Dr. Peter C. Bouteneff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dr. Peter Bouteneff

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

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

*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- St Basil the Great, Epistle 94

-----------------------------------------------------------------

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

The St. Juliana Society at St. Vladimir's plans a variety of events with a wide range of speakers who cover topics that have been suggested by former graduates and 2nd- and 3rd-year student wives. For one of our last meetings of the year on Monday evening, May 5, we greatly benefited from a talk offered by Mother Nektaria of the St. Paul Skete in Grand Junction, TN. 

Mother not only spoke about her journey as a nun, and of the spiritual challenges she's faced, but she also provided us with insight on how to endure our unique struggles and difficulties. Her passion for sharing her story and her exhortations that we be our "best selves," encouraged us along our own paths. She emphasized that we are not just priests' wives in the making, but unique creations of God.

She also spoke about the importance of our prayer lives--our need to be quiet and grounded, in order that we might better serve others. Her talk was practical and basic, reminding us of things we often forget. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to meet her, hear her speak, and ask her questions.

"It is a blessing for me to be the coordinator of this fine group of women, and I will miss those who will be leaving us this month," said our host Mat. Thekla Hatfield, wife of our President Fr. Chad. Our last St. Juliana meeting of the 2013-2014 school year will be with guest The Rev. Dn. Evan Freeman, who will discuss iconography.

Matushka Mary Roth, a speech-language pathologist, has been helping to organize the events for St. Juliana for several years. She and her husband Fr. Nicholas are looking forward to their first assignment after Commencement 2014, at St. John of the Ladder Mission with The Very Rev. Marcus Burch (SVOTS '97).

On Saturday August 7th, seminarians, children, spouses, faculty and staff worked together on a campus clean up. The clean-up part of a very hot day began at 9 a.m. outside the North Dorm where a crowd gathered to collect tools and receive instructions.

The first task was laying new mulch in the playground. Everyone was involved. Some hauled mulch in wheelbarrows. Children used their wagons. Others attacked “mulch mountains” with rakes and hoes. David Wagschal, who is joining the seminary faculty to teach Church History, showed his skills on the SVOTS tractor.

While most were working in the playground, Fr. Chad Hatfield, our Chancellor and a keen gardener, was working to tidy the flowerbeds and trees in the front of the Rangos Building. Once the playground flooring was in place, the crew moved on to tidy the shoreline alongside the Lakeside married-student apartments, collecting bags full of debris.

Some enthusiastic seminarians took garbage bags down to the base of the waterfall and collected the litter that had swept down from Central Ave. through Crestwood Lake. Our Dean, Fr. John Behr, and his family collected glass, bottles, and assorted other refuse from the Seminary’s border with Scarsdale Road.

Many filled refuse bags and blistered hands later, the community happily ate vegetarian pizza together on the veranda of the Germack Building.

“I was really impressed by the commitment to the Seminary that the community showed today,” said Fr. Chad. “Just about everyone on campus showed up cheerfully and worked extremely hard.”

Job well done!

On September 22, the Women's Group at St. Vladimir's kicked off the 2014–2015 year with a campfire and s'mores. The casual and cozy event started at 7 pm with ladies coming and going over the course of the evening. Hosted on the lawn of Dn. Gregory and Mat. Robyn Hatrak's home, the gathering continued late into the evening as women rekindled old friendships and met the newest campus residents.

By Robyn Bishop, wife of 2nd-year seminarian Ryan

On Monday night the St. Vladimir's Women's Group got together to cook for the HOPE soup kitchen, a service of HOPE Community Services located in neighboring New Rochelle, NY. Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, also in New Rochelle, graciously let us use their kitchen so that we could make meat chili for 200 people. What a wonderful time!

Donna Karabin, the Chairperson for the Orthodox Church in America's Department of Christian Service and Humanitarian Aid, came and spoke to the St. Juliana's Society on the evening of October 13, 2014. She introduced us to several resources (such as oca.org/resource-handbook) and elucidated the plans the OCA has for promoting the involvement of clergy and laity in caring for the needs of others, and developing ministry programs for people of all ages. 

Philip McClanahan is a third-year M.Div. student from the Antiochian Archdiocese. Philip and his wife, Kristiana, have a daughter, Irene, and a son, Simon.

How has your seminary experience been since the pandemic started?

When COVID really kicked in at the beginning of March [2020], it was obviously challenging for everyone. On campus we were inside so much with a full on lockdown at the beginning; we were home all the time and not able to go out and do things very much. It was challenging to start to hear of people having COVID and of others losing people to COVID. 

As far as academic challenges, in the spring, yes, it was challenging. I had all my classes in person at the beginning of the semester and then it got interrupted, and I found it hard. It was hard meeting online, especially at home when you have children running around and all the distractions! It was hard to find space to do things at home. 

