Fr. Elias Dorham serves as the Associate Priest at Holy Transfiguration parish in McLean, VA. He and Presvytera Sylvia have been married for twenty-seven years and have ten children and two grandchildren. His professional experience includes active duty military service, federal service, and private sector cybersecurity. He holds a B.S. in Political Science from the United States Naval Academy, an M.S. in Information Systems Technology from the Naval Postgraduate School, and an M.A. in Theological Studies from Christendom College Graduate School of Theology. He is currently a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) candidate at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary.

Tell us a little about your background, Father.

I could not have designed my life’s path myself and yet I see God’s hand in all of it!

I was born and raised in San Francisco; my mom was 16, and I was brought up by my grandparents and also enjoyed a warm relationship with my mom. My happiest childhood memories center on the time when there were four generations of our family living in a single city block.

I wasn’t raised in any kind of a religious context. In college at the U.S. Naval Academy, I began to feel that something was missing in my life. Ironically I ended up finding (rather than losing!) my faith in college, and was baptized as a Roman Catholic there.

At some point after this, I discovered those Eastern churches that were in communion with Rome and began attending Eastern liturgies; my wife and I continued in this practice for a while after our marriage, even driving an hour each way with several children to attend. We came to love the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and the way the Eastern churches worship! However, due to the distances involved, we eventually went back to attending the Roman Catholic Church for a time, due to practical reasons.

After I left the Navy in the late 2000s, I began to deeply sense the call to ministry, and also began to feel less comfortable worshiping in the [Roman] Catholic Mass. I began to study theology at the master’s level and during this chapter ended up at a Melkite Church. Fortunately for me, while some of the Eastern Catholic bishops are reluctant to ordain married men, our bishop was very committed to making this happen, so this fall I was ordained to the Holy Priesthood and am attached as the associate priest in a vibrant parish, Holy Transfiguration Greek Melkite Catholic Church in McLean, Virginia.

How did you end up at St. Vladimir’s?

Due to my stint in as a Naval officer for fifteen years, I could afford a theological education. The government has paid for the majority of my theological education through the GI Bill, and then the SVOTS Danilchick Foundation has paid for the rest!

I’ve been very moved by the St. Vladimir’s experience—it’s an incredible blessing to be a part of this community. In fact, this is why I’ve actually become a donor to St. Vladimir’s. I identify with the SVOTS vision and it is a vision that has benefitted me tremendously.

Father Sergius Halvorsen, D.Min. [director of the D.Min. program], was very cordial and helpful in the process of my application and acceptance. Coming to pastoral ministry later in life, I realized that on the one hand, I did bring some applicable professional skills from military life—organizational skills and principles, and an understanding how to work with people. I had some of the soft skills that you need in order to work with people. Yet I also recognized that the world we’re living in now is very different than the world we were living in even twenty years ago, and I felt I needed additional tools to be more effective in ministry.

What’s a Christian to do in such a contentious culture?

A lot of the strife we’re seeing in the United States is tied up with the outworking of Western culture. The Eastern churches are not well known and when most people think of Christianity they think of the Latin Rite Catholic or Protestant traditions. Christianity is misunderstood because it’s too tied to the Western framework. So when people reject Western culture they reject the Christian faith too. Yet when we’re able to get people to listen to us, they begin to think that perhaps what they think is Christianity is really a misconception; that perhaps what they think they know, they don’t know. What is being recorded as a loss of religiosity might more accurately be assessed as people stepping away from more traditional, Western formulations of faith.

We can engage seekers in conversation, hear them out, and look for places of commonality, and find the bridges that can be crossed. People often still believe in a higher being, even when they don’t realize that they do—you learn this when you begin to probe a little deeper, asking them, “What do you think and believe personally about God?”

Some of the atheism in our culture is a social veneer in this new emergent “woke” environment. The D.Min. program really equipped us to lean into uncomfortable conversations, to realize that if our faith is true, then we do have the tools and resources to encounter people who say “I’m not very religious.” Well, ok, but then let’s have conversations about other things! Let’s find out where we can find common ground as human beings and then let’s have religious conversations without using religious words.

We need to realize that there are some deeply held American values that are a part of “who we are as Americans,” so to speak, that are contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to stop identifying our faith with our citizenship. The early Christians were good citizens as part of their faith, rendering unto Caesar the things which were Caesar’s and to God the things which were God’s. They didn’t confuse the two. We’ve forgotten what belongs to God. If there’s anything left over after Caesar or ourselves, only then do we render unto God.

What was your experience like with the Seminary’s D.Min. program?

The onsite classes really make the program so rich, and at the onsite closed-door sessions we often asked, “How do we practically apply all these concepts in our pastoral work? In this place and time, how do we take this patristic wisdom and apply it?”

We learned that we might have to think differently about uncomfortable situations. Sometimes our theological constructs just don’t map directly to the situation on the ground! Our pastoral realities are rarely neat and simple. Life is messy, and so to be able to sit in a room with other clergy coming from different backgrounds and contexts, and talk openly about things that are troubling all of us and then exploring pastoral solutions, was a rich and formative experience.

Last November we were on campus (pre-COVID) and the trustees asked us to come and address them. One trustee asked me if the D.Min. had equipped me for ministry. My answer referred him to something very close to home. Like many of us, I have several adult children. Some of them are walking the path of the culture right now rather than the path of faith, but I can have conversations with my adult children and bridge distances that I would not have been able to bridge a few years ago.

In Fr. John’s class we read books by modern secular people; now I understand “the other” in a way I wouldn’t have prior to the D.Min. Reading these books I would think, “Oh! I’ve heard this very thing come out of the mouth of a certain adult family member I know. That’s where it came from! How fascinating!” In the D.Min. we were reading books and articles both by Christians and by atheists in parallel, and thus we developed a context for modern objections to the Faith. We learned there are readily accessible answers for those who are truly seeking God. But we don’t take this information and bludgeon someone over the head with it. Instead, we work to internalize the information and when the objections come up, we can say, “That’s interesting, I can see where you’re coming from…but have you ever thought about this, or that?”

One of the greatest tools I’ve been given in the D.Min. program is the facility to communicate the outworking of gospel principles in a pastoral setting. It’s impacted my counseling, it’s impacted my apologetics, it’s impacted my homilies, it’s impacted my writing. Just across the board. Plus I have a great list of books to recommend to people. (laughter)

How is the program structured?

