Plans for the 2020 Pan-Orthodox Music Symposium have been reconfigured to a global online format on Thursday, June 11 through Saturday, June 13, 2020.

The event, cohosted by St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) and the International Society for Orthodox Church Music (ISOCM) will explore the theme of “Music as Liturgy” with masterclasses, keynote presentations, and workshops.

“The reality of the COVID-19 pandemic has required us to abandon the in-person format, but the number of registrants has been quite amazing, and we wanted to find a way to deliver an outstanding musical experience in spite of current circumstances,” said Protopresbyter Ivan Moody, chair of the ISOCM board. 

Registration is open for the Symposium and nearly 100 participants have already registered for the three-day event open to choir directors, singers, chanters, composers, musicologists, church school educators, clergy, youth leaders, and readers interested in developing their liturgical music skill sets from the comfort and safety of their homes. 

The 8 masterclass topics and presenters include:

• Vocal Techniques
  (Katie Boardman – Antiochian Archdiocese)
• Choral Leadership
  (Dr. Tamara Petijevic – Serbian Orthodox Church)
• Introduction to Liturgical Conducting
  (Robin Freeman – Orthodox Church in America)
• Advanced Liturgical Conducting
  (Dr. Peter Jermihov – Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia)
• Byzantine Chant for Beginners
  (Amy Hogg – Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese)
• Advanced Byzantine Chant
  (John Michael Boyer – Greek Orthodox Archdiocese)
• Composing in the Orthodox Context
  (Nazo Zakkak – Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese)
• Engaging Young People with Music
  (Maria Sheehan – Orthodox Church in America) 

Each masterclass will provide participants with 6+ hours of concentrated learning over three days, while additional workshop sessions will explore other themes for application in parish life:

• Introduction to liturgical theology
• Training for reading and chanting
• Arranging settings for voices
• Achieving a unified choral sound
• Para-liturgical activities
• The spiritual dimension of the church musician

“By evolving this gathering to an online format, we’re able to provide a wide range of church music offerings – in some ways we’re doing even more than we could have in person!” said Dr. Peter Bouteneff, professor of systematic theology and director of the Seminary’s Institute of Sacred Arts. “This event will benefit singers, choir directors, and composers seeking to ‘up their game.’”

The complete schedule also includes a keynote presentation by Dr. Susan Ashbrook Harvey on the Symposium theme of “Music as Liturgy,” and a keynote presentation by Father Ivan Moody exploring the Symposium theme from an alternate perspective, “Liturgy as Music.” 

Attendees will also have an opportunity to join virtual coffee chats exploring current trends in liturgical music, sing in a music reading session of new compositions written honoring the noted American Orthodox composer, the Archpriest Sergei Glagolev, and participate in a virtual Akathist service to the miracle-working icon of the Sitka Mother of God.

Scholarships are available to offset the registration fees, with information and applications available here.

Seating is limited for some of the masterclasses, so early registration is encouraged. All presentations will be in English. The updated and expanded schedule, presentation abstracts, speaker biographies, along with registration details are available at www.orthodoxmusicsymposium.org

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About the International Society for Orthodox Church Music

Founded in 2005, the ISOCM seeks to provide an open platform for musicians, musicologists, singers, and composers that encourages dialogue, the exchange of information and ideas, and inspires cooperation. The Society sees the promotion of communication between East and West as one of its priorities and hosts biannual conferences, at the University of Eastern Finland on its Joensuu campus. The Society also hosts regional symposia and gatherings elsewhere throughout the world to help create opportunities for collaboration and the sharing of knowledge in the field of Orthodox liturgical music.

For more information about the ISOCM, visit: www.isocm.com

Saint Vladimir’s Seminary is providing some online resources for faithful Orthodox Christians who have to worship from home this Holy Week. Below, you will find access to recordings of Holy Week services, prayer resources, video reflections from faculty. Check back regularly for updates.

A number of resources may also be found on the website of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), here.

