Alumnus Dr. Will Cohen graduated from Brown University in Providence, RI in 1988, before earning his Master of Divinity at St. Vladimir's in 2002 with the thesis "Ecclesiology and the Dialogues between Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches."  At Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., he continued a similar course of study, and was awarded a "distinction" for his defense of his dissertation,"The Concept of Sister Churches in Catholic-Orthodox Relations since Vatican II."  In 2009, he joined the University of Scranton as an assistant professor in the Theology/Religious Studies department, where he recently received an award for "Excellence in Advancing Interdisciplinary Learning." 

Svots.edu asked Dr. Cohen to reflect on his experience as an Orthodox academic, and to explain how St. Vladimir's helped prepare him for his current responsibilities.

The University of Scranton is a Jesuit institution.  What are some of the challenges and rewards of being an Orthodox Christian academic in a Jesuit world?

I love where I work and I love my job.  I get to teach the Bible, to speak freely of God and faith to roomfuls of 18-year-olds, and there's absolutely nothing of what I believe to be important and true in the biblical revelation that I have to steer clear of in my teaching.  That strikes me as an extraordinary blessing.  Of course if the students weren't required to take a Bible course as part of their general education requirement, it's doubtful I would have a job (in this day and age, there aren't many theology majors, especially with the economy being what it's been).  But even though many of them come in feeling like they shouldn't have to bother with this sort of course, they're usually pretty engaged by the material once we dive in.  Who, in the end, isn't at least somewhat interested in what it means to be a human being?  

My colleagues in the Theology department are prayerful, deeply reflective people who have read widely not only in theology but in philosophy and literature.  They're also into things like the World Cup and the latest decisions of the Scranton City Council.  It's fun to hang out with them and I learn a great deal from them.  In terms of how I fit in as an Orthodox Christian, it's interesting, and I don't know if this reflects a general pattern or is more particular to me and to here, but to the extent that there's a theological spectrum among the Catholics in the department— of the fifteen of us, eleven are Catholic —I tend to be appreciated for different reasons by those on either end.  Overall, there's an immense respect for Eastern Christianity, and I think this is true at most North American Catholic schools today.  I suppose that if I felt, myself, that Orthodoxy and Catholicism were ultimately incompatible traditions, as some Orthodox (and some Catholics) believe, then being here would be alienating, but my own experience is that it's a context very nourishing of my own faith.  Incidentally, my department's most recent hire is a wonderful Scripture scholar, Dn. Michael Azar, also Orthodox and a graduate of St. Vladimir's.     

What are your thoughts on working with collegians in today's academic and cultural climate?

On the one hand, the world that today's students have grown up in isn't especially ennobling; I'm talking about the tendencies in our commercial culture to focus on what's superficial and trivial.  On the other hand, most students turn out to have had something happen to them that isn't trivial at all, like the divorce of their parents or the death of a family member.  Even what may seem less dramatic, like having had friends turn on them in middle school or high school, often came along with pretty serious cruelty that forced them to wonder about life.  As soon as existence takes on this element of being a puzzle one doesn't altogether understand, then one is ripe to learn—I mean the kind of learning that involves learning how to live, how to be, which is what philosophy and theology can address.  Theology isn't mere therapy in a reductive sense, but of course what is objectively true is also consoling and uplifting.  St. Irenaeus saw all of fallen existence as therapeutic, including death itself, since it spares us from eternal imprisonment in the delusion and darkness of our alienation from God.  This kind of an idea isn't floating around in the cultural experience of most of today's college students; but if they're exposed to it in a theology class, and if it's unpacked for them a little, it can speak to them.    

How would you describe the state of Catholic/Orthodox relations and ecumenical engagement today?

It's difficult to take the temperature of Catholic-Orthodox relations.  We know we're not in full sacramental communion; it's also clear that there's an immense amount of mutual exchange on various levels.  It's likely that there's more contact and influence today, running in both directions, than during certain periods when Christian East and West were "undivided" but already rather isolated from each other.  A key question today, I think, is whether one believes reconciliation is possible.  I can't count the number of people who've said to me:  "It'll never happen."  Of course I can hear this only so many times myself, from Catholics and Orthodox alike, before there's a despairing temptation to agree, but I don't agree.  I understand why people feel it's a long shot.  My dissertation director, Paul McPartlan, published a little book entitled One in 2000? Towards Catholic-Orthodox Unity—this was back in the '90s—and people joked that the title must have been referring to the odds.  It will take a miracle, no doubt.  But as we sing in the great prokeimenon at Vespers on the evening of major feasts, "What god is so great as our God?  You are the God who works wonders" (Psalm 77).   I believe God can pull off this miracle of Orthodox-Catholic unity and wants to.  Actually it will be a miracle comprised of countless little miracles, plenty of which have already happened.   

