The St. Vladimir's community celebrated a beautiful blessing this month as Eugenia, the daughter of Seminarian Giorgi Lomsadze and his wife Barbara Mindiashvili, was baptized in Three Hierarchs Chapel.

Giorgi, a seminarian from the Republic of Georgia, is in his first year studying in the Master of Arts program. He and Barbara are also parents of a son, Gabriel.

Seminary President Fr. Chad Hatfield presided over the baptism Thursday, February 3. Presbytera Nino Tskitishvili, whose husband Fr. Giorgi Tskitishvili graduated from St. Vladimir's Seminary in 2021, is Eugenia's godmother along with Hannah Vazquez. Hannah's husband William is a classmate of Giorgi's at St. Vladimir's.

May God grant the newly illumined Eugenia and her family many years!

Archbishop Elpidophoros with Archimandrite Nektarios (right). Photo: goarch.org

Saint Vladimir's Seminary Alumnus The Very Rev. Archimandrite Nektarios Papazafiropoulos has been appointed chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOA). His Eminence, Elpidophoros, the archbishop of America, announced that Fr. Nektarios would assume the position of chancellor March 1.

Archimandrite Nektarios was born in Jersey City, NJ and grew up in Astoria, NY, raised by devout Christian immigrant parents who emphasized his Orthodox faith. Upon completing Long Island City High School, he enrolled at Polytechnic University to study electrical engineering, completed his Bachelor’s Degree in electrical engineering in 1985, and subsequently his Master’s Degree in the same field. He spent the next ten years in the industry.

Having received the calling to serve the Church, he enrolled in the Master of Divinity program at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. Upon completing those studies in 1999, he went to Greece to prepare for ordination in 2001.

In June of 2002 he was tonsured a monk and given the name Nektarios, and immediately after was ordained to the diaconate by Metropolitan Daniel of Kaissariani, Byronos and Ymittou, in Athens. He was made archdeacon and served in the position for a year. On January 18, 2004, he was ordained to the priesthood, bestowed the offikion of archimandrite, and was assigned to the Church of the Holy Trinity in Byrona. Upon the election of Metropolitan Pavlos of the Metropolis of Kozani in 2004 (the Metropolitan was a former proïstamenos of his parish in Astoria), Archimandrite Nektarios asked permission to go and serve with him. He was then assigned as proïstamenos to the Church of Ss. Constantine and Helen in Kozani. In 2005, he was assigned the position of vicar general of the Metropolis and served in Kozani up to 2008.

At the direction of Archbishop of America Demetrios, Fr. Nektarios was invited to return to the United States in 2008 and served at St. Nicholas Church Greek Orthodox in West Babylon, NY until 2012. He was then assigned as the proïstamenos of St. Demetrios Cathedral in Astoria, where he has served since. In 2019, Archimandrite Nektarios was appointed by His Eminence, Archbishop Elpidophoros of America as one of the five vicars in the Archdiocesan District, and he also serves as the spiritual advisor to the Archdiocesan District Philoptochos.

May God grant Archimandrite Nektarios many years!

Seminary graduate Philip McClanahan and his family have begun building support for their ministry in Indonesia.

Philip and Kristiana, along with their three children Irene (7), Simon (2), and Miriam (2 months), are preparing to travel to the city of Medan through the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC). There Philip will lecture at the St. Paul Theological School and teach youth at local Orthodox schools under His Eminence, Metropolitan Konstantinos of Singapore.

"Having OCMC missionaries on the ground will greatly contribute to the efforts of the growing Church in Indonesia," read a statement about the McClanahan family from OCMC. "His education and skills will make him a great asset for the St. Paul Theological School in Medan and the local Church."

The McClanahans will become the first missionaries sent by OCMC to Indonesia.

"Before I was Orthodox I did some mission work in the Middle East," Philip said in an interview during his studies at St. Vladimir's. "Then I went on a long spiritual quest and entered into Orthodoxy in 2010.

"When I met my wife one of the things we had in common was an interest in missions. We even contacted OCMC prior to coming to seminary. So it’s been a number of years in the making."

Philip graduated from St. Vladimir's Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree in 2021. As a seminarian he led the St Innocent Mission Society student interest group. Among other undertakings, he helped organize an effort to assist the Orthodox Diocese of Gulu and Eastern Uganda in 2020.

The McClanahans plan to move to Medan as soon as they've raised the support they’ll need for their service. To support and follow their missionary ministry, visit the OCMC webpage for the family.

May God abundantly bless and guide the McClanahans in their ministry, and May He grant them many years!

The St. Vladimir's Seminary community bid a fond, bittersweet farewell to Chief Financial Officer Melanie Ringa on Monday. Melanie, a longtime member of Seminary staff, officially retired January 31.

"We will miss Melanie profoundly at St. Vladimir's," said Seminary President Fr. Chad Hatfield. "It is no exaggeration to say that her passion to serve the Church and Seminary shone brightly each and every day in her work.