Liturgical & Spiritual Resources

• Holy Week from Home
• Holy Week and Pascha/Pentecostarion Services
• Holy Week and Pascha Resources

Music downloads

• Holy Week Volume 1
• Holy Week Volume 2
• Holy Week Volume 3

Holy Week Services

These audio recordings were taken during Holy Week at St. Vladimir’s Seminary in 2004. Professor Emeritus David Drillock directed the choir. The recordings were made by Peter and Patricia Bouteneff with the help of  Serge Ossorguine.

• 1.1 Lazarus Saturday: Praises of Matins, Divine Liturgy Part 1
• 1.2 Lazarus Saturday: Divine Liturgy Part 2 (Litany of Catechumens)
• 2.1 Palm Sunday Vigil, Part 1 (Vespers through Six Psalms)
• 2.2 Palm Sunday Vigil, Part 2 (end of Matins)
• 2.3 Palm Sunday: Divine Liturgy with baptism, Part 1
• 2.4 Palm Sunday, Divine Liturgy with baptism, Part 2 (Communion onward)
• 2.5 Bridegroom Matins of Great and Holy Monday (celebrated Sunday evening)
• 3.1 Bridegroom Matins of Great and Holy Tuesday (celebrated Monday evening)
• 4.1 Presanctified Liturgy of Great and Holy Tuesday
• 4.2 Bridegroom Matins of Great and Holy Wednesday (celebrated Tuesday evening)
• 5.1 Presanctified Liturgy of Great and Holy Wednesday (beginning with the little litany before “Lord, I Call”)
• 5.2 Matins of Great and Holy Thursday (celebrated Wednesday evening)
• 6.1 9th Hour, Typika, and Vespers of Great and Holy Thursday with the Divine Liturgy of St Basil (part 1)
• 6.2 Vesperal divine Liturgy of Great and Holy Thursday, part 2
• 6.3 Matins of Great and Holy Friday (12 Passion Gospels) (celebrated Thursday evening), part 1
• 6.4 Matins of Great and Holy Friday, part 2 (Beatitudes to end)
• 7.1 Vespers of Great and Holy Friday
• 7.2 Vespers of Great and Holy Friday (end and veneration of shroud); Little Compline with the canon of Lamentation
• 8.1 9th Hour, Typika, and Vespers of Great and Holy Saturday with Divine Liturgy of St Basil (beginning up to the 15 Old Testament readings) [incomplete]
• 8.2 Midnight Office, Procession, Paschal Matins, Divine Liturgy
• 8.3 Divine Liturgy of Pascha, part 2 

Click here to access links to live streams from OCA parishes

Reflections

• On Lazarus Saturday (Very Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield, President)
• On Palm Sunday (Very Rev. Dr. J. Sergius Halvorsen, Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Rhetoric)
• On Great & Holy Tuesday (Dr. Peter C. Bouteneff, Professor of Systematic Theology)
• On Great and Holy Wednesday (Dr. Vitaly Permiakov, Asst. Prof. of Liturgical Theology)
• On St Mary of Egypt (6th Sunday of Great Lent (Dr. Al Rossi, Director of Counseling)
• On Matins of Holy Thursday (Dr. Paul Meyendorff, Professor Emeritus)
• On the Vesperal Liturgy of Holy Thursday (Very Rev. Dr. Alexander Rentel, Asst. Prof. of Canon Law & Byzantine Studies)
• On Vespers of Great & Holy Friday (Dr. John Barnet, Associate Professor of New Testament)
• On Matins of Great & Holy Friday (Very Rev. Dr. John Jillions, Associate Prof. of Religion and Culture)
• On Holy Saturday (Very Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield, President)
• On Bridegroom Matins (Very Rev. Dr. Eric G. Tosi, Asst. Prof. of Pastoral Theology)
• On Melito of Sardis’ On Pascha (Very Rev. Dr. John Behr, The Father Georges Florovsky Distinguished Professor of Patristics)

Holy Week begins on Holy Monday, April 13, and concludes with the celebration of Pascha on April 19.

St. Vladimir's Seminary will be closed for business on the following days:

• Holy Thursday, April 16, 2020
• Holy Friday, April 17, 2020
• Bright Monday, April 20, 2020

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all services at the Seminary’s Three Hierarchs Chapel are suspended until further notice. The Seminary is operating with remote or isolated staff.