But what I’m really happy about here at St Vladimir’s is that we chose to go the “in-person route” for 2020/2021. I would have done anything to be able to go to class! It’s been very good. I’ve enjoyed it tremendously, especially since it’s my last year. I’m taking pastoral theology where we talk about all the practical stuff—I hope to be a priest and a missionary with my family someday. In homiletics class, working on homilies has been good. It’s a busy and different semester! I’m so glad that we still have our services in the multiple chapel locations even if rather than a full choir there is just one singer and one reader. 

Why is the community life so important to you for what you’re doing and want to do?

It’s so important to make these connections; these are people that hopefully we’ll know for years to come, whether it be in clergy, ministry, or other ministries. Your hope is that you can build relationships with these people for mutual encouragement now and later. You can certainly do some of this online, but nothing beats the face-to-face connection. 

What do you take from the COVID experience?

I hope my generation of seminarians will have some unique strengths to take to parishes…perhaps it would be that we can adapt and do things differently using technology. We will have the ability to be a little more chameleon-like, and work with different groups of people.

I hope we will have a renewed emphasis on the importance of our social life, not just within our families but with our friends and our fellow parishioners, really taking that time to meet and do things with people in person. When it’s safe, I hope that we’ll have a renewed commitment to building relationships for the Kingdom of God.

I’m so glad we’re here and that the year is continuing here at St. Vladimir’s, in person. It was a bold move to go in this direction, and a good one. 

You are involved with the St. Innocent Mission Society here on campus. Have you always been interested in mission work?

Before I was Orthodox I did some mission work in the Middle East. Then I went on a long spiritual quest and entered into Orthodoxy in 2010. When I met my wife one of the things we had in common was an interest in missions. We even contacted OCMC prior to coming to seminary. So it’s been a number of years in the making.

How has St. Vladimir’s made a difference in your feeling of preparedness for the mission field? 

I have really benefited from all the courses. I wanted to get very grounded in liturgics when I came to St. Vladimir’s. One thing needed in Orthodox missions is more Orthodox clergy. I also wanted to be grounded in my knowledge of patristics, and that has been very wonderfully fulfilled here at seminary. There’s been so much here that’s been helpful. 

Practically speaking, being here with all the jurisdictions represented makes it a great place to network and learn about all the Orthodox traditions. This inter-jurisdictional environment is a hallmark of St. Vladimir’s. Sadly in the last decades Orthodox Christianity in North America has gotten more, rather than less, separated into jurisdictions. At St. Vladimir’s, there is that hope for pan-Orthodoxy. We realize we can only truly succeed and do what God has for us if we’re united in the body of Christ and have more of a corporate understanding of the body of the Christ. Certainly we can do so much more with missions if we pool our resources. As we pool our resources globally it’s going to help the missional calling of Christians and the Church.

It does seem like we’ve entered into a phase of real challenges, not just the pandemic, but of splintering in world Orthodoxy and the continually changing dynamics of our society, politically and ethically. When seminarians look ahead we see the huge challenges. It will only be possible if we’re grounded in Christ, knowing that that’s where our strength comes from.

Saint Vladimir’s Seminarian Deacon Andrew Eskandar was born and raised in Egypt until the age of thirteen, when his parents decided to move with Dn. Andrew and his two sisters to America to offer their children a more stable future. Since then, Dn. Andrew has lived in Staten Island, NY, where he is a member of Archangel Michael & Saint Mena Coptic Orthodox Church. For many years, Dn. Andrew worked as a business analyst and has served in youth ministry. In the summer of 2020, he was ordained to the diaconate by His Grace, Bishop David of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of New York and New England (Bishop David is also an appointed member of St. Vladimir’s Seminary’s Board of Trustees) . Bishop David assigned Dn. Andrew to full-time youth ministry in his diocese. Deacon Andrew then began the Master of Arts (M.A.) program at St. Vladimir’s Seminary in August of 2020 part-time, so he could continue his youth ministry during his studies. Deacon Andrew and his wife, Youstina, are parents to three-year old daughter Parthenia.

Q: You are now a deacon in the Coptic Church and have been involved in youth ministry for many years. Was your faith always a big part of your life?

DA: After I moved to America, my relationship with the Church was not very strong. I started to distance myself from God—you know, high school and “living the life.” But always I felt this struggle—there was a longing inside of me to want God but then also these desires and lusts and things. Then I went to college in the city and things just started to drain me, and I felt like this gap between me and God started to grow bigger and bigger every day. I started to believe that there is no God, or if there’s a God where is he in my life? My parents always prayed for me and put me in front of God, but things kept getting worse and worse. I got kicked out of school in the city because I wasn’t going. My GPA was bad. I hit rock bottom, and started to feel that, “just end your life. There’s no where you can go.” So these thoughts started to attack me. I couldn’t sleep at night at all. When I went to bed I was always terrified.

Q: When did things start to change?

