It was Easter morning during my first year at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, and I stood at the altar of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Teaneck, New Jersey, wearing subdeacon vestments, listening to our bishop read the gospel of St. Mark. In the traditional Syriac Orthodox melody, he chanted:
And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, “Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him.” (Mark 16.5-6).
I was overwhelmed by these words. He is risen, he is not here! Silently, I began to weep. The sense of awe that accompanied this moment was soon replaced with embarrassment, as I saw our bishop looking right at me as tears dripped off my chin. I shuffled off to find a tissue.
Why did tears come to me at such a moment? Certainly, the feast of our Lord’s resurrection holds great power. But thinking back on all that had occurred over my first year at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, I realized that what I experienced on that day was the result of accumulation. The Seminary prescribes for its students a life focused on seeking the Lord, and such a life is a struggle against the outside world. This Christ-centered focus is supported by chapel services, classes, community service, fasts, confession, and for a married student such as myself, family life. Yet on any given day, I would often wonder if such a routine was bearing any fruit. On this Easter day, I received an answer. Each day lived trying to fix our gaze on our Lord has a great benefit. It is a benefit that is usually unseen from day to day, but which accumulates slowly over time.
St. John Climacus addresses the unseen character of the spiritual life. He writes:
After a long spell of prayer, do not say that nothing has been gained, for you have already achieved something. For after all, what higher good is there than to cling to the Lord, to persevere in unceasing union with him? (Ladder of Divine Ascent, 28.32)
Life at seminary, and the life of every Orthodox Christian, is an effort to cling to the Lord each day. My time at St. Vladimir’s, particularly on that Easter morning, has taught me that, though we may not perceive any immediate changes as we try to live according to Church teaching, each day of effort matters. The Lord sees our labor and our constant yearning for Him, and slowly changes us by His grace.
The tears granted to me on Easter were a gift, showing me that, to some small and humble measure, the truth of the resurrection had established some root in my heart. Even so, the reality is that I am still a spiritual beginner, returning often to ego and self-will instead of casting myself completely upon the Lord. Yet, as my time here at seminary draws to an end, I will leave as a spiritual beginner, yet one who knows what I must do with the remainder of the earthly life that God gives me. I must work, seeking Him every day, and I pray that by His grace the following words will continue to descend into my heart, filling it through and through:
He is risen, he is not here!
-
Thomas Totonchy is a third-year Master of Divinity student from the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch. He is from Portland, Oregon, where his father helped to establish the St. Ignatius of Antioch parish. There he served as a subdeacon and was involved in youth ministry before coming to New York for seminary with his wife Jennifer, who works at the Weill Cornell Medical College. In the summer of 2015, they welcomed their daughter Josephine into the world. After seminary, Thomas hopes to continue to serve the Church as a youth minister, and if it be God’s will, as a priest.
Savannah, how did you learn American Sign Language (ASL), and how did that lead to the formation of OCDA?
I’m 19 now, but my interest in learning ASL actually began when I was 16 when I made attempts to communicate with some deaf people while shopping in Barnes and Noble.
In order to reach the door, I needed to walk through the middle of their conversation, so on the spot I looked up how to sign the phrases “excuse me,” “thank you,” and “have a good day” on my phone! This encounter with them energized me, and after this I taught myself sign language using YouTube videos. After about six months of online learning, I visited our local Deaf Action Center and met a deaf friend, Greg, who has subsequently been helping me for three years. He teaches me mainly through our conversations—when I make a mistake, he corrects me.
How has your experience of learning ASL progressed?
I’m not going to lie—truth is, ASL is a difficult language to learn! While it’s good to watch beginner videos, at some point you need to immerse yourself in it by interacting with people who are fluent in ASL, both deaf and hearing.
In my first year, I couldn’t understand most of the conversations I observed. As my vocabulary began to increase, I slowly developed the skills needed to engage others in communication. By the end of my second year, I was able to think through my conversations and sign in a more coherent manner. Now, in my third year, it’s becoming easier. It takes time, immersion, and patience!
Recently I recorded my teacher signing sections of the Divine Liturgy, and then I tried it myself. I’ve also signed The Akathist of Thanksgiving. Sometimes I practice by signing the weekday services when only a limited number of people are in attendance—I do not want to distract others. At one point, I asked my dad, “What if someone who is hearing impaired comes to our church and can’t understand the services?” We looked around to find Orthodox resources here in North America, and we couldn’t find anything. That was the genesis of the Orthodox Christian Deaf Association.
Father Jason, what are the needs of the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities?
Our Association has been formed to for three main reasons: First, we want to help connect Orthodox deaf Christians across the continent to each other; second, we need to develop liturgical and educational resources that are accessible to the deaf and HOH; and, lastly, there is a great need to bring the fullness of the Christian faith and life in Christ to this community. The deaf and hard of hearing (HOH) are, in many ways, an unreached people group.
