I am surely not the only male convert to Orthodoxy who was initially surprised to discover how central the balance of the masculine and the feminine is to our faith and spiritual life. To some that may seem counter-intuitive in a church with a male priesthood with lots of facial hair, while to others it may be self-evident; nonetheless, it is true and important. For example, think of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Joachim and Anna, Zacharias and Elizabeth, or Constantine and Helen. We are always asking the female Theotokos to use her boldness as a mother to intercede for us with her male Son. We sing almost every Sunday about those myrrh-bearing women in matins and regularly chant and/or read about women saints of all kinds. We proclaim that Mary Magdalene was the preacher to the male apostles of the Lord’s resurrection and that she, together with various other women and men, are their equals. Since we are male and female in God’s image, this balance fits nicely with the deepest sensibilities of Orthodox Christianity.

Perhaps the strong women of my own family have helped me embrace enthusiastically the prominent role of women in the Orthodox spiritual life. In my hometown of Beaumont, TX, my three great aunts—whom we called by their nicknames, Hennie, Nig, and Gertie—lived just a few minutes from the house where I grew up. My grandmother had died when I was an infant, and these ladies more than fulfilled that role for my brother and me. One was a widow and two never married, but they lived together for decades and had very full lives. For example, Hennie was the first female school principal in Beaumont, an accomplished and enthusiastic fisherman (or fisherwoman ), and visited Alaska when she was around eighty. When my father first met these ladies in the late 1950’s, he said he had never met a group of such independent women. They were all devout and straight-laced Methodists, which is why my first educational experience was in a Methodist preschool. Since I did graduate work at Duke and now teach at Methodist-related McMurry, it is interesting that my academic experiences began and still continue in Methodist circles.

My mother and her late sister Fay have a lot in common with those great aunts. Both, like Hennie, were teachers, and they showed the same abundance of self-confidence that she had. I remember Fay once mentioning that someone at their Baptist church had asked where she and my mom got that quality. Her response was that it was from their father, who never gave them the impression that they should have been sons instead of daughters, and also instilled in them the belief that they could do whatever they set their minds to. I hope that I have sent the same message to my own girls.

My mother, now a widow and the only surviving member of her family of origin, lives independently in the house built by my great aunts. An active member of the Baptist congregation in which I grew up, she still spends lots of time and energy taking care of friends who suffer more than she does from the infirmities associated with a long life. A few years ago, Mom attended classes on Orthodoxy at St. Michael parish in Beaumont in order to learn more about her youngest son’s faith. Once when I was at St Vladimir’s Seminary in New York, our Bishop Basil was on the phone with another priest at the same meeting. When it was my turn to say hello to him, His Grace began, “The parish council in Beaumont loves your mother!” What a joyful confluence of important people in my life. After she slept unharmed through a burglary in her house a while back, Mom said, “Well, I suppose that God has something left for me to do.” I do not doubt that for a minute.

Given the self-confident women in my upbringing, it is probably not surprising that my wife is a physician, that our oldest daughter had the courage to spend last summer interning at an AIDS foundation in Ghana, and that our youngest had the confidence to go by herself to three summer sessions of “nerd camp,” a residential program for gifted and talented students a few hours away. Growing up Orthodox in Abilene rarely leads to social advantages, and neither does attending nerd camp. The virtuous lives our girls lead in college and high school require courage and self-determination.

Like my mother and aunts, Paige and the girls are not timid shrinking violets by a long shot, and neither were the women saints who had the boldness to go to the tomb of Christ in the wee hours of Sunday morning to anoint His body, and thus put themselves in the place to become the first witnesses of His resurrection. Neither were the countless female martyrs who died after enduring the worst tortures their enemies could produce for refusing to abandon their Lord. Above all, the courage of the Theotokos to say “yes” to the message of the Archangel Gabriel stands as the epitome of humanity’s response to God’s calling, and it was given by a teenage girl.

Perhaps part of why venerating and asking for the prayers of female saints comes so easily to me is that my life has been blessed by so many righteous women who pray for me and for whom I pray, regardless of whether they are now among the living or the departed. They are not canonized by the Church (at least not yet!), but the witness of so many holy women has benefited my own journey in ways beyond words. I could say a lot about my father, priests, bishops, and many other male friends who have also played crucial roles in this regard, but that is for another time. For now, I will return to where I started. The masculine and feminine have legitimate and balanced roles in the spiritual path of Orthodoxy. Since we are created male and female in God’s image, and since the incarnate Son of God has a fully human mother, that really should not be surprising. It is simply part of the good news of our salvation, whether we are male or female.

