. The winner of this year’s match was St. Vladimir’s, with a final score of 56-29.
Saturday began with a molieben served by St. Vladimir’s student priest, The Rev. Ignatius Green, followed by a campus tour. In a presentation co-sponsored by the SVOTS St. Innocent Mission Society, The Very Rev. Vladimir Aleandro (M.Div. ‘95), SVOTS lecturer in Liturgics, and Matushka Suzanne Aleandro vividly shared their experience as missionaries to Kenya with Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC). The Very Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield, SVOTS chancellor/CEO and sessional professor of Missiology, delivered two engaging lectures focusing on the increasing need for mission work and evangelism in North America.
The seminarians were able to celebrate their unity in Christ by participating in the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning, where His Eminence Irenée, Archbishop of Ottawa and the Archdiocese of Canada, ordained SVOTS seminarian Deacon Ryan (Tikhon) Bishop to the Holy Priesthood. Following the Divine Liturgy, the seminarians mingled at coffee hour before the visiting students departed for home.
OISM was organized in the 1960s to foster closer relationships between students of canonical Orthodox seminaries in the United States and Canada. Seminarians from St. Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA; Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, Brookline, MA; and Holy Trinity Seminary, Jordanville, NY, participated in the weekend’s events.
Read about the 2015 OISM gathering at St. Tikhon’s Seminary.
Want to join us as a seminarian next year? Read more about how to attend St. Vladimir’s!
Photos by Mary Honoré