In order for this plan to become a reality, those in the various hearing-impaired communities need to connect with each other—often they feel isolated and alone. If we think we’re isolated as Orthodox, imagine what it’s like being deaf or hard of hearing! Often someone who is deaf may be the only one in the neighborhood with this challenge. Like all of us, they are looking for community and relationships.
We decided that the most immediate need was for a centralized location, a website, so that these folks could find and interact with each other. That way, hearing impaired people can find out about us and contact us if they have visited an Orthodox service and can’t understand what is taking place. In our research, and talking to our local deaf friends, we have learned that sadly many people who are deaf or hard of hearing chose not to attend church services anymore. We heard stories of others who visited an Orthodox church but they were not able to connect due to the lack of ASL trained people and resources. Consequently, they went to other faith traditions that offered this type of ministry. In regards to Orthodoxy, many deaf and HOH have not been evangelized in a way appropriate to their unique needs.
This said, the Orthodox Church does have a great deal to offer the hearing impaired: namely, the physical or holistic nature of our worship. It includes our bodies (the sign of the cross, lighting candles, prostrations, etc.) and our senses (the fragrance of the incense, engaging the icons, the Sacraments, etc.). We have much to give this community in their interaction and experience of the gospel but we haven’t collectively reached out to them, so we have our work cut out for us!
However, the Orthodox Church is still relatively new to North America and our history is replete with the many challenges faced by immigrants bringing the faith from the mother countries. We are still in a pioneer phase in many respects, starting new ministries and outreach efforts. Yet we are convinced that the time has come for us to get serious about reaching people with disabilities.
What are the goals of OCDA?
We had modest goals when we launched the website—we didn’t have any idea what to expect at first but we knew the need was great and we had to start somewhere. Our membership increased overnight once our work was profiled on OCA.org and Ancient Faith Radio. Out of the woodwork came a number of trained ASL people and several who work directly with the deaf community. Our website has received thousands of visitors and over sixty people have signed up to be ASL Consultants, Parish Ambassadors, or to offer some type of assistance. We’ve also received emails from parents of deaf children and from the deaf or hard of hearing Orthodox themselves who want to connect with each other and, in some cases, learn how to sign the services. The ministry is taking shape before our very eyes as God moves us forward.
Thus far we have had really encouraging responses from various jurisdictions. We have been interacting with the OCA, Antiochian parishes, as well Greek, Bulgarian, and Serbian communities. Our hope is that eventually, it will be a “given” that our major metropolitan parishes will have people signing the liturgy. Ultimately, the goal of the OCDA is to bring awareness and solutions to the Orthodox deaf and HOH community as it relates to the local church. Again, this means that eventually the majority of our parishes, or at least those in larger cities, there will be someone who can sign the services and assist the priest in ministering to the deaf and HOH.
What are your challenges?
In older Orthodox countries like Greece and Russia there are more defined ministries for the deaf and those with other disabilities, but in the US there is no collective effort or hub bringing the faithful together on a national level to minister in this arena. Yet we are beginning to have people who are willing to help now and become a part of the solution. As is often in the case in North American Orthodoxy, ministries need to be developed from the ground up. This means we are laying the foundation for the OCDA now with the hope that God will bless the seeds we are planting, others will water, and the next generation will realize the greater fruit.
This journey has been humbling for me as a priest in many ways. Until Savannah approached me with the question of the deaf and Orthodoxy, I had not even thought about the needs of the hearing impaired. Her statement, “Dad, what about those who cannot hear the Gospel?” still haunts me. We want to address this in our own parish, too! While it seemed like an easy fix in the beginning to reach the this community, the longer I have worked on this with Savannah, the more I have begun to realize that incorporating ASL into our liturgical lives is going to take a lot of work and a lot of time. Developing signs that communicate certain Orthodox theological concepts is complicated! For instance, the Orthodox idea of salvation has multiple aspects—how do you capture the full concept with theological accuracy through ASL? How about words like “Theotokos” or “consubstantial?” We are in the process of developing a team, national and international, that will address these issues and many others. Pray for us!
Eventually, I hope to be able to discuss the OCDA with seminarians. You build on what you learn and are exposed to at seminary throughout the rest of your ministry—so if I can present our work to future church leaders during their training they may keep those with disabilities in their minds as they enter their parish assignments.
What can faithful do to help?
Two immediate OCDA roles that we are trying to fill are ASL Consultants and OCDA Ambassadors. Our Consultants are those who know ASL and can both teach it to others and give us input as we create signing standards for services. We need help to form and develop consistent liturgical and educational materials for use in North America. Our Ambassadors will provide vital points of contact in parishes. They will distribute informative brochures, pamphlets, and posters, paying attention to the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing in their communities and communicating their needs back to us. In other words they represent the OCDA to the deaf and HOH and the deaf and HOH to the OCDA.