What would you say is most memorable or enduring from your SVOTS years?  How did your seminary experience influence your approach to theology and ministry?

Maybe I shouldn't go straight back to Irenaeus but another saying of his comes to mind.  He famously said that the glory of God is a human being fully alive.  What's had the most lasting impact on me from my years at SVS is without question the vitality of teachers and fellow students who reflected some of this radiance of the glory of God.  It's not a matter of idealizing people, nor of comparing one to another.  But where people have genuine hope in the process of being unshackled from whatever hinders them from the fullness of life, and submit themselves to this process, even if at times with a certain admitted reluctance, there's joy.  And I felt this joy in the presence of all sorts of people, only a few of whom I will name, and again not in any deliberate order.  Father Tom Hopko, Fr. Paul Lazor, Dr. Al Rossi, Dr. David Drillock.  I had the joy of spending some time with Mat. Julianna Schmemann when she asked for someone to edit some of her essays.  The day I first visited the campus, not yet decided between SVS and an M.Div. program elsewhere, a lecture by (newly retired ) Fr. Paul Tarazi blew me away.  It was extraordinary to hear him carry on, with a combination of nuance and ferocity I had never witnessed before, about the faith and the ease with which those who think of themselves as its standard-bearers can debase it.  He used to call me Cohen the Gentile, because at the time I wasn't yet Orthodox.  

Probably the person whose scholarship has had the most impact on my own is Fr. John Erickson, who wasn't yet a priest when I was there.  Anyone working today in the area of Orthodox ecclesiology is indebted to his remarkably careful and perceptive writings.  His church history lectures were works of art, and he always used to seem to have such a blast giving them.  He and Dr. Paul Meyendorff have been longtime members of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Consultation, and they've both given me a lot of gracious encouragement in my own ecumenical work over the years.  Father John Behr, though, was the one who was most relentless about pushing me to pursue a doctorate after I graduated from SVS, something I hadn't thought I would necessarily do (I had thought I was maybe too old).  I'm grateful for his prodding.

As to how the seminary more generally has influenced my approach to theology, I would say that it formed me to understand the need for theology to be personal.  It's always a selling point, and rightly so, that at St. Vladimir's, study and worship are inseparable.  Praise and love of God stand at the center.  And since this is a God not just of the universe —though He's that—but of people, a God who cares tenderly for people, it was always a given at seminary that if we are to grow in love of God we have to grow in knowledge of ourselves.  Father Tom used to say that there has to be someone on the planet who knows everything about you, someone from whom you have no secrets.  This basic point of transparency is something that has stuck with me:  the goal of being the same on the inside and on the outside. 

The word authenticity is sometimes overused, but I find that to be authentic, to be myself—not according to my own demands, nor merely according to the demands of others either, rather by opening myself to the demands of God—is the ongoing challenge that was laid out for me at St. Vladimir’s, in a way that hangs together.  God is who He is and we, by loving Him and one another through Him, become who we are.  

Will Cohen lives in Scranton with his wife Julie, the University's director of community and government relations, and their three children Ella, Matthew, and Jonathan. He is a Subdeacon at All Saints Orthodox Church in nearby Olyphant, PA and vice president of the Orthodox Theological Society in America (OTSA). Whenever he is able, he enjoys being in a coffee shop with a notebook and pen and/or spending time in New York City with his family.

Imagine walking in the footsteps of Jesus and his followers. Now imagine uncovering firsthand the very buildings they would have seen and discovering objects they would have used in their daily lives, including domestic wares and implements for fishing.

"Such were the experiences of St. Vladimir's seminarian Elizabeth Siniscalchi and alumnus Priest Aaron Warwick [M.Div., '09], both of whom participated in the 2014 season of the Bethsaida Excavations Project," said Nicolae Roddy, Ph.D., associate professor of Old Testament at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, and co-director of the Bethsaida Project since 1996.

Seminarian Siniscalchi, from West Palm Beach, FL, and Fr. Aaron, pastor at St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church, Wichita, KS, along with Dr. Roddy, also a St. Vladimir's Seminary alumnus [M.A., '89], labored in sweltering 100-degree heat over a period of two-weeks in June and July. They participated in the archeological dig to help bring the world of Jesus to greater light.

While Dr. Roddy and Fr. Aaron worked in the "fishing" area, dubbed "Area C," Seminarian Siniscalchi worked in another section on Iron Age in "Area A,Seminarian Elizabeth Siniscalchi works in an Iron Age section in Bethsaida South and West," under the direct supervision of Dr. Sarah Kate Raphael during the first week and under Dr. Carl Savage of Drew University during the second week.