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Fr. Philip LeMasters is an Eastern Orthodox priest, a dean at McMurry University, a commentator on Ancient Faith Radio, and the author of The Forgotten Faith: Ancient Insights for Contemporary Believers from Eastern Christianity (Cascade Books, 2013), The Goodness of God’s Creation (Regina Orthodox Press, 2008), Toward a Eucharistic Vision of Church, Family, Marriage, and Sex (Light & Life, 2004), three other books on Christian ethics, and many published essays and reviews. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Vladimir’s Seminary. This blog post originally appeared on the blog Eastern Christian Insights and is republished here with the permission of the author.

SVOTS Alumnus Dn. George Katrib has been ordained to the Holy Priesthood. The ordination took place at St. George Orthodox Christian Church, Houston, TX on Sunday, November 11, 2018. Priest George was ordained by the hand of His Grace BASIL, bishop of Wichita and Mid-America (Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church of North America), another SVOTS alumnus (’73).

Fr. George graduated from St. Vladimir’s Seminary with a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree in 2014. Before seminary, he attended Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, IL, which he graduated from with a bachelor’s degree. Fr. George has most recently been serving as youth director at St. George Church in Houston, his home parish, and will now serve as assistant pastor at St. George.

SVOTS wishes Fr. George and his wife, Khouria Miray, many years!

The musical artistry of Alumnus Priest David Lee Bozeman is the subject of a recent feature interview in The Living Church, a biweekly magazine of the Anglican Communion. The interview with Fr. David, “Of Majesty and Mystery,” is also featured on the cover of the October 21, 2018 edition of the magazine.

In the interview, Fr. David, the lead singer and guitarist of the rock band Luxury—a band which also includes fellow SVOTS alumni Fr. Christopher Foley (’06) and Fr. David’s  brother, Fr. James Bozeman (’12)—talks about some of his music as well as what drew him to the Orthodox Church.

• Read “Of Majesty and Mystery” on The Living Church website.

Fr. David Lee Bozeman graduated magna cum laude from St. Vladimir’s Seminary the same year as his brother, in 2012, with a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree. He currently serves at St. Nektarios Mission (Orthodox Church in America) in Waxahachie, TX.

• Related: A conversation with Mat. Amy Bozeman
• Related: I (used to) Play in a Rock Band, by Fr James Bozeman

Alumni Priests Peter Robichau (’10) and Andrew Cannon (’16) have launched efforts to assist parishioners of Saint Basil Orthodox Church in Wilmington, NC who have been left in need in the wake of a direct hit from Hurricane Florence on September 14, 2018.

Fr. Peter and Fr. Andrew were recently assigned as rector and assistant priest, respectively, at Saint Basil. The hurricane did not cause structural damage to the church building, but did topple some trees on the property, damaging fences. Unfortunately, some of Saint Basil’s parishioners suffered far worse.

“Soon after Florence made landfall, we began to receive reports from parishioners of major uninsured losses, lost wages, and tremendous hardship—and the ‘worst’ hasn’t even started, according to disaster response officials,” Fr. Peter explained to OCA.org. “And right now, due to major highway closures with no way in or out of Wilmington, evacuees will be forced to wait a considerable time before returning, relief workers’ arrivals will be delayed, and deliveries of essentials such as food, water, and fuel will be limited for some time.  This will be a months-long recovery.”

The parish has established a GoFundMe page to raise money for those parishioners as well as to assist neighbors and others who come to the parish for help. Donations may also be sent directly to Saint Basil Church Hurricane Relief Fund, 4601 Blue Clay Road, Castle Hayne, NC 28429.

Additionally, Saint Basil Church is working with International Orthodox Christian Charities [IOCC], which established emergency response protocols before the hurricane hit. Volunteers interested in helping IOCC’s relief efforts across the region can register online.

A homily delivered in the Three Hierarchs Chapel at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary on the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple and Zacchaeus Sunday (Sunday, February 2, 2014).

Today, as we celebrate the meeting of Christ and the righteous Simeon and Anna, in the temple, we come to an end of a series of feasts that have taken us through the darkness of the long and cold winter nights: a series of feasts bringing out different aspects of God’s search or outreach to us: the Word becoming flesh in the small dark cavern, in the depths of the earth, the manifestation of God to us, through the passage through the waters.