DA: This one day, I think it was December 18, 2008, my mom called me up and said, “Come to Church. There is a retreat going on.” So, to make her happy I said, “okay, I’ll come.” And a lot of people before had tried to reach out to me, like “Come to Church, just pray.” I never prayed in my life. I never opened the Bible—maybe once or twice, but when I read it was like I was reading Chinese. I didn’t understand anything. To me God was just a mystery…

I went [to the retreat]. And it was like the guy who was speaking was literally talking to me. I felt straight away the words were coming to me. It just started to hit me really hard. “There is a God. There is a God who loves you. There is a God who sees what you’re going through.” And then at the end, people started singing prayers. I was sitting all the way in the back, and decided to move to the front, which was something that I would never do. It was like someone was grabbing me by the hand and telling me to go in front [laughs]. I sat in the front and just kept singing with them. This was my first time chanting, and as I was singing I felt like literally someone was washing me inside. And I said, “God, I’m sorry for things I have done in the past.” I felt very sorry for what I had been doing. I said, “God, please accept me.” At that same moment, I felt a very loud voice inside my heart that said, “I have been waiting for you. I have been waiting for you for so many years, and I am here...” And as I heard that voice, I just relaxed. People might say [this experience] was just emotion, but it was not. For me, it was fact. It was a very loud voice. And for me what made it clearer was that afterward this voice came again.

I went home, and was like “What did I just—what happened?” For the first time ever in my life, I go into my room and I close the door. And I just start talking to God…and I heard that same voice say, “Your sins are forgiven. “I felt the wall between me and God just got broken down. So for the first time I opened the Bible and I started to read the Gospel of John. The first time I read it, I read like five or six chapters. It’s like my eyes were opened. Before, you know, I tried [to read the Bible], but now something happened—I don’t know what—that just opened my eyes… It’s like something you feel inside your heart and not your brain. I was hungry for the Word of God, and thirsty. Every day I would keep reading, keep reading. I felt, “I don’t want to lose this.” It was so valuable to me, this encounter with Christ. Every single day I would hear the same voice, “This is what I’m doing with you. This is what I am preparing you for.”

I spoke with my father of confession. I confessed everything, and he said “God accepts you back. He loves you.” And from that day on, God made sure that I do not forget this.

Before I met Christ there were a lot of things I could not stop doing. Once I came to Christ, it’s like I don’t feel the urge to do them anymore. I feel like I’m full. Sometimes I fall but I know now the way. I run to Him. I know that He washes. I know that He cleanses.

That journey went on, and I joined the Church again regularly. My life became just for God. I do not want to do anything else but to be with Him and to serve Him.

Q: Did your family notice the change in you?

DA: Of course! My mom had been praying for me day and night, and when I would do something stupid, she would know. I would walk home, and she would say, “you just came from that place” or “you were with this person.” And I was like, how did she know? So once I encountered Christ, she noticed it right away and said, “I’ve been telling you!” One time, after this taste of Christ and seeing how amazing He is, I went to her and said, “Why didn’t you tell me that God is so good?” She laughed and said, “I’ve been telling you this, and you’re just deaf!” [laughs].

Q: How did your new life lead to ordination and to St. Vladimir’s Seminary?

DA: I started serving the youth in the Church. My passion and my heart are for the lost, for those who don’t know Christ, because I was one of them. So we started a meeting that serves this purpose. Through visits and through talks and through service, we connected with some of the youth and are working with them to bring back that relationship with Christ. Thank God, God is working with us and we see His hand in everything. We see people who lived in drugs and alcohol and things like that just coming to the feet of Christ and repenting. By God’s grace things started to ignite and move forward. My father of Confession and some people went to His Grace, Bishop David and mentioned my name to nominate me for service under him. So he took me in as a father, showed me love and told me, “I need you to consecrate your life as a deacon.” My wife and I prayed about it, and we said, “ok.” And he wanted me to come to St. Vladimir’s and expand my knowledge of the Church Fathers and Orthodoxy.

Q: You enrolled at St. Vladimir’s part time so that you could continue youth ministry. Do you see yourself continuing that particular service after seminary as well?

DA: Continue doing what I’m doing. That’s what the Fathers of the Church always teach. Just continue—consistency and building. We’re just witnessing about Christ. We’re not there to save people, but to have Christ save people. So we’re presenting Christ to youth. So once they connect with God and respond to this call they come and join the Church, but now they need spiritual build-up. Okay, there is that encounter, and then the build-up. Because you can have an encounter but then it dies out. So it’s good that we kind of continue on building through Bible studies, prayer meetings, through the Eucharist, through the Liturgy, through Confession, things like that, so it’s a solid connection. So once you start building that, now they can lead others the same way. It’s kind of like a chain that you started. Christ was able to do everything by himself, but He chose twelve disciples and seventy-two apostles and sent them to do ministry. Why? He wants to put this idea of, “I’m the head, and now I invest in you. I taught you. I gave you everything. Now you go and get others.” Just keep going.