Lastly, we need the prayers of God’s people to strengthen and guide this new work. Saint Mark the Deaf, our patron, intercedes for us and we ask you do as well. Prayer, as in the rest of our Christian experience, is foundational to and for all that follows!
A homily delivered in Three Hierarchs Chapel at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary on December 25, 2015.
Today, at this feast, we stand at the turning point of time.
Not simply another turning point, as the world spins on its axis, or rotates around the sun, but the turning point of time itself; the moment from which we measure all time. And more: it is a turning point in the heavens themselves, opening towards us on earth, so that we can hear the angels singing the praise of God, if we have the ears to hear them, not our usual physical sense of sound, which at this time of year is bombarded by all sorts of noise, some of it claiming to be religious – but usually the religion of consumption; but with a purified hearing.
It is a turning point at which strange things happen.
According to an old tale, told by another story teller, in the night between Christmas Eve and the morning of Christmas day, all the animals can speak, though few hear them or know what they say; Simpkin, the cat, as he wanders through the streets looking for mice to eat, can hear them chattering away and singing; but he was not admitted into their conversation; for he had hidden some twist and was prowling for mice to eat, as his master lay sick in bed, muttering to himself: no more twist.
That nature is overturned on this night is indeed an old idea. In the second century prayer for midnight, we hear:
In this hour every creature hushes for a brief moment to praise the Lord; stars and plants and water stand still at that instant; all the hosts of angels ministering to Him, together with the souls of the righteous, praise God.
And from the same period, we hear, in the Protoevangelium of James, how Mary and Joseph also stop, when Mary feels the stirrings of the babe in her womb ready to be born. They find a cave and Joseph goes off to find a midwife:
But I, Joseph, was walking and I was not walking. I looked up to the vault of the sky, and I saw it standing still, and into the air, and I saw that it was greatly disturbed, and the birds of the sky were at rest. … Everyone was looking up. I saw a flock of sheep being herded, but they were standing still … I looked down at the torrential stream, and I saw some goats whose mouths were over the water, but they were not drinking. Then suddenly everything returned to its normal course.
As Christ is born, creation stands still—strange things happen and nature is overturned, the heavens themselves are turned, and we can, if we listen, hear the angels praising (and the mice singing).
It is in this midnight silence, Wisdom says, that the firstborn Egyptians were slain by the destroying angel, so that the firstborn of God, Israel, might be set free from slavery, when the Word descended from heaven. While peaceful silence enveloped all things, and night was in the middle of its own swift course, from heaven, from the royal throne, your all-powerful Word, leapt as a stern warrior, into the midst of the land marked for destruction, bearing your irrevocable command as a sharp rapier; standing, it filled all things with death and while it touched heaven, it stood on the earth.
This act, in silence, is what we celebrate today, as we too are set free from slavery, when the firstborn Son of God, Christ himself, is born from the Virgin, uniting heaven and earth, and we, in the midst of the death he casts upon the earth, are brought back to life.
Three mysteries of God, St Ignatius says, were worked in silence: the virginity of Mary, the birth of Christ, and the Cross. They were shrouded in silence, hidden from this world and its rulers, so that, when creation is silent, God can work, for Christ is the Word emerging from this silence. And it is this silence that St Ignatius asks of the Roman Christians, so that he too might follow Christ in his Passion, and so become a word of God, as did all those martyrs we celebrated in the days leading up to this birth of Christ; for as St Ignatius also says, Christ, the head, is not born without his body also being born.
It is this silence, then, that we need, if we are going to hear the angelic ranks singing in amazement today, and to join in their hymns of praise. This is something we will never hear, or be part of, if we remain on the prowl, as was Simpkin, looking to fill our stomachs by eating others, all the while keeping for ourselves what others need. Only when he repented, and brought to his master that which he had held back, only then was the magnificent garment that the mice had been working on only then was it able to be completed.
Christ’s body, miraculously woven in the womb of the Virgin, as she spins the thread, the twist, is today present on earth. That it weaves together heaven and earth is possible only because the heavens themselves are opened when they turn today, and when they are opened we can see the end to which the whole of creation (animals as well) are working.
Let us not say, then, that we have no more twist, nothing to contribute to the weaving of the glorious body of Christ, but instead give glory, thanksgiving, and praise for all that God has done for us today, giving of ourselves, giving our very selves, in return for truly today, Christ is born!
-
Fr. John Behr (SVOTS ’97) is the former Dean of St Vladimir’s Seminary and Professor of Patristics.