It’s very focused and intense: eight weeks of academics offsite, two classes at a time. The ninth week is reading week, and then the tenth week is an onsite intensive week that runs twelve hours a day as we discuss, critique, present, and defend our courses of study. The capstone of the academic term is when we present to the cohort the topic of our next paper and get and give feedback. Time and again the pastoral approach is applied and emphasized.

It’s an interesting cycle; the D.Min. starts with an orientation term in which you are getting familiar with the program and instructors. By the end of the first term the cohort has interacted directly with each other on multiple occasions and a sense of kinship develops. In my cohort, we came from the Greek Catholic, Greek Orthodox, OCA, Methodist, and Eritrean Orthodox traditions—all standing on common ground. You don’t often find this outside the context of St. Vladimir’s Seminary.

I would recommend the program 100%. To wrestle with the culture we find ourselves in today, a good number of clergy and laypeople really need to have advanced education in these areas. Our jurisdictions would do well to be putting people through programs like this on a regular basis. Building a cadre of ministers lay and clergy who are properly equipped to advance the mission of the world in the Church today is essential.

Tell us about your final D.Min. project.

The project is meant to shape the focus of the D.Min. candidate’s ministry. You chose a topic directly applicable to your work. I’m planning to research the dynamics of the first five to ten years of marriage. How do you take the experience of conflict in marriage, especially in those early years, and look at that from the perspective of marriage as a path towards holiness and an opportunity for growth? I work with a number of younger couples in my ministry and I can see that Christian marriages desperately need a better approach. We have a high divorce rate partly because we are failing to give couples the tools they need early on. Eastern Christians see the spiritual life as healing and wholeness. In other words: “I’m responding out of my own brokenness, and you’re responding out of your own brokenness; how can we heal together?”

Very Rev. Dr. Alexander Rentel

From May 22–June 10, Fr. John Behr and I led a group of St. Vladimir's students on a trip to Turkey, Greece, and Mt. Athos. Traveling with us were Fr. Marcus Burch (M.Div. 1997), chancellor of the Diocese of the South (OCA), and Fr. John's son Rufus. This trip afforded us the opportunity to visit the great centers of Hellenic Orthodoxy: Constantinople, Thessalonika, Mt. Athos, and Athens. All along the way we enjoyed warm hospitality, an opportunity for pilgrimage, the fellowship of each other, and the enormous fun of sightseeing and travel. Students were able to take part in this trip at a low monetary cost due to the generous benefactions of two anonymous donors who are great friends of the Ecumenical Patriarch and wished to help make possible this trip. Needless to say, the Seminary—and all of us who went on this trip—thank these two donors for their generosity.

When Fr. John and I first conceived of this trip, we had in mind the importance that travel had in our formation. As is well known, travel broadens horizons and allows for the appreciation of different perspectives, and is an essential part of any formation. First and foremost then we wanted to give our students similar opportunities to experience first–hand some of the places where Orthodox Christianity has found itself, both in history and the modern world. Along with these goals, we wanted the students to develop further bonds of fellowship to carry and sustain them throughout their lives.

We asked Fr. Marcus if he would be interested in coming on the trip because we felt the students would benefit from meeting and spending time with a senior priest and diocesan chancellor. In turn, he could become acquainted better with the seminarians. Father Marcus' participation in the trip was all that we could hope for. He was always ready for good conversation, to make a trip to a nearby or faraway monastery, to sit down for a coffee, to offer a pastoral word or insight, or to grab a quick snack, all the while being solicitous of the students.

We began our trip in modern day Istanbul, where we were able to visit the sites that are so important to the history of the Church. Of course, we visited the Hagia Sophia and the Kariye Camii, places where most people who travel to Constantinople go, but we also visited the Hagia Eirene and the ruins of the Studion monastery. In fact, our tour guide was able to talk with residents of apartments abutting the ruins of Studion; they allowed us to go through their property to be as close as possible to the ruins.

While we were there, we met a Syrian Orthodox Christian who saw us poking around the ruins and came over to see who we were and where we were from. Current and former students of the present author can easily imagine the thrill I had touching the walls of the monastery of Studion, knowing the immense influence it had on the liturgy of the Church.

During our time in Istanbul, we stayed at the Monastery of the Holy Trinity on the island of Halki—modern day Heybiliada—where we were hosted warmly by His Eminence Metropolitan Elpidophoros and the monastic brotherhood. On Sunday, May 26, His Eminence allowed our group to celebrate the Divine Liturgy as we do at St. Vladimir's. The seminarians sang under the direction of Harrison Russin (M.Div. 2013) and Fr. John, Fr. Marcus, and I concelebrated with the newly ordained Dn. Nicholas Roth. Hieromonk Samuil Efes of the monastery also concelebrated with us. What a great blessing this was to celebrate the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom in English in sight of the very city where he was bishop. All the members of our group were thankful that Metropolitan Elpidophoros gave us the blessing to celebrate the Divine Liturgy at his monastery.

After Great Vespers and dinner the previous evening, Saturday, May 25, His Eminence met and talked with us about the re–opening of Halki as a theological school. Since the early 1970s when the Turkish government closed the school, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has worked diligently to garner support for its re–opening. The Metropolitan informed us of the various plans and needs for Halki; without a doubt, the importance of this institution and its re–emergence within world Orthodoxy cannot be stated. As a school of Orthodox theology, it boasts a long and storied history of excellent professors and generations of graduates who went on to serve the Church as patriarchs, bishops, priests, deacons, and educated faithful.

Even more, in our own age in which we experience the deleterious effects of religious intolerance andfundamentalism, the potential of a school of Orthodox theology in Turkey and the Middle East is vital. The  re–opening of Halki Seminary would contribute to a peaceful coexistence of multiple cultures in areas of the world where differences in culture or religion are often used as excuses for destructive activities. It is worth noting that in the Middle East, the historical cradle of Christianity and Christian learning, there is currently only one other Orthodox school of theology, the very fine St. John of Damascus Institute of Theology at the University of Balamand in Lebanon. We remain especially hopeful that our visit showed our support for the re–opening of Halki and helped forge ties between it and St. Vladimir's.

