From February 27 to March 1, Dr. Paul Meyendorff, Alexander Schmemann Professor of Liturgical Theology, traveled to Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, for a conference on "Sacred Architecture of East and West: Lessons from History and Contemporary Trends." The conference was sponsored by the Huffington Ecumenical Institute, an institute founded with the goal of promoting the unity between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.
Professor Meyendorff delivered a paper on the understanding of the church building in the Byzantine commentaries on the liturgy, drawing primarily on Ss. Maximus the Confessor (7th century) and Patriarch Germanus of Constantinople (8th century). The conference, which drew over 100 people, was organized by St. Vladimir's alumnus the Reverend Dn. Nicholas Denysenko, Ph.D., who is currently Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount and Director of the Institute.
Staff of the St. Vladimir's Seminary's Arvo Pärt Project were among those who greeted Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas at a reception in New York, on December 12, 2014. Prime Minister Rõivas, elected in March of this year, told the team, "I am a big Arvo Pärt fan!"
The Estonian leader also thanked the team for their remarkable work in bringing the great Estonian composer to New York last May, and producing concerts with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. The seminary's 2020 Strategic Plan calls for the establishment of an Institute of Sacred Arts at St. Vladimir's, of which The Arvo Pärt Project will be an important component.
On November 5-9, 2014, Professor Paul Meyendorff traveled to Malta to participate in the 11th meeting of the St. Irenaeus Orthodox-Catholic Working Group. The group, an informal gathering of Orthodox and Catholic theologians, has been in existence since 2004, at a time when the official international Orthodox-Catholic dialogue was at a standstill. The group has met annually since, alternating between Orthodox and Catholic venues. "Because this is an unofficial dialogue, participants are able to share their views more freely, unhindered by various ecclesial and political factors that at times derail the official dialogue," notes Dr. Meyendorff.
At this meeting, members discussed issues of primacy and synodality as reflected both during the first millennium and in the recent statements by the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. "Given current difficulties in the official dialogue, it is vitally important to continue the conversation, even if only informally," concludes Prof. Meyendorff. In planning for the future, members of the Working Group agreed that the questions of primacy need to be addressed both separately, by each Church, but also together, so as to develop a church structure that will be acceptable to both sides and will meet the needs of a world that needs a united Christian witness.
The Father Alexander Schmemann Professor of Liturgical Theology Dr. Paul Meyendorff traveled to Washington D.C. on October 23-25, 2014, to participate in the 87th meeting of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation. For the past several years, the group has been working on issues of primacy and conciliarity. This meeting focused on the role of the laity in the life of the church.
In connection with the theme, Dr. Meyendorff presented a paper on baptismal ecclesiology, emphasizing the priestly, prophetic, and kingly roles bestowed on the faithful in baptism, and the implications of this for the life of the Church. The Consultation also began to plan for a special event in 2015, marking the 50th anniversary of the dialogue.
The Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation is an ecumenical standing conference that has met semiannually since 1965. It was founded under the auspices of the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), which was later replaced by the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America. In June of 2013, SVOTS hosted the 84th dialogue meeting, which was also attended by The Very Rev. John Erickson, former dean of St. Vladimir's.
On October 9-11 a group of international scholars gathered at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, MA, for the Fall Conference of the Pappas Patristic Institute. The conference theme was "Patristic Preaching and its Reception," and I delivered a paper entitled "The Tradition of Liturgical Homilies and the Implications for Contemporary Homiletic Practice."
In my paper, I briefly outlined the tradition of reading patristic homilies, such as the Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom, during the liturgical services, and examined the symbiotic relationship between the liturgy and the preaching which occurs within it. The paper also reflected on how elements in patristic liturgical homilies such as conflict, anamnesis and mimesis, might inform contemporary preaching.