Father Theodor Svane, a 2015 alumnus of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS), is the priest in charge of The Annunciation of the Holy Virgin Mary Orthodox Parish (Archdiocese of Orthodox Churches of Russian Tradition in Western Europe, Moscow Patriarchate) in Bergen, Norway. In Norway, where Lutheranism is the state religion and people identify as being culturally Lutheran, it is difficult to convert to another faith. But in a recent interview, Fr. Theodor explains that Norwegians are hungry for a deeper Christianity and the ancient Church. He also talks about the challenges and rewards of building a mission parish in “the land of the Vikings.” His Matushka, Hanne, is a cultural anthropologist who teaches at a local university. They have two children, Simon, 10, and Filip, 5.
Q: Tell us about your mission parish.
FT: Since our return from California and the U.S. in 2017 I have been the priest in charge over a mission parish in Bergen, Norway. Our mission is international, but our liturgical language is Norwegian. Thank God we already have many ethnic Orthodox parishes in Norway. However I believe it is very important that we establish Norwegian speaking parishes in addition to other ones. Many Norwegians are longing for a deeper Christianity and searching for the ancient Church. Starting a mission is hard work and it’s been three challenging but also rewarding years. Thank God we have been able to support ourselves through my work as a Navy Chaplain in the Norwegian Armed Forces.
We are currently renting a parish hall from a Lutheran church. Every weekend, we set up for Vespers Saturday evening and for Sunday Divine Liturgy and then we take everything down Sunday afternoon. On feast days falling on weekdays we often celebrate with the Romanian or Russian parishes here in Bergen. It is important for me to have good relationships with the other Orthodox parishes, and my brother clergy in town are good friends and supporters. We are in the same Church, united in Christ, but at the same time of different cultures and languages.
Q: What is the history of Orthodoxy in Norway?
FT: The Orthodox Church in Norway has long roots. Norway was Christianized before the Great Schism and the Norwegians were all Orthodox, since both the eastern and western part of the Church was united at the time. Most of the missionaries came from western Europe, but also a significant current came from the east. For instance, the rulers of Norway were related to the rulers of Rus in Novgorod and Kiev. Many of the ruling class had ties in the east. Some of the kings who gave Norway Christian laws spent significant time in Russia. One of them was even nicknamed “the Russian.”
God can send anyone, and ironically it is the Vikings, well known for their savagery and paganism, who brought Christianity to Norway. While they were plundering and pillaging, but also trading and traveling across the medieval world, they encountered Christianity. Many of them became Christians and brought Christianity back to our shores. After the Great Schism, which happens at the end of the Viking era, Orthodoxy disappeared slowly as Norway is drawn under the authority of the emerging papal power of the Latin Church.
Orthodoxy later resurfaced again in northern Norway around the time of the Reformation, because Norway borders Finland and Russia. The stories of the Russian missionaries who came here resemble the life of St. Herman of Alaska. St. Tryphon was a Russian saint who came to Norway. Norway also has three Orthodox saints who lived during the Viking era: St. Sunniva, St. Olaf, and St. Hallvard.
Q: Is it difficult culturally to convert in Norway?
FT: In Europe, religion, ethnicity, and culture are tied together more closely than in the U.S. The religion of Scandinavian countries has had and still has very close ties with the state and culture. In 1537, by decree, all Norwegians became Lutherans by law and anyone opposing this and holding on to the old ways would ultimately be expelled from the country.
The authority of the king replaced the authority of the pope. Religion, nation, and nationality merged. To this day the official name of the Lutheran State Church is the “Church of Norway.” Historically Scandinavians have been very homogenous, ethnically and religiously speaking, and in Norway we did not get full religious freedom until the 1960s.
For this reason a Norwegian often feels that they have to abandon their nationality if they join the Orthodox Church. This is a paradox since the Orthodox Church is the closest Christian church geographically speaking since we border Russia and Finland.
Q: How is your parish doing today?
FT: The community was established in the early 90s. I am the first resident priest of the mission and so far my main focus has simply been to get the services up and running on a weekly basis. We are growing slowly as you would expect for a small mission, but we will receive a catechumen into the church this fall and we have a few more coming down the pipeline. On a regular Sunday, before COVID, we would be between twenty and twenty-five worshippers.
Our mission is international, with people from all over the world. We have Japanese, Romanians, Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, and Middle Easterners. The core are, however, Norwegian converts, and this is great. There is a danger if we become a parish of only converts, so I am very grateful for all the internationals that God sends us. People from Orthodox countries are less “heady” than converts from western Protestant countries. We need them because they have Orthodoxy in their bodies and not just in their heads. I pray that God will send us more cradle Orthodox who are excited about establishing a Norwegian speaking parish.
Q: How did you become Orthodox?