And now, in obedience to the Mosaic Law, forty days after his birth, Christ, the first-born son, is brought to the temple so that he might complete the law, and the law might be completed by him.

Being brought to the temple, he is met by the righteous elder Simeon and the prophetess Anna: the old now passes, and the new has come, and the place where they meet, where the old meets the new and the new is revealed, is in the Temple, the place to which Jesus is brought as a sacrifice.

We heard last night in the readings from Isaiah that it was in the temple that Isaiah saw the Lord of glory enthroned and prophesied, that this same Lord would be worshipped by none other than the Egyptians—the biblical symbol of the gentiles hostile to Israel and their God. Now these words are fulfilled: Christ is brought into the temple, and he rests in the arms of the elder as on a throne. Israel’s glory has dawned in Christ, who is the light of revelation to the Gentiles. And now that Israel has accomplished its task of bringing the Messiah into the world, Simeon can depart in peace: the promises made in the beginning to Abraham about the calling of the nations are now fulfilled, so that in Abraham’s seed, all nations of the world are now blessed.

The very age of the righteous elder and the prophetess indicate the passing away of the ancient customs, the rituals and prescriptions, for these were only ever, as the apostle puts it, a shadow of the good things to come whereas the reality belongs to Christ, the one who was received in the arms of the elder, the one who was to cause the fall and rising again of many in Israel, the one who thus bestows upon us the resurrection—the new creation. All this, the righteous elder Simeon sees, and more: he foresees the pain that would wound the one who gave birth painlessly to the Son of God, that he will be a sign spoken against—but a sign that therefore reveals the thoughts of our hearts.

Today then, standing in the temple with Simeon, we do indeed come to the completion of the movement of God towards us, so that we can also say, let us depart in peace: the glory of God is revealed, enlightening those who sat in darkness.

But if the movement of God towards us is completed in this way, our movement now begins. We must begin to set our own sights upon the journey to Jerusalem, something we are reminded about by the second Gospel reading today: that about Zacchaeus—which alerts us to the coming pre-Lenten Sundays. If this movement of God towards us is indeed light coming into the world, enlightening those who sit in darkness, then there are various points of which we should take note.

Firstly, it means that we must recognize that we are indeed the ones who have been sitting in darkness. Only now, in the light of Christ, can we begin to realize how dark indeed has been our supposedly enlightened world and our all-too-human behavior, however decent, civilized, polite, it may seem. And, recognizing that we are the ones sitting in darkness, our response should be as Zacchaeus: not simply waiting around on the off-chance that the Lord will pass by, but, the Gospel says, he eagerly sought the Lord; he demonstrated an intense desire to seek him out, to actively find him.

The second point would be that as we begin to allow his light to shine upon us and in us, we will certainly begin to understand what it means that he is a sign spoken against, revealing the thoughts of our hearts; for as we begin to try to live by this sign, we will assuredly find all our resistances coming to the surface, all the reasons, the thoughts of our hearts which usually remain unconscious, all the reasons why we should do otherwise, or with less enthusiasm or zeal, or perhaps start tomorrow. In other words, the light that we are given enables us to see ourselves as we truly are, a feat that St Isaac says is greater than raising the dead. This is our own path to Golgotha. And, as with Zacchaeus, this requires recognizing how we stand. The Gospel reading places great emphasis on Zacchaeus’ small stature. He was short. Zacchaeus knew that he had to be lifted up, up from this earth, to see the Lord, and he does this by ascending the tree, an image of taking up the cross. Our problem, on the other hand, is that we do not know this: we think that we are something, something great and grand, someone important, with our own sense of self-worth.

We are indeed important and valuable in God’s eyes: out of love for us, he came to dwell among us, to save, redeem, and recreate us. But it is all too easy for our own sense of well-being and self-worth to get in the way, to prevent us from even realizing that we stand in need of what God has to offer; we spend most of our lives in delusion, not knowing that we are, in fact, small, needy, sinful, before him: it is for the sinners that he has come, to call them to repentance, not those who imagine themselves to be basically alright, needing Christ only for an extra religious element to their lives.