Reflecting on my time at the conference, I was grateful to the Board of the Pappas Patristic Institute, and specifically to Dr. Bruce Beck, the conference organizer, for the invitation. I had an opportunity to meet and learn from some remarkable scholars, and graduate students who represented a number of different Christian traditions. Archbishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese spoke at the conference, and we were graciously hosted by the faculty, staff and students of Holy Cross. The papers delivered at the conference addressed patristic preaching from a wide spectrum of academic disciplines, and as a homiletician, I gained a great deal from preparing the paper, and from the discussions I had with the conference participants.
Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Rhetoric The Rev. Dr. Sergius Halvorsen serves as a mentor to participants in the annual National Festival of Young Preachers. Sponsored by the Academy of Preachers, the festival gathers students between the ages of 16 and 28 for three days of preaching, fellowship, and education.
Rev. Dn. Michael Hyatt is a bestselling author, speaker, entrepreneur, and the former CEO of Thomas Nelson. He currently serves St. Vladimir’s Seminary as executive chair of the Board of Trustees, and is attached to St. Ignatius Antiochian Orthodox Church in Franklin, TN.
From September 21-26, 2014, The Father Alexander Schmemann Professor of Liturgical Theology Dr. Paul Meyendorff traveled to Arad, Romania, to attend the 8th meeting of the International Working Group on Orthodox Theological Education. The group, which includes official representatives from most of the autocephalous Orthodox Churches, is tasked with assisting theological schools and faculties in raising academic standards and encouraging cooperation and exchange.
As Dr. Meyendorff, who represented both the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) and St. Vladimir's Seminary at the meeting, noted: "This is exactly the kind of work St. Vladimir's is trying to do in establishing the International Houses of Study. Orthodox theological education is enriched when Orthodox faculty members meet one another and work together."
In Arad, the group met first with the deans of all the theological schools in Romania, who were holding their biennial meeting. Afterwards, the participants met for a full day of fruitful discussion with the dean and professors of the theological faculty of the University of Arad. Attending the meeting as members of the group were two other SVOTS alumni: Fr. Rauno Pietarinen, representing the Orthodox Church of Finland and the coordinator of the group, and Andrey Gusev, representing the Russian Orthodox Church.
On Wednesday, September 24, 2014, St. Vladimir's associate professor of Systematic Theology Dr. Peter Bouteneff, and Assistant Professor of Liturgical Music Dr. Nicholas Reeves, lectured at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, speaking on the spiritual foundations of composer Arvo Pärt’s music. The two faculty members have been developing The Arvo Pärt Project at St. Vladimir's Seminary since 2011, in an effort to explore the Orthodox roots of the famed Estonian maestro's music.
The seminary's professors were invited to Westminster by senior faculty member Dr. James Jordan, who led the Williamson Voices choir in recording a Grammy-nominated CD, “Annelies.” (The Grammy went instead to the Arvo Pärt CD, "Adam’s Lament.") As his choir is currently drawing on Arvo Pärt’s repertoire, Dr. Jordan invited Dr. Reeves (a Westminster alumnus) and Dr. Bouteneff to enrich the singers’ understanding of Pärt’s Orthodox Christian roots. A 90-minute presentation, accompanied by video presentations, was warmly received.
The choir then performed several short segments for the visiting professors. Dr. Reeves commented, “I was of course moved by the response of the students to the lecture, but I was also deeply impressed by the emotional capacity and control of such a young choir. The Williamson Voices are coming into their own in the America choral scene both here and abroad.”
Collaborative efforts with Mr. Pärt have already resulted in a groundbreaking concert and lecture seriesin May and June of this year, which included a sold-out concert in Carnegie Hall. Also planned are publications devoted to Mr. Pärt's personal spiritual narrative, and a long-term academic partnership between the Arvo Pärt Centre in Estonia and St. Vladimir's. Dr. Bouteneff says, “It is a joy to continue the work that we have been so deeply engaged in, with the Arvo Pärt Project. I’m delighted to see it finding its place in the seminary’s expanding efforts to engage culture, through the Institute for Sacred Arts that we are currently developing as a key component of the 2020 Strategic Plan.”