FT: I came to the Orthodox Church while studying theology part-time and working as a civil engineer. My parents were practicing Christians who gave me a traditional Norwegian Christian upbringing. However from my early twenties I was drawn to the Orthodox Church and had a long distance relationship with it, mainly through books (this was before we got internet). But at that stage I did not really consider it as an option for me, since I, like Norwegians in general, believe Orthodoxy to be a cultural expression of Christianity and thus something for people from Eastern Europe and the Middle East, but not for me. However when we lived for one year in Thailand, when my wife did her field research for her Master’s thesis in 2005, I realized that I had to do something with my relationship with the Orthodox Church. And as soon as we moved back to Europe we went on a pilgrimage to the Holy land and Syria, and from that point on there was no point of return. I was completely sold and felt that if I did not become Orthodox I would wither and die.
However the process took quite a few years because it was important for me and my wife to do this together. I am very grateful that we took the time.
At the time the Orthodox community in Bergen was very small and there were no resident priests. A priest would come once a month to celebrate the liturgy on Saturdays, and we would gather on Sundays to read the Typika service in between. I never dreamt of becoming a priest when I was young, but the thought emerged in my heart partly because I was seeing a need for a priest.
We moved to America because we realized we needed to immerse ourselves in an Orthodox community. You can read books on the Orthodox Church, but you will miss out on the essentials, because the faith is something we practice in a community as the Body of Christ.
Q: I understand you have started a building campaign.
FT: Yes, I never thought we would start this early, but someone approached me just after Christmas and wanted to give us $20,000 if we established a fund. It is a challenge to find a place to worship. Our desire is to establish a viable Norwegian community by the grace of God. Having our own place to worship is a very important part in reaching that goal. A part of my long term dream is to build an Orthodox church inspired by our ancient Norwegian building traditions. Either a wooden stave church or perhaps a fusion of Russian/Byzantine and Norwegian stone church traditions.
Q: What is the state of Orthodoxy in Norway?
FT: For more than ten years, Orthodoxy has been the fastest growing Christian Church in Norway. Our numbers have been growing because of immigration mainly from Eastern Europe, but also Norwegians are finding their way. It is a very typical growth challenge. We are lagging behind on infrastructure, clergy, choir directors, etc.
Our parish belongs to the Archdiocese of Orthodox Churches of Russian Tradition in Western Europe, which is a diocese with a long history in Western Europe and also has close ties to the Orthodox Church in America. The last couple of years have been very challenging for our diocese, but we are now very grateful to be reunited with the Russian Church to which we historically belong. I am eager and look forward to starting the work God has set us to do here.
Q: Tell me about your time at SVOTS.
FT: We had a great time at St Vladimir’s. Our five years in the U.S., starting at St Vladimir’s followed by being an assistant priest in California, were the five best years of our lives. I can’t stress how important the formation that happens in the seminary community is. You can’t absorb the Orthodox ethos and way of life through reading, you have to live and practice it in a community. The childhood that we were able to give our kids was filled with so much joy and a lot of friends at the seminary campus. If I could find an excuse to go back and live there I would! But I know that God has called us to be where we are even though it sometimes feels like a desert compared to the situation in the U.S. Because we love the seminary, it was such a great joy and honor for us to host Fr. Chad Hatfield here in December as he was giving a retreat for us and inspiring us to be the Church sent to our own people. I am incredibly grateful for our time in the U.S., and for the ties and friends we have been given. We are always delighted to receive visitors and friends in the land of the Vikings.
Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Alumnus Angelo Niqula was ordained to the holy diaconate on the Feast of the Dormition of the Holy Theotokos, August 15, 2020. The ordination took place atSt. George Orthodox Church of Boston, located in West Roxbury, MA, by the hand of His Grace, Bishop John (Abdallah; SVOTS Class of ’84).
Niqula—now The Rev. Dn. Anthony—graduated from St. Vladimir’s Seminary with a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree in 2019, with a commendation for service to the community. Deacon Anthony served as student council president at the Seminary and sang frequently with the St. Vladimir’s Seminary Octet and Chorale; he is one of the voices featured onArise! Music of the Psalms, an album released earlier this year by SVS Press. He is also a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 2016.
Deacon Anthony currently serves as pastoral assistant at St. George Orthodox Church and is studying Byzantine music at Hellenic College Holy Cross, Brookline, MA.
The community of St. Vladimir’s Seminary wishes the newly ordained Dn. Anthony and Diakonissa Evangelia many years!
(Photos:St. George Orthodox Church of Boston)
A homily for the Apostle Andrew, the Holy and All-Praised First Called (commemorated on November 30).
Walking through this dark, cold morning, did you happen to ask yourself, “What in the world am I doing?”
What were we looking for when we got out of bed this morning? What were we looking for when we came to this place—whether we came from the other side of the world, or the other side of the street?