“Airy and spacious and inviting.” The description of a painting? Actually, it is one of the ways that the newly launched website (www.instituteofsacredarts.com) of the Institute of Sacred Arts (ISA) at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary has been described. This new home for the Institute, whose mission is to “explore the intersection of human creativity and holiness” has many features to help the viewer understand the mutual relationship between theology and the arts.

“I wanted the website to convey that there is exciting activity happening at St. Vladimir’s regarding the arts,” said Institute Director and St. Vladimir’s Professor Dr Peter Bouteneff. “The website features a lot of material coming out of our events surrounding music, visual arts, liturgy, with a lot of exciting video content,” he said. 

The site also includes textual reflections from Seminary and external faculty. A recently featured reflection was on the theological implications of a popular KPOP video. 

Viewers will want to stay current with the site to find out the latest about the Institute’s upcoming events, including next June’s Pan-Orthodox Music Symposium. 

About the ISA

The Institute of Sacred Arts at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary explores the intersection of human creativity and holiness. With a theology that is holistic, and a liturgy that unites multiple artistic disciplines and all the human senses, the Orthodox Christian tradition is ripe for the exploration and celebration of the sacred arts. Since its founding in 1938, St. Vladimir’s Seminary has fostered the study of icons, music and liturgy. The Institute of Sacred Arts serves to extend the seminary’s mission in exploring the mutual relationship between theology and the arts by: contributing to the work of people and institutions that practice and reflect on the sacred arts; engaging people and institutions of all backgrounds with Orthodox artistic tradition; inspiring wider public interest in spirituality and the arts.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a crisis unlike anything seen in recent history. The pandemic is leaving in its wake profound suffering, loss, fear, anxiety, and depression. How do we endure such times?

Join us Wednesday, April 8, for the free webinar, “Suffering in the Time of Pandemic.” The online event will be led by St. Vladimir’s Seminary faculty members Dr. Daniel B. Hinshaw, professor of palliative care, and Dr. Jane C. Hinshaw, assistant professor of psychiatry. The discussion begins at 3 p.m. EDT.

St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) will hold its Commencement Exercises for the Class of 2020 on Saturday, September 12.

Commencement usually takes place in May at the conclusion of the spring semester, but Seminary administration is rescheduling the event in response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. The Seminary has already transitioned all its classes online for the remainder of the spring 2020 semester.

The day of commencement will begin with Hierarchical Divine Liturgy on the morning of September 12. The Service of Thanksgiving will then be held at 1 p.m. at the Seminary’s Three Hierarchs Chapel, followed by the Commencement Exercises at 1:30 p.m. in the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium of the John G. Rangos Family Building.

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, St. Vladimir’s Seminary was still able to hold a large gathering of its community members—just not in person. The Seminary held a virtual town hall Thursday with around 70 people from among its student body, faculty, and staff.

During the meeting, Seminary President Fr. Chad Hatfield offered updates and reminded people to reach out to the Seminary administration if they needed any help during these challenging times. He also welcomed new professors Fr. Bogdan Bucur and Dr. Vitaly Permiakov and new spiritual formation director Fr. Nicholas Roth, who also joined in on the video chat and introduced themselves to the Seminary community.

Classes have moved online, chapel services have been suspended, and social-distancing practices continue on campus, but otherwise business continues at St. Vladimir’s as much as possible. Faculty and staff are mostly working from home, the Seminary continues to process and accept applications for next year, and St. Vladimir’s Seminary (SVS) Press is open for orders online and over the phone.

St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) is pleased to announce the hiring of Rev. Nicholas Roth as its new spiritual formation director. Father Nicholas, an alumnus of St. Vladimir’s Seminary (’14), replaces the Seminary’s former spiritual formation director, Very Rev. David Mezynski, who stepped down earlier this year to move closer to family. 

"I'm both excited and honored to be returning to St. Vladimir's and being part of the team,” said Fr. Nicholas. “There is a great deal of good work to be done, and I am humbled by the prospect that my work will have an effect on the Church for the next fifty or sixty years as seminarians graduate and go out to serve as priests, choir directors, teachers, and youth ministers.”  