Mentioned more than any other city in the New Testament with the exception of Jerusalem and Capernaum, Bethsaida, which means "House of the Fishermen," is known from the Gospels as the hometown of the apostles Andrew, Peter, and Philip. St. John Chrysostom knew of a tradition that adds James and John, the sons of Zebedee, to that list of fishermen as well.Dr. Nicolae Roddy (left) in Bethsaida with Fr. Aaron Warwick and Elizabeth Siniscalchi

The Gospels relate that Jesus performed miracles in the environs of Bethsaida, most notably healing a blind man and feeding a multitude of people. Because its citizens failed to discern the meaning of Jesus' mighty works, the city was cursed, along with nearby Capernaum and Chorazin. Lost to history for roughly seventeen centuries, Bethsaida was rediscovered in 1987; it was found nestled at the foot of the Golan Heights near the northern shore of the large freshwater lake the Bible calls the Sea of Galilee, exactly where the first-century historian Josephus places it.

"A large courtyard-style house full of fishing implements was uncovered during the early years of the dig," related Dr. Roddy. "This season a wide pavement leading from the Fishermen's House down toward the mouth of the Jordan River and dating to the time of Jesus was exposed, and I've dubbed it the 'Avenue of the Apostles.' A large Iron Age city lies beneath, which is being excavated elsewhere on the 20-acre mound."

"I truly want to praise Elizabeth and Fr. Aaron for their contributions to this dig, not only for their hard work but also for the personal examples that they have set before other volunteers," Dr. Roddy concluded. "I welcome the participation of other SVOTS students and alumni in seasons to come."

At Creighton University, Dr. Roddy teaches courses in Hebrew Bible / Old Testament. He is past President of the joint Rocky Mountain / Great Plains Region of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), and American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR). He is also Senior Editor for the Journal for the Orthodox Center for the Advancement of Biblical Studies. In addition, Dr. Roddy is a Faculty Associate for the Goren-Goldstein Center for Judaic Studies at the Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, Romania. He has lectured at several universities in Romania and has made additional scholarly presentations in Israel, Rome, Berlin, Vienna, and Amsterdam.

For more information about the Bethsaida Excavation Project, you may contact Dr. Roddy personally: nroddy@creighton.edu. 

The Very Rev. Macarius Targonsky, a 1955 alumnus of St. Vladimir's Seminary, reposed in the Lord Wednesday, June 25, 2014, at Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna, Alaska. He was 84 years old. Services were held on June 30 and July 1, with The Right Rev. David (Mahaffey), bishop of Sitka and Alaska, and other diocesan clergy presiding, and he was buried in the Holy Assumption Orthodox Church Cemetery in Kenai.

Father Macarius was born Sept. 4, 1929 in Meriden, CT. In 1952, he earned his Bachelor's Degree at Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, WV, where he was a member and secretary of the Phi Alpha Theta Society. He studied at St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary where he earned a diploma, and then completed his studies by graduating from Columbia University and earning a Master of Divinity Degree at St. Vladimir's Seminary, writing his thesis on the preaching of St. John Chrysostom.

"Mr. Targonsky has a real literary talent, as well as a keen understanding of the ideal of the Christian pastor and preacher," wrote St. Vladimir's Professor of Dogmatics Dr. Serge Verhovskoy, Fr. Macarius' thesis evaluator.

Years later, Fr. Macarius made a donation to the Seminary. In his letter he stated, "I hereby with the enclosed check...offer my gift to my spiritual 'mother,' St. Vladimir's Seminary, because from 'her' I had received excellent spiritual training, and am now what and who I am because of her."

Chancellor/CEO The Very Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield has lived and traveled in Alaska. "I remember Fr. Macarius from my own days in Alaska and Kodiak, where he served at Holy Resurrection Church. He was known as a faithful priest and the father of several adopted children that drew him close to St. Herman." Added fellow alumnus Theodore Bazil, senior advisor for Advancement at the Seminary "Fr. Macarius was a good man, and one we will never forget."

After his ordination at New York's Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral by Metropolitan Leonty, Fr. Macarius served for six years in Pennsylvania, at Holy Trinity Church, Wilkes-Barre and St. Mary's Orthodox Church in Osceola Mills, before he and Matushka Marie moved to Alaska to serve at Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Kodiak.

During the years Father and Matushka Marie lived Kodiak, he assisted in the transfer of St. Herman of Alaska's holy relics from Spruce Island to Kodiak, and then hosted the hierarchs, priests and faithful at St. Herman's canonization on August 9, 1970.