Have we found it? What are we looking for now?
When St. Andrew first followed Jesus, our Lord looked at him and asked, “What do you seek?”
What were we seeking when we were first called?
Something inspired us to leave everything and follow Christ to this place. Perhaps it was a fire that burned in our souls, or a light that guided us through the darkness, or a Word that spoke to us in our loneliness.
As Andrew, and Simon Peter and Phillip and Nathanael are called, they leave everything and follow Christ. And we can imagine that in those early days, there was a great deal of excitement, perhaps even some back slapping and self-congratulation. “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
We have found Him, you and I, we are the chosen ones, we can see something amazing in Jesus, and so we leave everything to follow Christ.
But it is a LONG path.
It stretches from the wilderness of Jordan, throughout the Galilee, across the perilous waters of that sea, to the land of the Gaderenes and back, and ultimately the path leads up the long and treacherous road to Jerusalem.
It is a path that starts out bright, hopeful, exciting, thrilling even, but it gets harder, and harder.
And standing there on the Mount of Olives, looking across the Kidron Valley at the Temple, we wonder, just as Andrew did, “Lord, all that you have foretold, when will it come to pass?” But when it becomes clear that the journey ends with a shameful, dishonorable death on Golgotha, nailed to the cross, we realize just how hard it is to follow Christ.
The carrying of the cross. Duccio di Buoninsegna.
It was not easy for St. Andrew, and it is certainly not easy for us.
But it is frighteningly easy to fall away. So frighteningly easy to deny Christ, voluntarily or involuntarily, in word or in deed, in knowledge or in ignorance.
And so today, on this cold, dark, morning, we may feel a bit like Andrew and the other disciples who were so dispirited as Jesus hung upon the Cross. But just because we might be dispirited, does not mean that we are defeated.
In those dark days, Andrew’s faith may not have burned as bright as it once had in those exciting days of leaving everything and following Christ. And this morning maybe our faith does not burn as bright as it once did, when we first we made exciting decisions to go off in new directions. Perhaps Andrew’s faith was nothing more than the tiniest spark of a smoldering wick. And perhaps that is all the faith that we have.
But that one small spark is all it takes.
Pentecost. Duccio di Buoninsegna.
In that upper room on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles, the smoldering wick of faith was fanned into a tongue of fire. No matter how weak their faith had been, each one of them became a light in the darkness, and they were sent out into the world to bring Christ to a lonely world.
At that moment Andrew began to understood his calling.
According to legend, he traveled far and wide, preaching the Gospel in Cyprus, Georgia, Romania, and Kiev. And in his most difficult moments, on those cold dark mornings, hundreds and hundreds of miles from the warm shores of the Sea of Galilee, perhaps he thought back to Jesus’ first words, “What are you seeking?”
No matter where he was, no matter what he was doing, no matter how dark or cold, he needed to look no further than his own heart, for as St. Paul says, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” (Rom 5.5) Filled with that love, Andrew saw the image of God in everyone he met. He saw the image of God in the poor, the angry, the sick, the despairing, the lonely, the stranger. It was this love of God that allowed him to rejoice and give thanks even as he offered his life as a martyr.
Today as we give thanks in this Liturgy, we pray to God, “Send down your holy spirit upon us and upon these gifts.” As we pray this prayer today, may God remind us of the moment that we were first called.
By the prayers of St. Andrew the First Called, may we fulfill our calling to do God’s work: being faithful in everything we do, especially those things that are annoying or unpleasant; offering a kind word to the people that God places in our life, especially the ones who are the most difficult to love; and giving thanks to God for all things, especially the crosses that we are blessed to bear on this day.
By the prayers of St. Andrew the First Called, may our hearts catch fire with faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
-
The Rev. Dr. J. Sergius Halvorsen (SVOTS ’96) received his M.Div. from St. Vladimir’s Seminary and completed his doctoral dissertation at Drew University in 2002. From 2000 to 2011 he taught at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell Connecticut, where he also served as Director of Distance Learning. He was ordained to the priesthood in February 2004, and currently serves on the faculty of SVOTS as Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Rhetoric and Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program.
Recent St. Vladimir’s graduate John Thetford has joined the ranks of the holy diaconate. Deacon John was ordained on the Feast of the Glorification of St. Herman of Alaska, August 9, 2020, by the hand ofHis Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon(Orthodox Church in America) at the Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration, Ellwood City, PA.
The Rev. Dn. John Thetford was raised in the Orthodox faith at St. Elias Parish, Ellwood City, PA (Romanian Episcopate). He graduated from St. Vladimir’s Seminary with a Master of Arts (M.A.) Degree in 2020. He also earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Religious Studies from the University of Pittsburgh in 2010 and a Master’s Degree in Education from Duquesne University in 2011. Deacon John worked as an elementary teacher and social worker prior to enrolling at St. Vladimir’s in 2017.