And finally, although we have been given so much more to see than was Simeon (we have repeatedly been present at his birth, his baptism, his passion and his resurrection), we have not yet really begun to see the Lord as did Simeon: to know that he is indeed our rest, our eternal rest, to find in him the peace that keeps us in peace throughout the storms of the sea of life, rather than being blown about from one crisis to the next, from one emotional bruise to another, or from one preoccupying thought to yet another habituated action that we will regret. Rather, what is required of us, to find this peace, is the repentance shown by Zacchaeus: a ready repentance, a change of mind, manifest not only in how we feel about things, but how we act: “half my goods I give to the poor; and will restore fourfold what I have defrauded.”

It is in these ways that we move from sitting in darkness to being enlightened by the light of God—the light that is also the peace of God. So let us pray that we may also learn to meet Jesus in the temple, so that we might also find in him the completion of our heart’s desire, and so ourselves come to know his mercy and peace; for this, as we will sing shortly, is the true sacrifice of praise.

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Fr. John Behr (SVOTS ’97) is the Former Dean of St Vladimir’s Seminary and Professor of Patristics. He taught courses in patristics, dogmatics and scriptural exegesis at the seminary.

Rev. (Maj.) Sean Levine has answered the call to serve time and time again. His journey in ministering to others has taken him everywhere from Kentucky to South Korea, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and from Fort Knox to St. Vladimir’s Seminary (SVOTS). Throughout that journey, as priest and military chaplain, Fr. Sean’s dedication to healing and wellness for others is ever-present.

That dedication keeps Fr. Sean incredibly busy! He currently serves as the Family Life Chaplain on Fort Belvoir in Virginia. He is also co-chair of the Analytical Psychology and Orthodox Christianity Consultation (APOCC), and he recently took part in a discussion of theology and psychology through APOCC with other members of the SVOTS community.

In the midst of his busy schedule, Fr. Sean graciously spoke with his alma mater about his life of service, the spiritual insights that keep him going, and the humbling lessons he learned as a seminarian that transformed his approach to answering God’s call.

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Fr. Sean, describe your ministry as Family Life Chaplain on Fort Belvoir.

Fr. Sean: In that role, my primary activity is that of pastoral care and counseling: I maintain a robust counseling load while also training civilian interns and fellow chaplains in pastoral psychotherapy theory and practice. I serve the senior commanders and senior chaplains as the "subject matter expert" regarding the matters of pastoral care that apply to Soldier and Family wellness from a specifically religious/spiritual perspective.

How has your formation and training at St. Vladimir's Seminary impacted what you do at Fort Belvoir and in your ministry as a priest?

Fr. Sean: When I first arrived to St. Vladimir’s Seminary, I arrived as a customer. My goal was to press a triple-bar cross onto my existing (and highly esteemed by me) academic, ministry, and military experience. As a legend in my own mind, I was deeply unaware of my profound need for spiritual and pastoral overhaul; God allowed me to find my way to SVOTS for something far more important than a short program in "Eastern Christian Studies" so that I could self-centeredly "use" the faculty to legitimize myself.

By simply being itself, SVOTS managed to crush my self-sufficient pride. As Dr. [Albert] Rossi and I have reminisced on many occasions since, I came as an angry and grasping person, demanding ordination as a recognition of my delusional self-recognized splendor, and SVOTS—meaning, of course, its people (faculty, staff, fellow students) and its program (academics and practical ministry preparation)—crushed me. The "yoke" of the Master is only light when you are not fighting against it. Once crushed, SVOTS no longer represented the instrument of the demise of my self-referential quest for elevation, but rather became the occasion for my shaping. My formation and training at SVS served to make of me a different person than the one that first arrived, and for that I will forever be grateful.

Like many, I came to seminary thinking the Church needed me, only to realize how badly I need the Church, and that perspective has not changed. This is the message into which the icon of Christ on the southern corner of the Chapel invites us: I did not choose Christ, but he chose me. I arrived at SVOTS under the influence of the delusion that I had chosen Him only to realize, by God's infinite grace, that the initiative always rests with the Lord.

From your first years in the military to your chaplaincy now, your priestly ministry, and family life, what keeps you motivated and energized to keep living your life in service to others?