Father Macarius briefly left Alaska to fulfill short-term assignments in Buffalo, NY and Kenosha, WI, returning to serve at the Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church in Kenai, and the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Church in Ninilchik. For the last five years of his life, he was attached to Holy Assumption.

Father was preceded in death by his parents, Helen and Macarii Targonsky, son, Nicholas, 10 brothers and sisters and a grandson, Cecil Demidoff. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Matushka Yvette Marie Tagonsky of Kenai; daughters and sons-in-law, Nina and Rick Weatherly of Modesto, CA, Evdokia (Dunya) and Ron Aho of Kenai; sons and daughters-in-law, Alexander and Nancy Targonsky of Seward, and Dimitri and Annette Targonsky of AK; numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren; and a sister, Lottie Cepanewski of Meriden, CT.

May His Memory Be Eternal! 

A new video features the unique ministry of Youth Equipped to Serve (YES) with Director Katrina Bitar, St. Vladimir's graduate of the Class of 2009. YES is a program under the auspices of the Fellowship of Orthodox Christians United to Serve (FOCUS); its central purpose is to engage youth in formative weekends of service in needy neighborhoods throughout the United States. 

Katrina was involved for many years in camping and youth ministry in California, Pennsylvania, and Arizona. A graduate of Rutgers University, she earned her Master of Theology at St. Vladimir's and accepted the position with YES after receiving her SVOTS degree. In a profile of Katrina published in the 2013 St. Vladimir's Annual Report, she notes that the ultimate goal of YES is "to raise up a generation of service leaders in the Church." 

As many people saw last month, the San Diego region experienced dramatic fires that burned thousands of acres and, interestingly, got people thinking about the fragility of "ordinary" life. At the Orthodox Church in America's St. Katherine of Alexandria Mission, the faithful also shared the view that the area is very dry as well, resulting in a strong thirst for God. According to The Rev. Andrew Cuneo (SVOTS 2010), rector, "we rejoiced when we received our own 'firepower' in the form of a 2014 Mission Planting Grant for our community in Encinitas beginning this very month."

Much of that spiritual thirst has been evident in the Mission's two-and-one-half year existence. The Mission began with about 23 folks—including Fr. Andrew's family of five. Sunday Liturgy attendance now averages about 80. One factor was critical in helping the Mission begin on solid footing.

"Perhaps the most important experience I had was actually after seminary," Fr. Andrew noted, "when we spent a year training at St. Seraphim's in Santa Rosa, CA and learning the 'feel' of a growing parish, watching just about everything a mature priest and a healthy community does." It was The Very Rev. Lawrence Margitich's community that ensured that on-the-job practical training could complement the rich education provided by St. Vladimir's Seminary.

"I absolutely love the Diocese of the West," Fr. Andrew adds. "It is a mission-oriented Diocese with deep connections to the Russian mission on this coast going back many centuries." This mix of traditionally Orthodox communities and ordinary Californians makes for a productive combination. Father Andrew has seen a large influx of former Protestants who "happened all to be, it seemed, in the same book group already reading Fr. Alexander Schmemann and C.S. Lewis. Once one member became a catechumen, the rest—and their families—followed suit. It wasn't a case of successful fishing at all: the fish jumped into the boat!"

Those searching were able to find a rich Orthodoxy because of the families at St. Katherine's who grew up in the Church and cherished their own personal memories of St. John of San Francisco. In particular, the talent in musical conducting has led to several parish members playing a role in founding and performing for the Patriarch Tikhon Russian-American Institute. "There's so much going on in the parish right now," Fr. Andrew adds, "Whether it's serving the Blessing of the Waters at the Pacific Ocean, walking in the San Diego March for Life, or crossing the border to build houses at Project Mexico, we still want to keep a beautiful, reverent liturgical life at the center. Prayer is the vital connection to Our Lord and His saints which makes this not only possible, but meaningful."

Just last month, the mission faithful celebrated a Molieben to St. Sergius of Radonezh to commemorate the 700th Anniversary of his birth and to bless a handmade copy of a large 15th century iconographic shroud of St. Sergius. "The project has brought many of our parishioners together in a collaborative effort, which has included dying our own silk fabric and designing a special typeface for the names of St. Sergius' spiritual children around the border of the shroud, along with learning a traditional split-stitch method." The shroud now hangs in St. Katherine's chapel, itself a converted office space. It has been a tiny but beautiful worship space both for the Mission and St. Katherine College, which has generously hosted the Mission.

As the Mission prepares to move into its own, larger space this summer, it will need its own firepower. "Our feast comes from the altar: the icons and relics we have are our spiritual weapons: the community members are the servants of God: and the Planting Grant makes this possible. To be able to serve as a full-time priest because of this grant is simply ideal." 