From Istanbul, our group traveled to the great city of Thessalonika, Greece, for a too brief visit to the city's churches. In Thessalonika, we naturally found our way to the basilica of St. Dimitrios, where a Paraklesis to St. Dimitrios was being served. After books, vestments, cassocks, a few other sundries had been purchased, we made our way to a fantastic dinner with

The next morning, Tuesday, May 28, we left Thessalonika for our twelve-day stay on Mt. Athos. For the entire time we were on the Holy Mountain, our home base was the Monastery of St. Paul's, on the southwestern corner of the peninsula. Pilgrims are not usually allowed to stay on the Holy Mountain for twelve days. We were able to stay at St. Paul's for this length thanks to the permission of the Abbot of the Monatery, Fr. Parthenios, and elders of the monastery, including Fr. John's brother, Fr. Evdokimos, who has been a monk at St. Paul's for some twenty years. All of us on the trip are grateful to the abbot and the monastic brothers and to Fr. Evdokimos for this permission and for their hospitality that we experienced for the duration of our stay.

During this time, we all walked and travelled around to other monasteries, sketes, and various kellia. While some of us visited Vatopaidi on the northeast side of the peninsula, others made it down to the Lavra and Prodromou and walked around the southern tip back up to St. Paul's. Father Marcus led a group of seminarians on an overnight stay to a number of monasteries, while others found their way on their own. Both groups eventually found their way to the Great Lavra, where they made a visit to the Cave of St. Athanasios of Athos and to the Romanian Skete of Prodromou.

Ian Abodeely, currently a St. Vladimir's seminarian, formerly a student at Holy Cross Seminary in Boston, journeyed to the monastery of Xenophontos to meet up with students from Holy Cross who were there making their annual trip to the area. Three of the seminarians, Harrison Russin, Tor Svane, and Joshua Trant climbed up Mt. Athos itself. Immediately to the south of St. Paul's are the communities of Nea Skete and St. Anne's. Along the way to these communities is the former residence of the Elder Sophrony, the disciple of St. Silouan, and founder of the monastery of St. John the Forerunner in Essex, England. His cave/residence was a frequent destination for many of us on the trip. I took a memorable walk there with

While at St. Paul's, the seminarians threw themselves into life of the monastery. Frequently, I would find them chatting with one or another monk or fellow pilgrim, helping out in the kitchen and the refectory. Vividly, I can recall that within hours of arriving at the monastery, I spied one of our seminarians, Tristan Gall, sitting on a crate, prepping artichokes for the kitchen with a handful of other monks.

All of us spent much of our time in the monastery Church. The first bell rang at 2:15 a.m. in order to wake the monks so that they could do their prayer rule in their cells. I can testify that the Athonite father who resided above me woke up every morning with this bell for his prayers and numerous prostrations. At around 3:45 am, the cycle of services began with Morning Prayers, Midnight Office, Matins, 1st, 3rd, 6th Hours, and then the Divine Liturgy. In the evening, we would come back for 9th Hour and Vespers, and again after dinner for Little Compline. Shortly after Compline, it was time for bed.

The services on Athos are long and done in all their completeness. Periods of great intensity, fantastic chanting, censing with smoke and sparks flying out of the censer, all kinds of activity, are immediately followed by long periods of psalmic recitation. I admit with all humility that even though I've been present in the altar with my father as a child, am a professor of liturgics and an ordained priest of many years, I found myself lost once or twice when a light was lit in the monastery, a folding lectern placed in the middle of the Church, and an elderly monk made his way to the lectern and started reading a text. What is he doing? we would all wonder.

The highlight of the liturgical schedule was, without doubt,  June 2. We spent at least eleven hours in Church that day between the services for Sunday morning and the Vigil for the Feast of Ss. Constantine and Helena. The memory of the two elderly monks who chanted in the main for the service will remain with me for a long time. At the same time, hearing Brad Vien, Harrison Russin, Gregory Tucker, and Ian Abodeely sing the Cherubikon at one of the liturgies or hearing young Rufus Behr read the Lord's Prayer during a liturgy, are blessed memories.

Some of our most pleasant times involved doing a whole lot of nothing. Many evenings we found ourselves outside the Church, or right outside the little gift shop the monastery runs, or out on a balcony just sitting and talking, enjoying each other's company.

After our time on Athos, we made our way to Athens. A good part of my motivation for this trip was to expose these seminarians to the Greek Orthodox world. In Constantinople, we experienced an important aspect. On Mt. Athos, we experienced another. I wanted to make sure, however, that the seminarians also experienced what a typical parish in Greece would be like on any given Sunday. After an evening becoming settled in Athens, on Sunday, June 9 we made our way out to a northeast suburb of Athens, Chalandri, where we attended the Divine Liturgy at the parish Church of St. George.

One of the priests at St. George's is Fr. Stephanos Alexopoulos, who spoke at St. Vladimir's in 2009 at a Liturgical Symposium around the time of our annual Fr. Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture. Father Marcus and I concelebrated the liturgy that morning with Fr. Stephanos and the other priests attached to St. George's. There were probably 650-700 faithful at services. Again Harrison Russin led our seminarians in singing hymns during services.

After services, over coffee and cake, Fr. Stephanos spoke to us about the state of the Church in modern Greece, parochial life in Athens, and also about his own scholarly work. That evening, Fr. Stephanos joined our group for a final dinner at a restaurant near his Church in Chalandri. It was great to see my good friend, Fr. Stephanos, and I especially appreciated that he took time off from his busy schedule to talk with and come with us for dinner that night.

From start to finish, the trip was excellent. I love all of the places we visited and would visit them again in a heartbeat, and am happy that Fr. John and I were able to take our seminarians to these places. I hope that having been there, they themselves will go back and eventually lead others to the same places. I have to comment also on the high caliber of our students. From start to finish, they served as wonderful ambassadors for the seminary, carrying books that we passed out as presents along the way, working at the monastery, or singing at the different services. Above all, the respect they showed to one another and to the people that we met along the way was rivaled only by their appropriate demeanor as pilgrims at the holy sites. I certainly look forward to future trips with St. Vladimir's students.