"Her diligence, skill, and care were vitally important to St. Vladimir's. She guided the financial health of the Seminary with stable hands throughout her fifteen years here, getting us through challenges whenever they arose."

Melanie, a certified public accountant, graduated from the University of Scranton with a bachelor's degree in accounting. She worked in public accounting in New York City for several years and almost twenty years as CFO of an ethanol company in Connecticut before coming to work at St. Vladimir's in 2007. By God's grace, it was a dream fulfilled for Melanie. She shared with colleagues at her farewell gathering that she knew she would someday work at St. Vladimir's, after setting foot on campus years earlier to take a class from Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko (+2015). For many of her years at St. Vladimir's she also served simultaneously as treasurer of the Orthodox Church in America.

Melanie cared deeply for the seminarians at St. Vladimir's, and would open her office doors at a moment's notice whenever a student needed to talk about financial aid or any other issue.

Outside of work, she sings in church choirs and frequently directs them. Melanie lent her beautiful alto voice to Seminary choirs often during liturgical services. She also enjoys running and is an avid supporter of her beloved Penn State football—she holds season tickets to this day!

The seminarians, faculty, and staff of St. Vladimir's wish Melanie a blessed, well-deserved retirement. May God grant her and her husband, Chuck, many years!

In celebration of the Feast of the Three Hierarchs Sunday—the patrons of the Seminary chapel—the community of St. Vladimir's Seminary gathered together for Divine Liturgy and the 39th Annual Father Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture.

His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon presided over Divine Liturgy Sunday morning at Three Hierarchs Chapel. His Beatitude offered beautiful remarks for the occasion, drawing on metaphors of song and instruments:

And, indeed, throughout the service to the Three Hierarchs, these great teachers of the Church are compared to instruments: to panpipes or flutes, to lyres or harps .... The three saints we celebrate today contribute different, but harmonious, sounds to the music of theology. And this image of theology, and of Christian life, as harmonious music is an image of perennial—and indeed, eternal—significance. The service of the three saints teaches us that we Christians, across space and time, have no higher purpose than to contribute our harmonious notes to the great music of God. The Christian who desires to imitate these three great saints must allow himself to be played by the Spirit as a supple, obedient instrument, in harmony with all the music of past ages, and in harmony with his fellow-faithful in his own time. God is able to raise up stones as sons of Abraham, but instead He has chosen each of us to make a humble but irreplicable contribution to His great music.

On Sunday evening the Seminary community gathered again, this time in the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium for the Father Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture. Another five hundred people from around the country and abroad signed up to watch the lecture online. This year's lecture was delivered by The Rev. Dr. Khaled Anatolios, the John A. O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.

"The significance of this event is for me deeply personal," Fr Khaled began in the introduction to his lecture. "Though I never met Fr. Alexander Schmemann in person, his writings have had so great an impact on me over the years as to warrant my counting him as both a theological mentor and even, I would say, a spiritual father."

Father Khaled, a scholar of the early Church, went on to speak to “Salvation as Liturgy: Alexander Schmemann’s Liturgical Theology and the Renewal of the Joy of Salvation.” During his talk, as Fr. Khaled discussed the idea of "doxological contrition" and the correlation between joy and repentance as found in the theological vision of Schmemann.

"If we accept Fr. Schmemann's witness to the indispensability of Christian joy, then we have to recognize that the psalmist's prayer, 'Restore to me the joy of your salvation [ps. 50:12a LXX],' has already been fully answered in Christ our Savior," explained Fr. Khaled. "To confess Christ as savior is to partake of the joy of His resurrection and to disseminate that joy. But this is not a matter of superficial emotionality, but rather an effort of constant conversion. Christian joy is a repentance whose starting point and ending point is always the glory of the risen Christ."

The 39th Schmemann Lecture concluded with words of sincere gratitude to Fr. Khaled from Seminary President The Very Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield, who thanked Fr. Khaled for his "remarkable" and profound message to everyone listening.

A replay of the 39th Annual Father Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture is available to watch on the Seminary's YouTube channel.

Theologian The Rev. Dr. Khaled Anatolios will deliver the 39th Annual Father Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture at St. Vladimir’s Seminary on January 30, 2022, on the Feast of the Three Hierarchs.

Father Khaled’s lecture is titled, “Salvation as Liturgy: Alexander Schmemann’s Liturgical Theology and the Renewal of the Joy of Salvation.”

The lecture is free and open to the public to attend online (in-person attendance is not available at this time). It begins at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST.

ABOUT FR. KHALED ANATOLIOS

The Rev. Khaled Anatolios, Ph.D. is the John A. O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. Father Khaled, a priest of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, is interested in all aspects of the theology of the early Church, with special emphases on the Trinitarian, Christological, and soteriological doctrines of the Greek fathers and Augustine; early Christian biblical exegesis; and the development of theological methodology in patristic and medieval theology. He has published on a variety of early Christian theologians including Irenaeus, Origen, Athanasius, Augustine, and Gregory of Nyssa. A particular focus of his work is the engagement between early Christian theological reflection and contemporary theological concerns. His published books include Deification through the Cross: An Eastern Christian Theology of Salvation (Eerdmans, 2020), Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine (Baker Academic, 2011 & 2018), and Athanasius: The Coherence of his Thought (Routledge, 1998 & 2004).