On June 5, 2014, hierarchs, clergy, and lay delegates from the Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America convened in Chicago, IL at the Hyatt Regency Hotel for a Special Convention, with the purpose of selecting three candidates whose names will be submitted to the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Antioch for the office of Metropolitan. Two of the nominees chosen were St. Vladimir's alumni—The Right Rev. Bishop Basil (Class of 1973), Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America, and The Right Rev. Bishop John (Class of 1984), Diocese of Worcester and New England.

Also elected was The Most Rev. Archbishop Joseph, Diocese of Los Angeles and the West and Locum Tenens for the Diocese of Eagle River and the Northwest.

Vicar General for the Antiochian Archdiocese and SVOTS Lecturer in Liturgics The Very Rev. Thomas Zain was interviewed by Ancient Faith Radio immediately following the vote. In the interview, Fr. Thomas thanked His Eminence Metropolitan Silouan of Buenos Aires and all Argentina, who has served as the Patriarchal Vicar of New York and all North America since the repose of former SVOTS Board of Trustees Vice President His Eminence Metropolitan Philip on March 19, 2014. "His Eminence has done a magnificant job of guiding us since he arrived here; he gave us a masterful speech of the land mines of this process and he anticipated our questions ahead of time. It seemed everyone is of one mind."

"The Synod in Antioch has the right to choose any one of these three as the next Metropolitan. God willing, the Holy Spirit will work among them," Fr. Thomas said.

Listen to the AFR interview 

"The joy of the harvest is so great," said Jesse Brandow (alumnus, '13) during his public lecture on Mayan Orthodoxy at St. Vladimir's Seminary. Sponsored by the SVOTS Student Council, the lecture was held on May 18th and drew people from throughout the tri-state area. Mr. Brandow described the explosive growth of Orthodoxy in Guatemala and Mexico, where tens of thousands of Mayan Indians have converted to the Orthodox Church. Mr. Brandow compared this astounding growth to a joyful "harvest," using imagery from the Parable of the Sower (Mk 4:3–9) to explain the history of Orthodoxy in Guatemala and the future challenges.

Throughout the lecture, Mr. Brandow recounted stories from his own experiences in Guatemala. In 2009, he served as a short-term missionary at the Hogar Orthodox orphanage in Guatemala City, and in 2012 he worked for a full summer in the Mayan communities that have converted to Orthodoxy. Now Mr. Brandow is preparing to serve in Guatemala for two years as a long-term missionary through the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC), and he was inspired to make that commitment because of the tremendous challenges that face the Orthodox villages in Guatemala. He described those challenges during the lecture, sharing stories of decades-long poverty and explaining the acute need for theologically trained missionaries who can catechize the people. After describing both the struggles and the joys that he witnessed in Guatemala, Mr. Brandow urged the broader Church to stand with the people of Guatemala and support the missionaries who serve them.

A time for questions and answers followed the lecture. Members of the audience asked questions about religious dynamics in Latin America and inquired about how to participate in the growth of Orthodoxy in Guatemala. Deacon Sandro Margheritino, president of the Student Council, thanked Jesse for his "inspiring" words and called on people to support all the missionaries working in Guatemala. The lecture was recorded and can be downloaded or streamed at Voices from St. Vladimir's on Ancient Faith Radio.

Jesse Brandow currently is seeking parishes that will help him begin his mission work in Guatemala. To invite him to speak at your parish and raise support, contact j.brandow@ocmc.org. For updates from Jesse Brandow on the growth of Orthodoxy in Guatemala, "like" his page on Facebook, or visit Mayan Orthodoxy to learn more about the whole missionary team serving in Guatemala. 

His Grace Mark (Maymon), Class of 1991, was enthroned as Bishop of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), during a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at St. Stephen Orthodox Cathedral in Pittsburgh, PA, on May 10.  His Beatitude The Most Blessed Tikhon, primate of the OCA, presided over the Divine Liturgy. He was assisted by three other bishops, eight priests, and St. Vladimir’s Director of Alumni Relations and Admissions, Protodeacon Joseph Matusiak.

“Love comes first in our church life, and foremost—love for Christ,” said the newly installed bishop in his remarks. His Grace received his Masters of Divinity degree from St. Vladimir’s over twenty years ago, submitting his thesis on “The Formation of the Canon of Scripture.”