Father Seraphim Solof (SVOTS Class of 1985) is a native of Pittsburgh and a graduate of MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At St. Vladimir’s, he met and married a fellow seminarian, Marta (SVOTS Class of 1984), the daughter of the late Very Reverend and Mrs. Michael Stupar, also of Pittsburgh.
Ordained to the holy diaconate at Three Hierarchs Chapel on December 6, 1984 by the late Archbishop Job of Chicago (OCA), Fr. Seraphim served for five years as a deacon at Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral in Boston (OCA), and since 1990 at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral in Worcester. Deacon Seraphim was elevated to the rank of archdeacon by the late Metropolitan Philip on December 14, 2008. On October 22, 2017, he was ordained to the holy priesthood by His Grace Bishop John of Worcester, and assigned as assistant pastor of the Cathedral.
In the corporate world, Fr. Seraphim works for Bank of America as a Senior Vice President in Corporate Communications. He and Marta are the parents of two grown children, Elizabeth and Joseph, and they have one grandchild. Father Seraphim and Matushka Marta have been loyal donors and supporters of St. Vladimir’s Seminary for years; recently he was on campus as a guest speaker for the Orthodox Christian Leadership Initiative conference, co-sponsored by SVOTS.
Father Seraphim, there is growing concern about the scarcity of priests to serve parishes in the U.S. and Canada. What are you seeing “on the ground?”
In our diocese, a number of our priests are nearing retirement and experiencing health-related challenges. I am often called to substitute in different parishes in our own and in other jurisdictions, and I am keenly aware that we have a pressing need for priests. Churches are desperate for competent, well-educated clergy. A crisis due to the shortage of priests isn’t coming … it is already HERE.
People sometimes suggest that we ought to make the M.Div. degree available online, through virtual classrooms. What are your thoughts on this?
At St. Vladimir’s, I was formed in our Holy Tradition by extraordinary fathers and teachers. But the most powerful part of my seminary education didn’t happen in the classroom, as critical as the academics were to my formation; even more important was the time I spent on campus as a member of the community, living the liturgical life throughout the year, fasting and praying with the community—even carrying out my work assignment. (I was a fair assistant ecclesiarch, but took top marks for running the dishwasher in the refectory.) For this, there is NO substitute or shortcut.
Why do you continue to give your time and treasure to St. Vladimir’s?
On a personal level, the Seminary means a lot to me! I spent three of my first four years as an Orthodox Christian there, I met my wife there, we were married in Three Hierarchs Chapel (which was consecrated at the end of my first year), I was ordained to the diaconate there, and my entire liturgical foundation comes from there. The Seminary feels and always will feel like home to me.
What are your concerns for the Seminary and the Church at this juncture?
There was a time when people had great hope that we would achieve administrative unity among the various Orthodox jurisdictions in North America, and that we would finally be able to realize St. Tikhon’s vision for the church on this continent. St. Vladimir’s was at the center of this work—the beating heart of the liturgical revival in North America, promoter of the use of English in the services, trainer of generations of American-born clergy from almost every jurisdiction, publisher of a wealth of theological and spiritual material in English, and in the chapel, an exemplar of solid liturgical practice.
Sadly, in recent years it seems that the Church is suffering from much of the same splintering and fragmentation that are afflicting the world at large. We are being torn apart along geopolitical lines at the international level, and that’s on top of the longstanding ethnic and jurisdictional divisions in this country. Yet there’s one place that still holds the vision of Orthodox unity and works to strengthen it in the face of so much pressure and so many temptations, and that is St. Vladimir’s Seminary. The Seminary’s vocation—baked into its DNA from the very beginning—is to teach us everything we need to know to be the Orthodox Church our own time and place, while keeping us from getting so lost in church politics and the externals of Orthodoxy that we lose sight of Christ and the Kingdom of God.