During her more than three decades of serving as a trustee for the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC), Helen Nicozisis became acquainted with SVOTS President Fr. Chad Hatfield. "Father Chad and I served on the OCMC board together," recalls Helen, "and as a result I became even more familiar with the ministry of St. Vladimir's. At one point, we even had a very enjoyable OCMC board meeting at the Seminary; while spending two days there, I was very impressed by the SVOTS commitment to the task of Orthodox education demonstrated by the students and the professors alike."

Helen and her husband Louis, whose family fled Greece in the aftermath of WWII, have been "paying it forward" through numerous philanthropic outlets ever since their Carpet Mart business in Lancaster, Pennsylvania was blessed with success. Helen was the first layperson to be the president of the OCMC board, and her role in chairing their capital campaign led to the construction and (in 2009) the dedication of the new OCMC headquarters in St. Augustine, Florida. Louis has also served in a significant leadership capacity as a trustee of the Greek Archdiocese's Archbishop Iakovos Leadership 100 Endowment.

Louis and Helen's love for the Church and for evangelism runs deep, and this has informed their decision over the years to be faithful donors of St. Vladimir's. In 2016 the couple helped underwrite the SVS Press book In Albania: Cross and Resurrection, a fascinating collection of interviews with His Beatitude Anastasios, archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania.

Helen and Louis have been active members of Annunciation Church in Lancaster, PA, St. Mark Church in Boca Raton, FL, and St. Catherine Church in West Palm Beach, FL, and they are keenly aware of the need for well-trained clergy.

"The education of Orthodox priests, in order to spread the gospel to bring people to salvation, is absolutely crucial, life-saving work," Helen explains. "I've been impressed with St. Vladimir's scholarship program which makes this education possible. The seminarians are offered generous scholarships and are able to avoid incurring debt that they have to repay once they are priests. When our clergy go out into parishes and they have school debt it makes their ministry much more difficult."

Helen believes that today's priests face greater challenges than ever before. "There's a huge need for our clergy to offer meaningful sermons, and guidance that relates to the current atmosphere in which people are living. All our lives we've heard the story of the prodigal son, for instance—yet the sermon on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son needs to help us deal with the issues of our secular world's estrangement from God today.

"Additionally, we need clergy who are good administrators, know something about accounting and fundraising, and are internet-savvy! A lot of skills are required of them."

One reason Helen is a loyal donor to SVOTS and OCMC is because of the powerful example that was set in her formative years by her vibrant, missions minded priest, Fr. Alexander Veronis of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Lancaster.

"I love to see in all priests the ability that Fr. Alexander had to reach out across cultural backgrounds. Over his many years of ministry, Fr. Alexander promoted a spirit of outreach and evangelism in our parish and community in Lancaster and beyond," remembers Helen.

"These little isolated pockets of Orthodox Christianity are not what Christ wants for us!" Helen exclaims, adding that she is thankful for the collaboration and resource-sharing between St. Vladimir's, the OCMC, and the Missions Institute of Orthodox Christianity located at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts.

"We need to develop a vision for what a united Orthodox world could do to impact the world for Christ and His Church."

Our seminary wives' group, the St. Juliana Society, wrapped up its fall semester activities with a how-to in Christmas wreath-making. Tanya Penkrat, who is the Special Events Coordinator here at St. Vladimir's and a former florist, instructed the women in creating holiday decor, using fresh (and free!) branches cut from the variety of evergreens that adorn the seminary grounds. The fun session capped a semester of twice-monthly get-togethers, which ranged in nature from the practical to the sublime: everything from engaging with a panel of "PKs" (i.e., "Priests' Kids") to reflecting upon the art of prayer.

Matushka Thekla Hatfield, who coordinates the group, remarked upon this past semester's topics, saying, "According to feedback given by the wives, it was a very satisfactory and beneficial semester. They are all pleased with the direction in which the society is moving and are looking forward to the spring semester programs."

After the session on holiday decorating, the group expressed its enthusiasm and thanks to Matushka Thekla for her efforts by presenting her with a topiary.

In The St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 1 (2011), The Fr. Alexander Schmemann Professor of Liturgical Theology Dr. Paul Meyendorff penned an essay about Protopresbyter Dr. John Meyendorff's perspective on the unity and autocephaly for the maturing American Church. Father John (1926–1992), a former dean and professor of Church History and Patristics, has a good deal to say to the Church in 2012, as Dr. Meyendorff's essay makes clear. The original essay was presented as a paper at a symposium honoring Fr. Meyendorff on the 20th anniversary of his death, held at St. Sergius Institute in Paris, on February 8–11, 2012.

Fr. John arrived in America with his family in October of 1959 to assume a teaching position at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, at a time when Orthodoxy in America was emerging from its ethnic cocoon.

In 1960, just months after his arrival, The Standing Conference of the Orthodox Christian Bishops in America (SCOBA) was founded. The three largest Orthodox jurisdictions in America were at this time led by three visionary leaders: Archbishop Iakovos of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, who became the first chairman of SCOBA; Metropolitan Leonty of the Metropolia; and Metropolitan Anthony Bashir of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese. High on the agenda of SCOBA was the express desire for canonical unity in North America, and all three of these hierarchs repeatedly spoke on this subject. Indeed, Archbishop Iakovos, in his opening remarks at a January 1965 meeting of SCOBA, praised Metropolitans Leonty and Anthony for their vision and emphasized that the Standing Conference must acquire a regular canonical status, as the Provincial Synod of the American Church, according to the Canons and with the blessing of the Mother Churches.

In 1965, Fr John was appointed editor of the new Metropolia newspaper, The Orthodox Church, a position he held until his retirement in 1992. As editor of this monthly publication he wrote numerous editorials calling for Orthodox unity, and later defending the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) after this was granted in 1970. His very first editorial, published in February 1965, concludes with the following words:

It seems, however, that we are approaching a new period in the history of our Church. Practically everyone understands that the present situation cannot last. The Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops is watched by millions of laymen with great expectation. Nothing, however, will be done unless all realize exactly why Orthodox Unity is necessary. The reasons are spiritual, canonical, and practical.

Spiritually, it is obvious that when we confess our belief in “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church,” this belief is meant to be the guiding principle of our lives: God is one, the Lord Jesus Christ is one, and the Church must be one also. “National” churches can exist only inasmuch as they accept to submit their particular interests to that of the whole Body of Christ.

Canonically, the rules and canons of all churches strictly forbid the existence of parallel ecclesiastical organizations on the same territory.