Chancellor/CEO The Very Dr. Chad Hatfield, who attended the celebratory banquet for His Grace, noted, “I was deeply impressed with Bishop Mark's banquet remarks, which revealed his clear understanding of the missiological challenge that lies ahead for his diocese. He spoke well of his SVOTS formation, recalling words from both Fr. John Meyendorff and Fr. Alexander Schmemann.  I look forward to working with him as he takes up his archpastoral role in Eastern Pennsylvania.”

View the Cathedral’s photo gallery and the story and gallery on the OCA Website

Banquet photos by Anastasia Hanney 

Over Holy Week and Pascha 2014, alumnus Dr. Brandon Gallaher returned to St. Vladimir's to worship and visit with the community. A British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at University of Oxford, he has been serving as a Fellow of the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study at University of Notre Dame this spring. We had a chance to catch up with all that has transpired in his life since he completed his degree at St. Vladimir's ten years ago.

What brought you to St. Vladimir's for Pascha?

I am currently working at University of Notre Dame as a visiting fellow and did not have enough time to get home to Oxford. I have remained in contact with Profs. Bouteneff, Meyendorff, and Rossi—both personally as friends and academically as colleagues—and, in particular, I am in regular contact with Fr. John Behr who is a longstanding friend, mentor, and teacher (dating from before I went to St. Vladimir's). He was encouraging after I expressed the idea of coming for a visit.

Seminary community life, coupled with studies, fieldwork, and worship, often can be demanding. What are your personal recollections about your time as a student, and would you share your impressions from your recent visit?

Seminary often can be an intensive and difficult time, and it was no exception for me. Indeed, I remember Fr. Paul Lazor saying that "the devil stalks the hallways of the seminary," presumably trying to destroy a place intent on doing good in service to God. Personally, seminary was the "best-worst" two years of my life: it marked me profoundly and made me grow (often despite myself!) spiritually, intellectually, and emotionally in ways that have determined who I am today as an Orthodox Christian, husband, father, and academic theologian; at the same time, it demanded a certain "dying to self" that was very difficult.

I was struck at my recent visit by the beauty of the worship. I also was struck—in speaking to different seminarians and their families—how they too were struggling as I had struggled and found being at St Vladimir's difficult. Now this difficulty, I would venture, is partially due to the spiritual challenges of life in community as well as being spiritually "stretched." 

The focus of your work is religion and secularization and ecumenical dialogue. How do you think these aspects might be affecting the experiences of today's seminarians?

Personal difficulties arising from life at seminary, I would venture, are partially due to the spiritual challenges of life in community as well as being spiritually "stretched" as I have just described. Yet I also wonder if there isn't a new element. Seminary communities now struggle with a new landscape caused by social changes that have been divisive in American society in general. The U.S. is in many ways now a society undergoing a social and moral transformation into a post-religious and pluralistic society in the manner that has long existed in Canada and Western Europe. Such tensions are to be expected in the Church, which is in the world but not of it. As has always been the case historically, the Church continues to offer a spiritual home to people with a variety of political and social perspectives, and thus, as these perspectives are shared and challenged, creative tensions (and sometimes "clashes!") invariably arise. 

What years were you at St. Vladimir's, and what was your course of study? 

I pursued my M.Div. from 2001–2003. I had a previous M.A. so I was able to do the degree in two rather than three years. It was a strange time to be in New York as shortly after I arrived the tragedy of September 11 happened. I remember classes being cancelled that day and a special prayer service being held in the chapel, but also some of my fellow seminarians went down to Ground Zero to help.

I had my own strange experience of this event. On the night of September 10, I had severe chest pains, and a friend rushed me to the hospital in Bronxville where I would later do my chaplaincy training. They did a battery of tests and could not figure out what the issue was, but they were concerned as I had a history of lung collapses. In the wee hours I returned to St. Vladimir's. My wife and I were awakened in the morning in the basement of the North Dorm by a call from my mother from Canada. She said to my wife that she was astonished, as she "had heard the news." For a moment there was some confusion on my wife's part as to how my mother could have heard about my being in the hospital. My mother then told my wife that some sort of small plane had crashed into a tower in New York City. We immediately rushed upstairs to friends who had a TV. We then to our horror saw the awful and terrible events of that day unfold. It felt like America was under attack and we were in the midst of it, albeit marooned in "seminary land."

Later that night I was struck again with severe chest pains and went back into the hospital. Throughout the night and into the morning I watched as doctors went back and forth between the hospital and Ground Zero. The ones returning were covered with dust. In the morning I returned with a diagnosis of pleurisy and was given painkillers, forced bed rest and (several months later) a huge medical bill running into the thousands of dollars, as we had neglected, being dim Canadians, to purchase medical insurance. So September 11 for me, will always conjure up a strange time period at the seminary.