Fr. Sean: First, I have found energy for pastoral service in the spiritual life into which only Orthodoxy invites each of us. For a brief yet profound introduction into what it looks like to unpack that sentence, I commend to everyone Dr. Al Rossi's book Becoming a Healing Presence. There exists no healthful pastoral presence, energized by the Spirit of God, that does not flow out of askēsis/prayer. Now, please do not hear me say that I am "good" at this. Further, it is true that God, in his mercy and grace, can reach through me to another even when I am not practicing regular confession, daily prayer, and earnest preparation for the celebration of the services and preparation for pastoral encounter. However, I have tried that (doing all that without regular confession, daily prayer, and earnest preparation), and it led quickly to burn out (which I experienced in the middle of my combat tour in Afghanistan (May 2012 to February 2013). Trying to channel the fire of God's grace through an unprepared conduit, I have found, can be damaging. Channeling the same grace through a prepared conduit is life-giving.

Second, my motivation emerges directly from my vocation—a vocation that I did not confirm. I tried being my own confirmation, but this led to grace-filled and painful reproach. My vocation received confirmation from the Church, and that motivated me in ministry as an Orthodox presbyter serving in the chaplaincy. I have a calling into which I am invited/required to live, and I find in this calling to represent the love Christ displayed in His voluntary self-giving motivation to continue in pastoral service as a priest. This vocation to martyria—to actively bear witness to the self-sacrificial love of Christ—is the potential motivation not just for the presbyterate but for the entire "priesthood of all believers," for each Orthodox Christian has been endowed with this one vocation, even if the form of its working out remains diverse.

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Rev. (Maj.) Sean Levine first entered active military service (Army) as an enlisted chaplain assistant in 1996, serving at Fort Drum in New York and Seoul, South Korea. In 1999, he left active duty to attend graduate school at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY, and later returned to active duty as a commissioned officer and chaplain. He was deployed twice to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom with the 29th Signal Battalion from 2004 to 2006. Fr. Sean left active service again to pursue another degree at Asbury and later enrolled at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, where he was ordained to the Holy Priesthood in 2009 and graduated with a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree in May 2010. The following September, he rejoined the Army Chaplain Corps, deploying twice to Afghanistan, once as an individual augmentee to provide Holy Week and Easter Services for deployed Orthodox Christians. His military awards include 2 Bronze Stars, 4 Army Commendation Medals, 5 Army Achievement Medals, 4 Overseas Service Ribbons, a Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, a Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, an Iraqi Campaign Medal (2 Campaign Stars), an Afghan Campaign Medal (1 Campaign Star), a Korea Defense Medal, and the NATO Service Medal (ISAF).

• Our Armed Forces Everywhere: Dr. Peter Bouteneff interviews Fr. Sean Levine and Fr. Anthony Westerman, both of whom served in Iraq before attending St. Vladimir's Seminary.

Fr. Sean has dedicated his life to service with the support of his wife of 29 years, Matushka Jennifer, and his two sons Ethan (19) and Andrew (12).

Recent SVOTS Alumnus Dn. Daniel Greeson has been ordained to the Holy Priesthood. The ordination took place at St. Anne's Orthodox Church, Oak Ridge, TN on Saturday, August 25, 2018. Priest Daniel was ordained by the hand of The Most Reverend Alexander, archbishop of Dallas, the South and the Bulgarian Diocese (Orthodox Church in America).

“Many thanks to everyone who made Saturday possible,” Fr. Daniel wrote following his ordination, “to my lovely Matushka Chelsea Coil Greeson, who has freely chosen to take this yoke upon herself and our family as well; to the many churches and friends who supported us in seminary; to all those who encouraged, prayed, and walked with us on this road....Please remember me and my family in your prayers!”

Fr. Daniel graduated from St. Vladimir’s Seminary with a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree in 2018. Before attending Seminary, he graduated with a Master of Theological Studies from Vanderbilt Divinity School and later worked in the title insurance industry.

Fr. Daniel and Matushka Chelsea are parents to children Elisabeth (6) and Joseph (3) and are expecting their third child.

The newly-ordained Fr. Daniel has been assigned to serve at St. Ann’s Orthodox Church.

SVOTS wishes Fr. Daniel, Matushka Chelsea, and their children many years!

St. Vladimir’s Seminary (SVOTS) Alumnus Very Rev. Michael Westerberg (’75) has been elevated to the dignity of mitered archpriest.  Fr. Michael received the miter from the hand of The Most Reverend Nikon, archbishop of Boston, New England, and the Albanian Archdiocese (Orthodox Church in America) during Divine Liturgy Sunday, August 12, 2018 at Holy Transfiguration Church in New Haven, CT.

The beautiful occasion was attended by other distinguished SVOTS alumni, and diocesan clergy and guests.