Practically, the Orthodox witness in this country will be immensely strengthened if the three million Orthodox pray and work together; if others are able really to see in us the One True Church, and not a conglomeration of mutually exclusive factions; if we can all join our forces in the education of our youth.

Very Rev. Dr. Alexander Rentel

Our scripture readings today (Heb. 7:26-8:2 and Jn. 10:9-16) present a number of names for us of our Lord, the Great High Priest (Heb. 7:26, 8:1), the Door (Jn. 10:9), and the Good Shepherd (Jn. 10:11, 14). These images heard first in the Law and the Prophets (Ps. 118:19, 20; Ps. 23:1, Is. 40:11, Ez. 34:15) now resonate in the books of the New Testament. As the Great High Priest, Christ, blameless and holy, pure sacrifice and exalted above the heavens, offered himself once for all, both priest and victim. Priests of the old law no longer offer sacrifices, no longer mediate between God and man. No, we the assembly of the first born come no longer to what can be touched, to a blazing fire, to the darkness and gloom. We no longer seek the sound of the trumpet, or shy away from further heavenly messages. We have come to Holy Mount Zion, the city of the Great King and Priest, to the God of Gods, to Jesus, who has mediated this our new relationship with God through the sprinkling of his own blood. Our God stands now ready to receive our worship and consume us all with the all-consuming fire of his love (cf., Heb. 12:18-24, 29).

These other images do not have the same liturgical or cultic context. They do however offer us a different part of the revelation of the mystery our Almighty God. Our Lord tells his disciples that he is the door, through which we can attain salvation by through our association with the shepherd's sheepfold. We enter through the door, which is Christ, to find Christ there again, waiting for us, leading us to pasture. He is the Door, the Gate of Righteousness, the Gate of the Lord, through which the righteous, those redeemed from death, pass to find the "Shepherd of the sheep (Heb. 13:20)," who sought the lost, brought back those who strayed, who bound up the cripple, who has strengthened the weak, and who even now keeps watch over the strong (Ez. 34:16). Behold, having heard the scripture, our ears have become our eyes and we can hear and see the Lord, Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, coming in might, the gentle shepherd feeding his flock with the food of his own sacrifice. He raises his mighty arm to rule, gathering tenderly his sheep. Our reward, our recompense is with him as he holds us to his bosom(Is. 40:10-11). The Lord is our shepherd; we have no want. We are in the Church beside still water, our soul is restored (Ps. 23:2, Rev. 17:7).

As these words have revealed Christ more deeply, more profoundly to us, they also increase what we know about this great saint, St. Innocent, whom we commemorate today. These words we read today, high priest (which is the translation for ἀρχιερεύς, archpriest, what we translate not so accurately as bishop or hierarch), door, shepherd do not actually narrate the deeds his life, which are fascinating and worthy of consideration, rather they mark him with Christ. St. Innocent is not the Great High Priest or the Door or the Good Shepherd. Christ is. St. Innocent did share in the work of Christ. He desired this noble task (I Tim 3:1). As a bishop he offered the same sacrifice Christ offered, and on his behalf, St. Innocent distributed this same offering to the faithful. As a good shepherd above reproach he tended to God's flock, knowing how to manage them (cf., I Tim 3:5). Consider the testimony of his own words, his record of what he did on this same day—though it was a Sunday that year and was yet still a priest – in 1829:

I celebrated matins and the liturgy, at which was read the appointed sermon.
After the liturgy, I celebrated a prayer service of thanksgiving to the Lord God,
who kindly allowed me to fulfill with blessings my own desires and those
of many others by finishing the translation of the holy gospel. (Journals of
the Priest Ioann Veniaminov in Alaska, 1823 to 1836, (J. Kisslinger, trans; S.A.
Mousalimas, introduction and commentary) (The Rasmuson Library Historical
Translation Series VII, Fairbanks, AK 1993) 114-115.)

This entry highlights for us a typical day in this untypical man's life. As a bishop, he celebrated the services, ministering to God Most High; and as a bishop he worked together with this same God to bring His Word to the Alaskan people. High priest, good pastor, the door to the pasture, these words continue to sound for us today. As a hierarch St. Innocent is their echo, loud and clear, even after long ago they first proclaimed Christ.

Blessed is our God—the Good Shepherd—who has not rejected us as we have rejected him, but works with us and through us, with our weaknesses, our frailty, in these great men, who bring Christ in to the world and the world to Christ. Blessed and worthy of all praise is this man, St. Innocent, who like so many other saintly hierarchs, these co-workers and servants of God, whom God took and worked with and allowed to do his work as high priest and good shepherd. These men brought to God all they were, their diverse skills and talents, their learning and education, together with what they lacked, their ignorances, their failings and he compensated for them all. Where they lacked, he gave. Where they failed, he succeeded. Where they succeeded, he gave more in abundance. They offered to him themselves and he did not reject, but accepted and added more upon more, grace upon grace of is priesthood. Today, we celebrate St. Innocent, but we give thanks to God, who is glorified in his great saint (Ps. 89:7).

The gospel today tells us that we the sheep know our shepherd's voice (Jn. 10:16). We know him as he knows us (Jn. 10:14). He knows our voice. In glory, honor, and thanksgiving to him, let us praise him for his good and faithful servant Innocent. We can ourselves be good and faithful in our festal gathering, standing as we do before the throne of the Living God honoring this righteous men made perfect. To him, let our honor also be given. We can also have great confidence in him, know that he continues his work as a good shepherd and will intercede on our behalf to the Great Shepherd, so that we, like Innocent, will find ourselves amongst the sheep of his fold in the pasture of his elect (Ez. 34:30-31). 

Dr. Peter C. Bouteneff

On my way to teaching class lately, I’ve been walking past a new landmark on our campus: the U.S. flag atop a gleaming flagpole. It was raised for the first time on Orthodox Education Day 2011. It was an especially meaningful day for me, as for many.

I have been coming to “Ed Day” most every year of my life, and yet my involvement in it somehow manages to increase annually. As part of my faculty responsibilities I now oversee the Events Committee that helps plan this day—the committee that was responsible for choosing this year’s theme and developing the program schedule. Between that and serving hamburgers all day in the food tent, I’d say my involvement spanned pretty widely.