I did all the normal training an M.Div. student would do including hospital chaplaincy and a summer internship, which I served at St. Herman's Sobor in Edmonton, Canada (both truly life-changing experiences). My M.Div. was done under the older curriculum, so there was the opportunity to focus intensively on academic study, and I very quickly took this track once I decided not to be ordained. I was greatly inspired by classes I took on canon law, the history of Orthodox involvement in ecumenism, liturgical theology, and Russian Church history with (then) Prof. John Erickson and Prof. Meyendorff.

My thesis, supervised by Prof. Meyendorff and born out of a paper written in a class of Prof. Erickson, was an important intellectual moment for me. I finally was able to deal with the claim of the Orthodox Church to be the "One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church" of the creed and place in proper context the existence of other non-Orthodox Christians and churches. It was titled "Catholic Action: Ecclesiology, the Eucharist and the Question of Intercommunion in the Ecumenism of Sergii Bulgakov" (available here).  A somewhat condensed early version of the thesis was published as my first two articles in Sobornost.

What did you do after Commencement?

During my time at St. Vladimir's, I decided I wanted to do a doctorate in theology. I knew I wanted to focus on Bulgakov as one of the few Orthodox systematic theologiansin the 20th century. Father John Behr encouraged me to not just focus on one then quite obscure Orthodox figure, but to look at his thought in dialogue with other western theologians, and it is due to his guidance I decided to look at him in comparison to Barth and Balthasar.

After applying to many graduate schools in the U.S., Canada and the UK, I decided on University of Oxford, where I wrote my D.Phil. thesis (now forthcoming from Oxford University Press) under the British systematic theologian Prof. Paul Fiddes at Regent's Park College. It was examined at Lambeth Palace by Prof. George Pattison and Archbishop Rowan Williams.

Metropolitan Kallistos Ware was already retired by the time I came to Oxford, but he gave generously of his time in commenting on numerous chapters of my thesis, and really, his witness, wisdom, and friendship continues to have a profound impact on me (I still feel like pinching myself, as his books led me to the Church) .

During my years at Oxford I have published a lot on many Orthodox figures especially Bulgakov, Solov'ev, Florovsky and Lossky, as I have tried to understand the largely unexplored terrain of modern Orthodox (especially, Russian) theology (the articles are available here).

My first year of my doctoral studies at Oxford my wife and I lived at C.S. Lewis' old home, The Kilns, where I served as the Warden. This was a wonderful experience as his bedroom and study was our living quarters. I re-read the Narnian Chronicles lying on my bed, trying to imagine him writing them in the next room. But in his old study I wrote on such distinctly foreign figures to Lewis as Hegel, Kierkegaard and Solov'ev.

In the last year of my doctoral studies I taught systematic theology, theological ethics, and 19th-century philosophy, literature, and theology as a Lecturer at Oxford's Keble College. I then was awarded a three-year university position: a postdoctoral fellowship held at my old college and Oxford's Faculty of Theology and Religion, and funded by the UK's national academy for the humanities and social sciences, the British Academy. My research for the last three years has moved in two directions: on inter-religious dialogue (especially with Islam—I have participated for three years running in Georgetown University's Islamic-Christian Building Bridges Seminar); and religion and secularization. My work at Oxford and, for the Spring term of 2014 at University of Notre Dame's Institute for Advanced Study, looks at how the role and theological conception of the episcopate has changed in Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy in the 20th and 21st centuries in light of the challenge of secularism.

I now am combining these two directions in my most recent post. From the autumn of 2014 I will hold a two-year Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Monotheistic Religions (CISMOR), School of Theology, Doshisha University, Kyoto. My research in Japan will focus on inter-religious dialogue and religion and politics. In particular, I am now writing on the interrelationship of nationalism, secularisation, and religious and political authority in modern and contemporary Russian Orthodoxy and Shinto and Japanese Buddhism. I am very excited about going to Japan, especially in encountering Orthodoxy in Kyoto at the Annunciation Cathedral. I am looking forward to meeting up with old friends from St. Vladimir's who now are serving the Orthodox Church of Japan, especially Fr Dn. Elijah (Toru) Takei in Tokyo and Masatoshi John Shoji in Yokohama.

Could you tell us a bit about the your family and what you do when you aren't busy with academic pursuits?

My home parish is St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Oxford, UK (Moscow Patriarchate) pastored by Archpriest Stephen Platt (who heads the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius). My wife, Michelle, is the parish secretary. She also was touched profoundly by her time at the seminary. For the first year at St. Vladimir's, after having taught science to elementary students for some years in Montreal, she took a much needed sabbatical and enjoyed the rhythm of liturgical life, made friendships that are our closest till this day, and read every book she could find in the Crestwood Library.