Fr. Michael is rector of Holy Transfiguration, where he has served for the past thirty-eight years. His wife, Matushka Lydia, is Holy Transfiguration’s choir director.

Before coming to New Haven, Fr. Michael served for six years as a parish priest at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church, Berlin, NH. He has also served the New England Diocese and the greater Orthodox Church in America (OCA) in many leadership capacities, including as dean of the Northern New England Deanery for three years, dean of the Connecticut Deanery for six years, an elected member of the Metropolitan Council at several All-American Councils, and an appointed member of the OCA Pension Board.  Fr. Michael administered for numerous parishes as vacancies necessitated. He was appointed chancellor of the Diocese by the late Bishop Job, and served in that capacity for fifteen years while the New England Diocese did not have a resident hierarch.

Fr. Michael has also been incredibly active in ministries outside parish, diocesan, and church-wide responsibilities. He was Orthodox chaplain at the West Haven, CT, Veteran’s Hospital for thirty-five years until his retirement from the VA in December 2016, and he continues to serve as chaplain to the Orthodox Christian students at Yale University, which he has done since 1981. He has mentored numerous SVOTS seminarians, over thirty years, as part of the Seminary’s field work program. Additionally, Fr. Michael has been an active member of The Fellowship of Orthodox Churches of Connecticut, Inc. (FORCC) for twenty-five years.

Fr. Michael is also a veteran of the United States Army. He was drafted in 1966 while in college and served in both Germany and Vietnam.

Upon returning from Vietnam, he worked at a brokerage firm on Wall Street and completed his undergraduate studies at Salem College, West Virginia, after which he enrolled at SVOTS. In 1975, during his senior year at Seminary, he was ordained to the holy priesthood by then Bishop Herman (later Metropolitan Herman) and assigned to Holy Resurrection in Berlin.

Axios, and many years, Fr. Michael and Matushka Lydia!

Three SVOTS alumni were among the retired military chaplains awarded the Military Pectoral Cross during the Orthodox Church in America (OCA)’s 19th All-American Council (AAC) in Saint Louis, MO in July.

His Beatitude, The Most Blessed Tikhon, archbishop of Washington and metropolitan of All America and Canada, presented crosses at the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy celebrated on Thursday, July 26 to Archpriest Peter Baktis, US Army; Archpriest Andrew Harrison, US Air Force Reserve; and Archpriest Mark Koczak, US Navy. Retired chaplains who were unable to attend the AAC will receive their crosses from their respective diocesan bishops, on behalf of Metropolitan Tikhon and the Holy Synod of Bishops, at local celebrations.

Archpriest Peter Baktis graduated with a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) from St. Vladimir’s Seminary in 1985 and is a current Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) student in the Cohort of 2019; Archpriest Andrew Harrison graduated from SVOTS with a M.Div. in 1969; Archpriest Mark Koczak obtained his M.Div. in SVOTS’ class of 1982.

“The Primatial Award is presented to Orthodox clergy who have served in the United States Armed Forces as military chaplains in the Active Duty, Reserve Component or National Guard Chaplaincy per specified criteria in the protocols in recognition of exemplary and honorable service,” explained Archpriest Theodore Boback, dean and executive director of Orthodox Military and Veterans Administration Chaplains.

The cross initially was designed and awarded to senior military chaplains in the 1970s.  The original design was the work of the late Walter Palchik, an Orthodox Christian jeweler.

Sections of this article have been reprinted from OCA.org

Alumnus Protopresbyter Joseph Kwame Ayete Labi (’80) was there when Ghana was “looking for the Orthodox Church” in the 1970s. After Fr. Kwame and a group of seekers met Fr. John Meyendorff and Fr. Thomas Hopko, among others, at the 1974 World Council of Churches in Ghana’s capital city of Accra, Fr. Kwame embarked on a journey from Africa to St. Vladimir’s Seminary and back that has seen him help to establish and strengthen the Orthodox Church in Ghana to the present day.

Fr. Joseph, now the vicar general of the Archdiocese of Accra, returned to St. Vladimir’s Seminary this summer and sat down to talk about challenges the Church in Ghana faces today, the Seminary’s St. Cyprian of Carthage Fund aimed at helping African seminarians, and what the Seminary's role could be in strengthening Orthodoxy in his home country in the years ahead.

Watch an extended conversation with Fr. Joseph below.