This year’s theme, “For God and Country,” was an occasion to recognize those who serve and have served in the Armed Forces, especially our Orthodox military chaplains. I recall the meetings with staff and faculty colleagues where we arrived at this theme, and how quickly and universally the enthusiasm grew around the room. As reactions to the day have been coming in, from people who attended and from those who did not, I have been surprised by some ambivalent responses. Together with the messages of gratitude there were those of puzzlement and even dismay. Summarizing their content, I would like to share some personal thoughts in response.

“’For God and Country?’ Are you kidding me? Are you equating the importance of the two?”

For God and Country, “Pro Deo et Patria,” is the motto of the U.S. Army military chaplaincy. Choosing this as a theme for Ed Day was meant to signal our real honorees: Orthodox Christian military chaplains. But examining this motto and thinking about it—the idea of expressing allegiance to both “God” and “country” and putting the two within one phrase—might raise very important questions.

I can’t imagine that any one of us would equate God and country, placing them on par with each other within our hearts and our devotion. The gospel specifically tells us that our love for God is to take priority over every other love, even love for family, even love for one’s own life (Luke 14:26). And yet there is also a very appropriate kind of love that we have for family, for self, and yes, for our country. The goal, as always, is proper relationship, proper balance. Finding just the right place for patriotism has been a perennial issue for the Church, but there has always been a place for it. We indeed do well to love our country, and to express that love when we defend it and when we support it, as well as when we question or criticize its policies.

But the choice of the theme, again, rested in the motto of military chaplains, whom we were honored to honor on our seminary campus. Our new flagpole, in fact, was dedicated to the first Orthodox Christian Army Chaplain, Archpriest Vladimir Borichevsky of blessed memory.

“Why did the seminary choose such a militaristic theme? War is an abomination, and the military complex perpetuates it.”

Our desire in choosing this theme was to recognize the people who put their lives on the line in the service of their country, and specifically those who minister to them spiritually. Our Lord extols this kind of love, of one who would lay down his life for others (John 15:13). Whether or not we approve of the size of our military, and whether or not we approve of our foreign policy, the lives and the struggles of the people who serve in the military deserve value and respect. If we stop to consider what life in the Armed Forces can be like, in times of unimaginable moral and spiritual conflict, what could be more vital, and more difficult, than giving spiritual counsel and administering the sacraments to those involved in such a struggle? Once we begin to reflect on that, our awe can only deepen. This has certainly been my experience over the years in coming into contact with more and more servicemen and women, and chaplains and chaplains-in-training: deepened respect and love.

“Isn’t support for our military a support for war?”

Well, it can be, but it doesn’t have to be. If you look at what we actually did at Ed Day, the talks and workshops that we offered, you would see a bigger picture. Fr. Philip LeMasters gave the keynote address, "Orthodox Perspectives on Peace, War, and Violence"; Dr. Stephen Muse offered a workshop entitled, "Listen, Witness, and Weep: What Can the Church Offer Service Men and Women?”. These were anything but militarism: they were thoughtful reflections—theological and practical—on the complex and crucial issues surrounding violence, war, peace, and what human needs demand right now. We also heard stories from people in the field. I might suggest that until a person has sat and listened to these stories, it would be best to reserve judgment.

Still, questions about war and peace are now as central to our lives as Christians as they ever have been. For the past four years I’ve had the pleasure of participating in an Orthodox theological think tank that has been studying the Church’s stance on war. Our study of the scriptures, the church fathers, the liturgy, the saints’ lives, and of contemporary thinkers has yielded a rich tapestry of essays which, God-willing, will soon be published in book form. We found that, through its many voices, the Tradition regularly speaks of war as evil. Little surprise there, for what greater example of the fallen human condition and sin than physical slaughter and depersonalization of “the enemy”? Yet the Tradition also recognizes evils in the world that must be radically overcome: this is why scriptural language regarding inner spiritual struggle so often makes use of military metaphors (see, e.g., Eph 6:10–18). The Church recognizes—given the tragic fallen condition of our age—that war is a near inevitability. The Church recognizes too that alongside brutish impulses, war evinces deep valor and righteous self-sacrifice; God in His greatness can make good come from evil. Nevertheless, these realities do not lead our Tradition to celebrate war, or the factors that lead people to wage war, which cannot but represent a total and tragic failure of human love and creativity.

With all of this in mind, when we honor our military chaplains, we are honoring those who immerse themselves into the brokenness of the world, taking responsibility for its tragedy and seeking to heal it in the name of God. When they do so, they are following the One who immersed himself in our condition, taking on our vulnerability all the way to death, in order to bring us salvation.

“How can we draw bigger crowds to Ed Day and other campus events?”

Good question. Although many of our venues for the day were packed, we noticed a lesser presence than usual of OCA parishes and local clergy. In the weeks to come, we'll be conducting an informal survey of our local parishes in order to help us to plan events, and to bring more people onto our campus. If you are a parish rector or diocesan hierarch and would like your parish(es) to be included in this survey, please contact Matushka Robin Freeman, Annual Gifts Officer, via email (robin@svots.edu).

Listen to the wonderful "Ed Day" presentations by keynote Fr. Philip LeMasters here and workshop leader Dr. Steven Muse here.

Dr. Peter C. Bouteneff

This year’s SVOTS summer conference, scheduled for June 17–19, is on women in the Orthodox Church—entitled “Women Disciples of the Lord.”

Having helped to organize this gathering, I want to first express some enthusiasm about it: It is shaping up to be a remarkable, inspiring event, bringing together a wide array of speakers and workshop leaders. It is a unique opportunity to reflect, listen, speak, network, and enjoy fellowship.

Please download the schedule of events, and register on our website! (Note that alumnae of Orthodox Christian theological seminaries receive a substantial discount on registration.)

This is the first conference on this theme to be organized by an Orthodox seminary in North America in over thirty years. Several excellent conferences, meetings, and talks, held here and internationally, have brought people together to discuss related themes from different perspectives. The fact that we are doing it here at St. Vladimir’s Seminary this year is notable in several ways. For one, it gives the issue a certain kind of visibility. It also means that we will be devoting at least part of the conference to theological reflection. But finally, its main organizers, as well as many of its speakers and workshop leaders, are graduates of Orthodox seminaries.