In our second year at seminary Michelle got a job working for the N.Y. School Board and was a Science Specialist at an elementary school in the Bronx. It was an immensely challenging position given the social challenges and poverty faced by many of the children, but she remembers it as one of the best professional experiences of her career so far. We have four children, who were all born after we left: Sophie (9), Ita (7), Alban (3) and Maria (5 months).

If I had to name any hobbies that were non-academic and non-church related, I would have to say "walking." We have tried every summer to take a holiday to Cornwall, where we go on family walks in the countryside. I also recently went to Athos for several weeks and hiked around the peninsula, which combined all my interests: church, theology, and walking in the countryside.

Brandon Gallaher is currently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford and (for Spring 2014) a Fellow of the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study, University of Notre Dame, where his research focuses on secularism, politics, and the episcopate in modern Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. From the autumn of 2014 he will hold a two-year Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Monotheistic Religions (CISMOR), School of Theology, Doshisha University, Kyoto. His research in Japan will focus on inter-religious dialogue and religion and politics.

In particular, he is now writing on the interrelationship of nationalism, secularisation, and religious and political authority in modern and contemporary Russian Orthodoxy and Shinto and Japanese Buddhism. His D.Phil. thesis from the University of Oxford was on "Trinitarian Theology in Christian East and West" (looking at Sergii Bulgakov, Karl Barth, and Hans Urs von Balthasar), and it is forthcoming in an expanded form as a monograph, Freedom and Necessity in Modern Trinitarian Theology. He is co-editing a Reader which is forthcoming, The Patristic Witness of Georges Florovsky: Essential Writings. He also holds a B.A. in English and Philosophy from the University of British Columbia, an M.A. in Religious Studies from McGill University, an M.Div. from St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, and an M.St. from Oxford, in Modern Theology.

Memory Eternal! The entire community of faculty, staff and students at St. Vladimir's Theological Orthodox Seminary (SVOTS) mourns the loss of our Board of Trustees Vice President and Vice Chairman, His Eminence The Most Reverend Philip (Saliba), Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of All North America of the Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.

The Metropolitan, a member of the class of 1965, reposed in the Lord on Wednesday, March 19, 2014, at the age of 82 after a brief illness. Campus clergy immediately scheduled a memorial service for Sayidna Philip in Three Hierarchs Chapel for March 20.

Reflected SVOTS Chancellor/CEO The Very Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield, "Sayidna Philip's long episcopacy leaves behind many achievements, but speaking as a convert priest who entered Orthodoxy through the Antiochian Archdiocese, I believe his simple phrase 'welcome home' to converts, is the greatest of his legacies."

St. Vladimir's Dean The Rev. Dr. John Behr remembered the Metropolitan's leadership in Orthodox education. "It is with great sadness that I heard of His Eminence Metropolitan Philip's falling asleep in the Lord. He was an inspirational leader who had a great love for St. Vladimir's Seminary ever since his student days here, and who, besides serving on our Board, inspired us and gave us wise guidance in our recent curriculum reforms. He insisted that all our students were thoroughly prepared in pastoral and practical affairs, as well as in academic matters. He was also always very kind and engaging with me personally; I will never forget the warmth with which he spoke of his education in England and the passion for literature and learning generated there."

St. Vladimir's has enjoyed a warm, reciprocal relationship with the Antiochian Archdiocese under Metropolitan Philip's leadership, which began with his consecration to the episcopate in 1966. Currently, six members of the Archdiocese serve on the Seminary's Board of Trustees; 167 Antiochian alumni clergy, and over 300 alumni total, minister throughout the world; fifteen Antiochian seminarians attend St. Vladimir's; and all eight Antiochian bishops in North America either have graduated from St. Vladimir's or have taught and mentored seminarians.

The Metropolitan visited the Seminary's Yonkers campus many times over the course of his tenure as Board Vice President, most recently when in 2008 he delivered one of the keynote addresses at the conference Rome, Constantinople, and Canterbury: Mother Churches?, which was titled "Canon 28 of the Fourth Ecumenical Council." In May 1981, the Board of Trustees awarded him a Doctorate of Divinity honoris causa at Commencement, and in 2002 he returned to St. Vladimir's to dedicate The Metropolitan Philip Auditorium, located on the third floor of the John G. Rangos Family Foundation Building.

"I remember Metropolitan Philip fondly when he served in Cleveland, my home city," said Alex Machaskee, Executive Chair of the Seminary's Board of Trustees. "I have always considered him a friend and a pillar in the Orthodox Christian world. His support of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary has been very much appreciated."

Updated information regarding his memorial services may be found on the Antiochian Archdiocese Website.