He was an active student during his time at seminary, serving as student leader of theSt. Innocent Mission Societyon campus and Ss. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church, Jersey City, NJ, for his student parish assignment. As a seminarian Deacon John also served the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), working at Central Administration since June 2019 as an intern. He continued there following his graduation from St. Vladimir’s and became an administrative assistant in June 2020.
Deacon John will now take on even more responsibility within the OCA, having been appointed personal secretary to His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon. Deacon John began his new position August 16, 2020. He is also returning to the Seminary for the 2020-2021 academic year to complete a Master of Theology (Th.M.) degree.
The community of St. Vladimir’s Seminary wishes the newly ordained Dn. John and Matushka Katherine Thetford many years!
Father Simon Menyais on the move in Northern Uganda, translating books into the local Luo language, spearheading agricultural projects to promote self-sufficiency, distributing supplies to those in need, and, of course, catechizing the faithful.
The first Ugandan to graduate from St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS), Fr. Simon (’18) was ordained to the holy priesthood in 2019 by the hand of His Grace, Silvester Kisitu Maximos, bishop of the Ugandan Orthodox Church’sDiocese of Gulu and Eastern Uganda.
The pandemic has hit Uganda hard, with its people never before experiencing lockdown. But Fr. Simon is using it as an opportunity to minister to his flock in Acholi-Nyek village, where he is planting a church community.
“When the Covid-19 outbreak occurred I continued visiting and encouraging them by telling them to keep calm and carry on,” said Fr. Simon. “This gave us time to meet and also talk about farming activities.”
Father Simon hired local laborers to uproot trees and plow approximately eight acres of land to grow crops, which will benefit the church community. He also gave community members about thirty acres of land so that they could have their own plots to farm in order to support their families.
The work in Acholi-Nyek is part of The Northern Uganda Self-Sufficiency Project (NUSSP), which was initiated underHis Eminence, Metropolitan Jonah of Kampala and All Uganda. NUSSP was formed out of a desire to see a thriving Orthodox community in Northern Uganda no longer dependent on financial assistance from the Church in Greece, which reduced its support during Greece’s financial crisis.
Extreme poverty is widespread in Uganda and Orthodox priests must work multiple jobs to provide what little they can for their families and parishes. The country has also been ravaged by years of civil war. Father Simon’s brothers were killed by the rebel group, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) during the conflict.
“I hope to restore the lost faith and hopes of the people due to the twenty-four years of war,” he said, “and to encourage self-supportive life skills in them through our churches.”
Besides the agricultural program, NUSSP initiatives include developing forty hectares of land recently acquired to support a church, school, and small businesses; establishing a health center; and implementing Orthodox youth and adult education programs.
Father Simon is also taking advantage of the many hours in lockdown to translate materials from English into Luo so that people can understand church services. Four young men who are active members of the Church are assisting him in this process. They have just finished translating the service ofOrthrosas well as a booklet on the Jesus Prayer, an Orthodox prayer book, and a book on catechism.
These and many others books were donated by SVOTS when Fr. Simon was a seminarian. In 2019, SVOTS tithed 10% of its funds from Giving Tuesday and used the monies to ship the books to Uganda and to support NUSSP.
The NUSSP has also received support during the COVID-19 pandemic from Dr. Ioana Popa and Sébastien Falardeau of the organization Along The Journey, Coaching, Consulting & Spiritual Care. With that help, Fr. Simon and his team purchased food items and face masks and distributed food to orphans and widows in the village. They also handed out masks to those who couldn’t afford one, following a government directive making masks mandatory in public.
Along with his work in Acholi-Nyek, Fr. Simon is an assistant priest in three parishes. To sustain himself during his many long days of ministry, he tries to remember wise words once shared with him.
“We all know that ‘life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, but it’s about learning how to dance in the rain,’” said Fr. Simon. “One time an old man told me a word of wisdom, that ‘My son, during low points in your life it’s better to be busier than to be busy worrying, because when the world is running down, you can make the best of what's still around.’ This is what inspired me and NUSSP to engage this community during COVID-19.”
If you want to support the work and progress of Fr. Simon/NUSSP in Uganda, you can donate through Lift Up Uganda, a nonprofit that was started by American supporters of NUSSP. You may also donate through PaPpal on theNUSSP website. Father Simon can be reached by email atmenyasimon@gmail.com.
A homily delivered in Three Hierarchs Chapel at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary on Sunday, November 15, 2015.