Apply to become a seminarian at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary! The Seminary is now accepting applications for all four of its degree programs for Academic Year 2022-2023: Master of Divinity, Master of Arts, Master of Theology, and Doctor of Ministry. The deadline to apply is June 1, 2022.

Prospective students are able to complete the entire application process online, including interviews, and are not required to visit campus at any time during the application process.

In recent months, the St. Thomas Malankara Chapel at St Vladimir's Seminary has undergone a number of upgrades. Most recently, thanks to the generosity of several donors, new icons for the chapel were installed and blessed.

On Monday, January 24, Seminary President Fr. Chad Hatfield joined the Malankara seminarians for Vespers and led the blessing of the icons with Seminarian Fr. Geevarghese Mathew. 

The new icons include Christ the Pantocrator; the Theotokos; St. John the Forerunner; St. George the Martyr; St. Ephrem the Syrian; Ss. Peter and Thomas; the Three Hierarchs (the patrons of the Seminary's primary chapel); and St. Gregorios of Parumala, India. Devotion to Ss. George, Ephrem, and Gregorios of Parumala is particularly strong among Orthodox Christians in Malankara*. The icon of Ss. Peter and Thomas is a unique one commissioned specifically for the St. Thomas Malankara Chapel—it represents the fellowship at St. Vladimir's of Malankara seminarians from the jurisdiction governed by the Syriac Patriarchate of Antioch (a See of Peter) and those seminarians under the Catholicate of the East in India (the See of Thomas). 

The Seminary's Malankara community continues to raise funds in order to purchase new rugs, service books, and liturgical items for the chapel. To help, donate at svots.edu/give/donate and select "Malankara Chapel Renovation Fund", or send a check to St. Vladimir's Seminary (575 Scarsdale Road, Yonkers, NY 10707) with "Malankara Chapel Renovation Fund" in the memo. 

Members of St. Vladimir's student body, faculty, and staff joined the 49th annual March for Life Friday in Washington, D.C.

The Seminary's participation in the March was organized by St. Vladimir's student-led St. Ambrose Society. The group from St. Vladimir's joined the larger gathering of Orthodox Christians at the March led by twelve hierarchs of the Assembly of Orthodox Canonical Bishops.

Each year tens of thousands of people join the March for Life in the nation's capitol in defense of life and to condemn the tragic reality of abortion. As His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon affirmed in his annual statement released in January, “The Orthodox Church continues to hold fast to its ancient belief that all human life, from conception in the womb to our very last moment, is sacred to God. For the Holy Scripture tells us that ‘God did not make death, and He does not delight in the death of the living. For He created all things that they might exist’ (Wis 1:13–14).”

The St. Vladimir's Seminary community is celebrating the great blessings bestowed upon two of its own over the weekend: the elevation to archpriest of Alumnus Fr. Charles Baz and the ordination to the diaconate of Seminarian Andrew Salvia. The elevation and ordination took place Sunday, January 16 at Saint John the Baptist Antiochian Orthodox Church in Levittown, NY, by the hand of His Eminence, Metropolitan Joseph.

Archpriest Charles Baz graduated from St. Vladimir's Master of Divinity (M.Div.) program in 2000, and he returned years later to his alma mater as faculty to teach Byzantine Liturgical Chant Theory and intensive courses in the Arabic language for liturgical use. He currently serves as pastor of St. John in Levittown.

Following the elevation of Fr. Charles, His Eminence said that wearing the cross of the archpriest is a big responsibility, as the prayer of elevation says he must set a good example for his fellow servitors in the priesthood.

“The priesthood is not an employment, but a sacrifice,” said His Eminence.

Attending the elevation of Fr. Charles and ordination of Dn. Andrew were several fellow Antiochian Orthodox seminarians from St. Vladimir's and Seminary professor Fr. Bogdan Bucur.

At the conclusion of the diaconal ordination, His Eminence said that this lowest degree of the major orders is no less important than the priesthood and episcopacy.

“Our being in church counts a lot in the eyes of God,” His Eminence said. “If you are obedient to God, people will respect you regardless of your degree. People will respect you because you are godly, not because you are smart or eloquent.

“We said many times, ‘axios,’ ‘he is worthy,’ ‘moustahiq.’ If we think about who is worthy, then no one is worthy next to God. But God, with His grace and with His love and with His mercy, makes us worthy.”

The Rev. Dn. Andrew Salvia is in his second year studying in the M.Div. program. He and his wife, Alethia, are parents of Giuseppe, Romano, Costa, and Giovanni.

May God grant Fr. Charles, Dn. Andrew, and their families many years! AXIOS!