Father Nicholas, one of the two co-valedictorians from the Class of 2014, has been serving as the priest in charge at Ss. George & Alexandra Orthodox Mission (OCA) in Fort Smith, Arkansas. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the Community Rescue Mission, a faith-based organization committed to helping the homeless. A U.S. Army captain and veteran, Fr. Nicholas served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2005 to 2010.

"Father Nicholas brings to this position an excellent background from his time as a parish priest and also having served in the U.S. military,” said SVOTS President Very Rev. Chad Hatfield. “As an alumnus, he knows our campus well and understands the uniqueness of guiding people through the residential seminary experience."

The hire of Fr. Nicholas is part of the Seminary’s recent push to put even more focus on student formation. The position of spiritual formation director was formerly called the “dean of students.” With the change of name has come new expectations and duties, with a stronger emphasis on tracking where seminarians are in their own life and spiritual formation. SVOTS is also one of fourteen seminaries taking part in a Templeton Foundation survey tracking the influence of spiritual formation on a person's character, specifically focused on clergy and future members of clergy.

“We have the opportunity to ensure that an education at St. Vladimir's continues to be more than just an academic endeavor, but remains a holistic approach that engages the entirety of the Seminarian—body, mind, heart, and soul,” Fr. Nicholas said. “May God bless the fruit of our work together and use it to increase His glory and the glory of His Church."

Father Nicholas will begin his new appointment at the beginning of the 2020-2021 academic year. He returns to campus with his wife, Matushka Mary, and their three children, Edward, 8, Dylan, 7, and Aubreigh, 5.

St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS), like many other schools, has postponed several activities and events in the wake of the COVID-19 threat, but the Seminary continues to accept applications for the 2020-2021 academic year. And, notably, students can apply to St. Vladimir’s without leaving the safety of their home.

• Click here to create your personal account and start the application process.

The Seminary has moved to an online, cloud-based admissions system. The entire applications process is handled online, and applicants are not required to visit campus at any time during that process.

“The fact that we have moved the whole admissions process online is vital right now, as people remain in their homes,” said Alexandru Popovici, the Seminary's Academic and Recruitment Advisor. “Interviews will also be conducted online, so, thankfully, all the disruptions and adjustments caused by the Coronavirus will not prevent someone from answering their calling to serve the Church and study at St. Vladimir’s.”

The new application deadline is June 1.

St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary is a higher education institution accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) to offer the following program degrees: Master of Divinity, Master of Arts, Master of Theology and Doctor of Ministry.

*Registration for the webinar is now closed. The maximum number of participants allowed have already registered. Please visit svots.edu/events soon for more information about the next Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) webinar, currently scheduled for April 29. Thank you for your interest! More information about the D.Min. program may be found here.

An opportunity to transform your ministry for the better might sound too good to be true, but that is exactly what St. Vladimir’s Seminary’s Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) program was set up to be. And its most recent graduates want you to see fruits of the D.Min. program for yourself.

On Thursday, March 26, we are continuing our latest round of webinars featuring D.Min. graduates presenting their final projects. These webinars—free and open to the public—are meant to give people a taste of what the D.Min. program offers and what it can do for your ministry.

Registration ends at 3 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, so register soon if you plan on joining us!

• Webinar Registration – Sarah Byrne-Martelli, D.Min.
  Thursday, March 26, 2020 12 PM - 1 PM EDT

This latest webinar presentation will feature Sarah Byrne-Martelli, D.Min., and her project, “Memory Eternal: A Vision for Orthodox Christian Bereavement.” She will present a one-hour webinar exploring how our faith provides a framework for understanding grief and loss. The new model of ministry proposed is a bereavement group curriculum, based on qualitative research with Orthodox Christians who have experienced the loss of a loved one.

Sarah Byrne-Martelli is the Palliative Care Chaplain at Massachusetts General Hospital and is endorsed as a Board Certified Chaplain by the Antiochian Archdiocese.

Registrants will be emailed a link to join the webinar via computer or phone.