St. Vladimir’s has stayed true to this vision, resisting the temptation to idolize certain aspects of Church life such as jurisdiction, ethnicity, liturgical practice or language. Outstanding SVOTS teachers and pastors, both alumni and those on campus now, continue to be leading lights for our Church.
Tell us a little about your background.
I grew up agnostic in a reformed Jewish family. We went to synagogue occasionally but weren’t especially observant. (My taste for bacon is life-long.) My first exposure to Christianity was through two high school friends who were Greek Orthodox and Presbyterian, respectively. I was curious about their faith and didn’t understand how two Christians could hold such different perspectives on God and Christ and sin and salvation. Over the course of many long walks and late evenings, we held intense conversations about Christianity.
I went off to college in Boston, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where I earned a degree in Management. Throughout my first couple of years, I continued to think about the claims of Christ and Christianity, and tried to figure out what I believed and could believe in. In January of my sophomore year, I participated in an exchange program at Wellesley College, where I lived side by side with faculty and fellow students and enjoyed many late-night conversations on “deep things.” I also spent a lot of time in the library, where I first encountered Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s books, including his great classics For the Life and the World and Of Water and the Spirit. What he wrote about the church and the sacraments reinforced and complemented what I had learned from my Greek Orthodox friend in Pittsburgh. At the end of the month-long program, I decided that I wanted to become a Christian; one of the faculty members, a Methodist minister, baptized me in the college chapel. Interestingly enough, one of the participants in my baptism was a Greek Orthodox student from Wellesley. She gave me her cross, which I wear to this day; of course she knew I needed one if I was going to be baptized!
How did you first encounter Orthodoxy after your conversion to Christianity?
After my baptism, I had no idea how I was going to I tell my parents what I had done. As I prepared to go home for spring break, I wrote them a letter to let them know, and we all agreed we’d talk when I got home. During my visit, I went to the local Greek Orthodox parish for the Sunday service, expecting to see what Fr. Alexander had described so eloquently—but there was much more Greek in the Liturgy than I was prepared to deal with, and I didn’t feel quite like I belonged there. (My issue, not my hosts’!) I returned from the service somewhat discouraged and confused.
Reeling from my announcement that I was a Christian, my parents implored me not to make any other big decisions, so rather than immediately seeking to become Orthodox, I returned to Boston and started visiting a number of other churches. Ultimately, I joined a “high church” Episcopalian parish, which was a mission parish run by a nearby Anglican monastic community. I thought that this was perhaps as close as I could get to Orthodoxy in a form amenable to an English-speaking, non-ethnic American.
But the seed of Orthodoxy had been planted. A couple of years later, at the start of the second semester of my senior year, my Greek Orthodox friend from Pittsburgh came to Boston to start his seminary studies mid-year at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. I visited him in February, during Lent as it turned out, and the students on campus told me that Fr. Schmemann was in town and would be speaking that evening at “the Russian Cathedral” in Boston. So that night, I made my way to Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral (OCA) to hear him speak. Something about the atmosphere of the place overcame me at once. The darkened church, lit only by purple votive lamps, the lack of pews, the icons—I was just floored. And then Fr. Alexander began speaking, talking specifically about all the barriers to Orthodoxy I had encountered on my journey. It was as if he was speaking directly to me! In that moment, I knew I wanted to become Orthodox, and—shockingly by present standards—I was received into the church just a few weeks later, on Holy Saturday. And just over a year after that, I entered St. Vladimir’s as a first-year seminarian.
You were a deacon for almost 33 years before your ordination to the Holy Priesthood. Tell us about that journey, and how it is to serve as a priest and a bank senior vice president simultaneously!