We have all seen and heard about this barbaric, horrific, and frightening terrorist action that took place in Paris on Friday. Three teams of men, disciplined in dealing death, planned this attack with the help of others and managed to evade an enormous security apparatus that blankets most of the Western world. Notably, at least one of them deviously managed to slip into Europe under the guise of a refugee. Perhaps in the coming days, we will find out more about how this crime came about: who else was involved? Who financed it? Where did they train? But at the same time, the part of story that concerns those who were out on a cold November night for dinner, a concert, a stroll, or a soccer game must also be told. The victims are worthy of our remembrance and our consideration today, and not those who appear strong with weapons that bring death or those who appear mighty and sow fear, confusion, and further enmity.
The victims of this tragedy once again compel us to think on Christ, on His Gospel, and to turn our gaze to Him. Only then can we also bear to look on the dead and the wounded of this November night, and also the dead and the wounded, the marginalized, the outcasts of every age, all those along the side of the road—sick, wounded, destitute, ill-afflicted, dead, and dying—that we would prefer to pass by. Only with Christ can we see them, as the Gospel tells us today, as our neighbor, those whom we must love with the same ferocity, the same devotion, the same ardor that we love God. Consequently, we mourn at the death of our neighbors. We anguish over the wounded. We pray that God receive the dead into His kingdom and that He restore the injured to health. To those who appear strong in their might on Friday, we call out their brutality as senseless and weak.
Christ’s own death provides us with the fundamental way of understanding the world according to the Gospel. It is what the Apostle says: “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God (I Cor. 1.27-29).” Only with Christ, in our love for Him and our love for our newly defined neighbor, will we truly live. Seeing things in this manner allows us to see past the veil of this world, past the wisdom of this world, and perceive exactly the wisdom of God, Jesus Christ, active in this world.
In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist acts, social media was abuzz with messages of hope, solidarity, and prayers for the people of Paris. One notorious statement emerged and rejected prayers from the different corners of the globe:
“Please don’t pray for Paris. We’ve had enough religion for one night.”
I counter this to the greatest degree I can personally muster: we do not need less religion, we need more. We need Christianity and authentic faith. We need Jesus Christ, because we need to love Him, because He our God. We need to love those around us, those who are far from us, because they are our neighbor. Neither enmity or hatred, but Christ and the peace spoken of in the Epistle today are what we, the entire world, needs.
In other words, what abides, what remains, is exactly that person spoken of in days of old: “The Prince of peace (Is. 9.6),” He “who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy.” Eternal and holy, He remains. He endures. He revives, restores, comforts, and heals us when we turn to him. Christ is our peace (Eph. 2.14), the peace proclaimed far and wide. In all our struggles, in all our affliction, in all our angst, anxiety, and uncertainty about what happens in the present and what the future might bring, Christ is our peace. When we are most vulnerable and feel we are in danger of losing everything, our Lord remains with us.
Now when Paul speaks about Christ as our peace today, he is not speaking of peace as a state of quiet, personal contentment. Rather he speaks here of reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles in Christ. The resolution to their separation, alienation, and estrangement is faith in God. How are they reconciled? By faith in Christ, who “abolish[ed] in his flesh” what had separated them. He brought forward a new man, reconciling us to God through His blood and His cross. This is not merely a historical fact, or a description of a theological controversy, but exposes for us who we are in reality. We are not strangers or sojourners to the heavenly realms, and citizens of this world. No! We have access to and can be rich in the spiritual treasures, because we are “fellow citizens with the saints…members with of the household of God,” and neighbors one to another. We have been knitted and joined together as the Temple of the Living God, as the dwelling place for the God in the Spirit.
I began today speaking of tragedy. I end today speaking of reassurance, comfort, support, encouragement, hope, and faith, because we are “not like those who have no hope.” We have Christ. We have faith in Christ. We have Peace. He alone is our answer to what ails us and afflicts the world.
-
Archpriest Alexander Rentel, a 1995 M.Div. graduate of St. Vladimir’s, finished his doctoral dissertation under the direction of Fr. Robert Taft, SJ, at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome in January 2004. Prior to coming to St. Vladimir’s as a professor, Fr. Alexander was a 2000-2001 Junior Fellow in Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. He has taken numerous research trips to Greece, Italy, and France. He was ordained to the priesthood in July 2001. He and his wife, Nancy (née Homyak, M.Div. 1995) are the proud parents of three children, Dimitrios, Maria, and Daniel.
What should you say to someone whose world is seemingly crumbling around them? How do you navigate between a difficult reality and the expectation of hope?
Hospital chaplain and St. Vladimir’s Seminary Alumna Clio Pavlantos speaks about ministering to cancer & COVID-19 patients in a recent interview with the Seminary’s Ginny Nieuwsma. Pavlantos also talks about her journey from St. Vladimir’s Seminary into chaplaincy and how her seminary training and formation prepared her for ministry.