To us at St. Vladimir’s—which has had women students since the early 1960s—it has always seemed strange that a seminary could be without them. If a seminary sees itself as—among other things—a place to come closer to the life of the Church through studying and living it in community, it no longer makes any sense to exclude women from its student body.

The question has followed: what jobs or vocations can women fulfill after leaving seminary? That question runs parallel to the challenge that laymen alumni experience. Many graduates of our theological schools end up with church-based jobs; but some do not, and are seeking to contribute their gifts.

It is partly to address such concerns that one of the main focuses of the upcoming conference is vocations for women. There are sixteen workshop sessions planned (several of them running simultaneously) that will bring together women involved in church-based vocations, such as International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) and Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC), as well as in vocations that have a clear bearing on their Christian identity and training, such as hospital and prison chaplaincy, education ministry, and many others. Aside from an opportunity to network among people working in these fields, we are looking to this conference as a source of inspiration and ideas for women and men in the Church who seek to build up and participate in such ministries. Our seminary, as well as clergy, hierarchs, parish officers, and others, stand to learn a lot from this meeting too.

I know that I have been learning a lot already. This has been a challenging conference to organize, and that is partly because there are several strongly held and often opposing opinions on this subject. We’ve gotten messages and calls from women who say, in no uncertain terms (and with a touch of resentment) that “there is no problem” surrounding women in the Church, that “nothing needs validating.” Others see things very differently indeed. Many have been deeply hurt by the Church’s inability to find a place for women (including young women and girls) in the Church’s life. They also believe that the Church itself has been functioning at a reduced capacity, not engaging more fully this huge constituency of its membership.

One presumes that there are also people who are just interested in seeing “what’s out there” and what the issues of interest are. I’m sure many such people will be at the conference, but they aren’t the ones writing us. In fact, almost nobody who has contacted us is neutral or vague about this issue in the slightest. The intensity of the various and sometimes contrasting signals we are getting also goes to show how very important it is to bring all these issues into a forum for discussion. That too is what this conference is about. Bringing women from Holy Cross, St. Vladimir’s, St. Tikhon’s seminaries together. Bringing under one roof single, married, monastic women, theologians, professionals, academics. People who are stung by this issue and people that aren’t—bearing in mind that if one member of the body suffers, all suffer together (cf. 1 Cor. 12:26).

This is one thing we do here at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, by vocation: bring multiple voices together into conversation—voices that matter—from different perspectives, different passionately held positions and backgrounds. Not only is this a part of our mandate as a theological school; it is something that, by God’s grace, could play a role in bringing more people closer to the Church, and therefore closer to Christ.

So come and be a part of it! Go to our website and register. We would be delighted to see you at this gathering, whether you’re a woman, man, priest, professional, student, parent, single person: Come!

When Dr. Hannah Hunt studied theology as an undergraduate, she didn't know where it would lead. "I was newly pregnant as a student," she reminisced with the group of St. Vladimir's women students who gathered for tea in the home of President The Very Rev. Dr. Chad and Matushka Thekla Hatfield on Saturday afternoon, December 7, 2013. "My son was born during Easter break, and I started coursework for my masters degree while nursing a baby. Several years later while working on my doctorate I gave birth to our second son."

Hannah, a professor of Eastern Christian Studies, earned her PhD in Theology from the University of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England, with the thesis topic of "Spiritual Tears and Penthos (compunction) in the Early Christian Fathers." Since then, she has worn a number of hats as an author, mother, tutor, instructor, and adminstrator, as she has continued to focus on the spirituality of the early Eastern Christian Church.

As an author and professor, Dr. Hunt offered encouragement and suggestions to the women, who were listening with interest. "My husband unexpectedly left me with two children to care for, and I had to take any work that was offered me," she noted. "I never thought any job was beneath me, and I taught classes that weren't even in my subject. One year, I held eight different jobs with five different employers. I worked around the kids' schedules using all my skills, all my disciplines."

In other words, "it doesn't have to be binary," she summarized. "It's not that you are either on a tenure track or you aren't going anywhere. I like my life very much; it's interesting and diverse. Be flexible and learn new skills when that is required!"

Hannah is passionate about research and writing, and she emphasized the importance of networking and meeting publishers at conferences and events. "I'm never short of ideas for books to write; it's just a matter of how I can fit it in." Dr. Hunt's books, such as Clothed in the Body: Asceticism, the Body and the Spiritual in the Late Antique Era published by Ashgate, address a variety of topics related to Eastern Orthodox spirituality.

A lively discussion followed Dr. Hunt's presentation. "What's the balance between working and studying and having a family?" "How long did it take you to earn a PhD?" "How should I be looking ahead to the years after I have earned a Masters Degree?" "What can I do with a theology degree?"

Hannah encouraged each woman to decide on her priorities in light of her unique gifts and personality. "A humanities degrees gives you highly flexible skill set. You've learned to keep notes, records, do research, and teach. Whatever you decide to do, if you do it passionately and thoroughly, then it's good!"

Dr. Peter Bouteneff

During this year’s Orthodox Education Day at our seminary I moderated a panel discussion between two (Eastern) Orthodox professors and two Oriental (Non-Chalcedonian) professors. Although the estrangement between these two bodies has lasted since the middle of the fifth century, for the past five decades a dialogue process has revealed convergences beyond all expectations. Our panel looked at the current state of our relationship. For years now, St Vladimir’s has offered a joint degree with St Nersess Armenian Seminary, and has benefited from a student body including also Malankara Indian, Syrian, Coptic, and Ethiopian students. We have jointly held regular symposia on issues relating to our historical and theological heritage. Our location in a land of such Eastern-Oriental diversity presents unique opportunities for a theological school such as ours, and responding to them has been deeply enriching.

The process towards rapprochement, towards a reclaiming the ancient unity between these church families, can lead to a broader reflection on the well-worn but hugely important concept of “Unity in Diversity.” The essay below, which concludes with specific reflections on the Eastern-Oriental dialogue, was printed in the commemorative booklet distributed to all our visitors on Education Day.

*

“Unity in Diversity.” This expression speaks about a balance between wholeness and difference, between integrity and variety. The idea is sometimes rooted in our teaching about the Holy Trinity: God is a unity, one God, in a diversity of persons, Father Son and Holy Spirit. Unity in diversity can also suggest something very important to us, as human beings, but specifically as Orthodox Christians. Because it can illustrate that things or people don’t have to look, walk, talk, and think exactly alike in order to be in union with each other.