In my third year of seminary, I asked to have a parish assignment. I was in the OCA, and all my Antiochian friends had one, and it seemed like such an excellent idea. I asked Fr. Meyendorff about it, and he said that only ordained (OCA) students were permitted to be away from the chapel on Sunday mornings—so for that less-than-profound reason, I petitioned for ordination to the diaconate and was ordained in the seminary chapel on the Feast of St. Nicholas by my bishop, Archbishop Job. I graduated the following spring, but didn’t feel called at that time to take on full-time parish ministry—so when we returned to Boston, I went back to work at MIT, where I had worked for the year between college and St. Vlad’s. And the years passed!
Over the course of my 35-year career in business, I’ve worked at MIT, Apple Computer, Sun Microsystems, and since 2006, at Bank of America. God has been very good to me, and it’s been a wonderful experience. And finally, after many years of pondering the question of my calling to the priesthood, with the support of Marta and my kids and my priest and my bishop and my metropolitan (and a dear priestmonk friend on Athos), “No” and “Not yet” became “YES!,” and I petitioned for ordination. I was ordained by Bishop John in Worcester just about two years ago, on October 22, 2017.
Over most of those years, I seemed to me I had separate personas that I put on and took off as needed: my work persona (Jeff), my Church persona (Dn. Seraphim), even my family persona (Dad). When I hit my 50s, somehow I lost interest in keeping all of those identities compartmentalized and separate. It took too much work to maintain the partitions, and I had, over the years, became comfortable enough in my own skin that I could just be me, wherever I went and in whichever context. Besides, I found that each part of my life could inform each of the other parts in unexpected and beneficial ways.
For instance, I’ve benefited from lots of management training and leadership development courses over the years, and have experience in carrying out the responsibilities that come with leading teams—both difficult ones (laying people off) and satisfying ones (coaching them to help them grow and improve). This kind of experience can help in pastoral situations, when either compassionate firmness or firm support are required. Conversely, there are many pastoral skills that can be helpful to anyone who manages other people or works closely with peers and partners. Throughout, I’ve always felt that my ministry was to my colleagues and co-workers as well as to my parishioners. That I go by different names, and even wear different clothes while carrying out that ministry, became less and less important as time went on.
The Very Rev. Dr. Alexander Rentel wears several hats at St. Vladimir’s Seminary as the assistant professor of Canon Law and Byzantine Studies, The John and Paraskeva Skvir Lecturer in Practical Theology, and the director of the Master of Divinity Program. Yet one of his most important duties in recent years has been performed away from the Yonkers, NY campus, as he has served the wider church as Consultant for Canonical Affairs for the Orthodox Church inA member of the OCA's Statute Revision Task Force, Fr. Alexander and other canon law experts have been conducting a painstaking review and revision of the current text of the OCA Statute, under the leadership of The Most Rev. Nathaniel, archbishop of Detroit and the Romanian Episcopate.
"This job is important at both a theoretical and a practical level,” says Fr. Alexander. “Our work must conform to the rigors of the canonical tradition and the day-to-day practice of the Church. While a challenge, it is also exhilarating.”
In addition to Archbishop Nathaniel and Fr. Alexander, other task force members include Igumen Daniel (Brum), The Very Rev. Dimitri Cozby and The Very Rev. Dr. John Erickson (former St. Vladimir’s dean), the Task Force Secretary Fr. Ioan Cozma, Judge E.R. Lanier, and OCA Archivist Alexis Liberovsky. The results of their review and revision process will be vetted by the clergy and faithful of the OCA, with final approval to come at the July 2015 18th All American Council.
In his role as the OCA’s Consultant for Canonical Affairs, Fr. Alexander also taught a class at the Diocese of New York and New Jersey’s Clergy Conference in early September. Held at the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Church in Clifton, NJ, the conference offered courses towards continuing education hours for clergy, one of which was Fr. Alexander’s class,”Questions of Canon Law.” The diocese Website noted that Professor Rentel offered “specific examples and thought-provoking examinations of consistencies and ‘gray areas’ of canonical understanding and practice, all focusing on the essential integrity and ultimate unity of faith represented in the fullness of the Body of Christ.”
Read about the first and second Task Force meetings.