Not all differences can be held together. Some differences between us really do divide us. Thinking about Orthodoxy, if someone were to say that Jesus Christ is not divine, or that he’s not human, that person would be at odds with the Orthodox Christian faith, and therefore divided from it. But not all differences divide. In fact, some differences make for an even deeper unity.

This sounds surprising, but anyone in a reasonably healthy marriage knows this instinctively: two people don’t have to become identical to each other in order to be in union with each other. In fact, it is often precisely the differences that make their union not only more interesting, but also more real, more substantial. We don’t, as a rule, marry mirror-images of ourselves.

Unity and diversity play themselves out within any human society, grouping, or family. And they have long been applied to the unity and diversity that characterize the Church. St Paul gives us the image of the Church as a body, with members that are different and interdependent (see especially 1 Cor. 12). From its apostolic beginnings, then, the Church has always been thought of as a community of diverse members with diverse gifts, and the diversity of the saints continues to testify to how differently the same Christian faith and life may be expressed in this world.

The Church’s diversity-in-unity was also articulated in a striking way in the second century. In the midst of a heated crisis in the Church concerning the date on which Easter should be celebrated, St Irenaeus of Lyons considered the various practices and dates and said: “The difference in practice confirms the unity in faith”. Yes, you read that correctly. The differences confirm the unity. They testify to it. They strengthen it. This pronouncement challenges our logic: wouldn’t you have thought that it’s unity in practice that confirms unity in faith? Well that can happen too. But what is being said here is also true, and deeply important: the very fact that we can embody diversity, yet agree in the matters of the greatest significance, confirms and deepens our unity. It means that our unity doesn’t depend on our being identical, or completely undifferentiated. In short, unity is not uniformity.

St Irenaeus’s saying confirms the principle of “unity in diversity,” or perhaps “diversity in unity.” Unity in the most important sense, unity concerning the things that really matter, is not threatened but enriched by diversity. Fr St Irenaeus, the different dates of the Paschal celebration did not threaten but even enriched what really mattered, namely the fact and the life-giving content of the Lord’s Pascha itself.

But with all its enriching potential, the interplay of unity and diversity also poses two serious challenges:

• Unity is not uniformity, but the challenge is to identify and maintain coherence and unity within a diverse body. In the Church, that means the challenge of holding together diverse views, showing where they cohere—and also where they do not.

• The other challenge is to recognize and even promote a genuine diversity, to show people that being “Orthodox” doesn’t necessarily mean doing and thinking in exactly the same way. If we do this right, we will be helping people understand what being “Orthodox” really consists in.

Both of these challenges require us to identify what is the unchangeable core of our faith and life, those things that cannot be denied or distorted without the loss of our unity. Having identified that core, it becomes possible to identify both the possibilities and the limits of diversity. For example, we can be on different calendars and be one Church. We can hold different teachings about “toll houses” and be one Church. We can  even believe different things about how and when the world came into being (7,000 years ago, or 14 billion) and be in one Church.

But we cannot be one Church if some of us are saying that Jesus was “merely a very great man,” or that “Jesus was divine, but only appeared to be human.” It would also be hard to imagine being in the same Orthodox Church if some of us were to teach that “human personhood only begins at birth, and that therefore abortion is only the loss of a mass of cells.” These would be genuine divisions of teaching or practice, not just “a healthy diversity of expression.”

The examples I just gave are pretty obvious. But in fact, unity and Diversity pose deep challenges to the Orthodox Church today, specifically in North America. We seek to be one. We seek to express our common Orthodox identity in a way that both recognizes and transcends our ethnic histories and identities. We desperately seek a unity that has, up until now, proved too challenging to be realized.

We are of course deeply concerned to be Orthodox. Sometimes we show that concern only by repeating all the formulas perfectly, getting every element of the liturgy, its vestments, architecture, and singing perfect. Nothing wrong with a loving effort to get these things right. The problem lies when we think that the substance of Orthodox faith and life resides entirely in them. If that’s what we think, whether consciously or not, then there becomes only one right way of praising God, one right Ochtoekos, one right set of vestments and hats. And one calendar on which the whole edifice is properly based. To think this way would not only be a great loss to the life of the Church, it wouldn’t be Orthodox.

St Irenaeus’s statement about, differences confirming unity, had to do with calendar issues. Can’t we go further? Aren’t there are other issues on which it is possible to do and teach things differently, provided we hold to the key elements of the apostolic faith? It is our responsibility to identify the diversities that can be held together in the unity of the Church. 

One of the most significant and genuinely challenging cases in point is the relationship between the Orthodox Church and the “Oriental” Orthodox churches – the Coptic, Armenian, Syrian, Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Indian-Syrian Churches. In recent decades an official, Church-delegated dialogue process has affirmed that “both families have always loyally maintained the same authentic Orthodox Christological faith, and the unbroken continuity of the apostolic tradition.”[1] The first thing to do would be to test whether we agree with that statement. Because if we do, in other words, if the real theological unity has not been compromised by the historical terminological diversity of these church families, then we have a serious challenge before us: the challenge to live out the unity that we have identified, and admit within the life of One Church a greater diversity of liturgies, theological formulas, and saints.

Can we, Eastern and Oriental churches, together, conceivably embody a unity in diversity, a diversity in unity? It would require many of us to rethink what “Orthodoxy” looks like. We would have to ask what is currently keeping us apart: are there still genuinely church-dividing theological issues? To what extent are we in fact living in the mere habit of separation, learned from centuries out of communion? Are there liturgical, ministerial issues yet to be resolved? Is part of what is keeping us apart simply the fear of a greater diversity—not in matters of apostolic faith and practice, but in language and “culture?” I do not wish to prejudge the answers to these questions. But we owe ourselves, each other, and our God, the most thorough, responsible, prayerful consideration of such things.  Christian love for the other, and Christian pursuit of truth wherever it is to be found, impel us to do no less.

I think then that the one great goal of all who are really and truly serving the Lord ought to be to bring back to union the churches who have at different times and in different ways divided from one another. 

-- St Basil the Great, Epistle 94

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[1] Second Agreed Statement (Chambésy, Switzerland 1990), §9.