Father Rauno Pietarinen will soon begin a one year assignment in Ivalo, Finland, on the Barents Sea,  ministering to the Sami or Laplander native peoples of far Northern Finland.  The native Skolt Sami People have been Orthodox since the 16th century when St. Trifion evanglized, planted churches and founded the Monastery of Petsamo.

We wish Fr. Rauno and his family a safe, healthy and peaceful year of ministering to the natives of Finland.

Many graduates of St. Vladimir's fondly remember Dr. Veselin Kesich, not only as a fellow alumnus but also as professor emeritus of New Testament at the seminary, who taught at our school from 1953–1991. Professor Kesich celebrated his 90th birthday recently, having been born March 12, 1921. His son Gregory, a newspaper reporter, wrote a touching tribute to him in The Portland Press Herald, titled "The View from 90 Includes More Than a Few Surprises." The newspaper piece attests to Professor's unflagging and deep concern for people—all people (even Lindsay Lohan!)—and his equal concern that they minister to each other and to their communities.

Fellow alumni who had the privilege of studying under Professor Kesich may remember his underlying intimation that the Holy Scriptures have the ability to vivify lives, contemporary lives, which may seem on the surface far removed from biblical writings. He steeped his students in the New Testament, so that they might discern its truth and power amidst cultural influences that either coincided with it, or diverted from it. Professor Kesich was apt to have students compare the Gospel of John with The Bhagavad Gita, or to write a critique of the film "Jesus of Nazareth,"or to draw to their attention the Christian virtues he found in the characters in the popular film "Rocky." To sharpen the discernment of his students, he demanded memorization of New Testament passages and in-depth elucidation of texts.

Professor Kesich is a 1953 graduate of St. Vladimir's Seminary and holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has authored several SVS Press books, including The Passion of Christ (1965); The Treasures of the Holy Land (with his wife Lydia, 1985); The First Day of the New Creation (1982); The Gospel Image of Christ (1991); and Formation and Struggles: The Birth of the Church AD 33–200 (2007), as part of the press's The Church in History series. His works have been translated into several languages.

During the momentous occasion of Dr. Kesich's 90th year, we're calling upon former students of his to send him a congratulatory note or belated birthday message. You may write to Professor Kesich at: 15 Piper Road, Apt. C 301, Scarborough, Maine 04074.

St. Vladimir’s Seminary community is praying for the souls of two departed alumni, Fr. Theodore Ziton and Annette Milkovich.

Fr. Theodore, who studied in the Master of Divinity program at St. Vladimir's from 1951-1954, is formerly of St. George Cathedral in Wichita, Kansa s (1963–66) and was retired from St. George Church in Canton, Ohio. He fell asleep in Christ this past Friday, April 8th.

He is the father of Fr. Stephen Ziton, formerly of St. Mary Church in Wichita, and was preceded in death by Khouriya Vivian.

Annette, who earned her Master of Arts degree from the seminary in 1980, fell asleep in the Lord on Sunday, April 10th. Annette attended al l  ou r campus functions and activities for more than 40 years, and she also established The Very Rev. Michael and Matushka Anna Dziama Scholarship Fund, in memory of her parents and for the benefit of seminarians. 

Annette was the  beloved wife of 60 years of Zoran Milkovich, an alumnus of St. Vladimir's Seminary, the first president of the St. Vladimir's Theological Foundation, and a member of the seminary Board of Trustees for many years. She also is the mother of Lisa Madara and grandmother to Nicholas, Daniel, Anthony and Erika.

She was a member of the Federated Russian Orthodox Clubs / Fellowship of Orthodox Christians in America [FROC/FOCA] and other Church-related organizations. For over 20 years she taught in the Teaneck, New Jersey school district.

May the memory of Fr. Theodore and Annette be eternal!

Details about services scheduled for Fr. Theodore may be found here, on the Website of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese; details about services for Annette may be found here, on the Website of the Orthodox Church in America.

Deacon Nicholas Denysenko (alumnus, ’00) was recently appointed the new Director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Loyola Marymount University (LMU), where he also holds the position of Assistant Professor of Theological Studies, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts. The Huffington Ecumenical Institute (HEI) focuses on issues impacting the daily lives of Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians.

“I am delighted to have the privilege to serve Loyola Marymount University in my recent appointment to be the director of Huffington Ecumenical Institute,” said Dn. Denysenko. “One of my own goals for the institute is to encourage all Orthodox to participate in this robust ecumenical dialogue. My hope is that Orthodox will benefit not only from presenting the Orthodox perspective to Catholics, but that in hearing others, we might also learn more about ourselves and our context.

“In November 2010,” he continued, “I was privileged to share Orthodox views on the Virgin Mary with Fr. Dorian Llywelyn, S.J., representing the Catholic tradition. Events like these are of great importance to the institute. In ecclesial and academic settings, we often analyze the historical and theological developments that have separated Catholics and Orthodox. One of our goals is to identify the many things Catholics and Orthodox share and engage in faith, worship, and daily life, in honest and open conversation.

“The Huffington Ecumenical Institute seeks to be a home on the West Coast where Catholics and Orthodox can gather, exchange dialogue, share fellowship, and pray together. We will continue to make clergy and laity, along with academics, feel welcome to join our conversation. It is our hope and prayer that open and honest dialogue might serve as viable help in progress towards reconciliation,” he concluded.

Dn. Denysenko, who holds a doctoral degree from The Catholic University of America, has taught at The Catholic University of America, George Washington University, and at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. He is an ordained deacon of the Orthodox Church in America. He joined LMU in Fall 2010.

His areas of current research include the “Blessing of Waters in the Byzantine Rite”; “Orthodox Ecclesiology in Ordination Rites”; “Contemporary Pastoral Liturgy”; “Heortology”; “The Christmas and Lenten Liturgical Cycles”; “Mariology in Liturgy”; the “Ukrainian Famine of 1932–33” and “Faith.” He has published many articles in such prestigious journals as Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, Studia Liturgica, Theological Studies, and St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly.

Today we commemorate the ten-year anniversary of the repose of His Grace Boris, bishop of Chicago and the Midwest (1978–1988) and St. Vladimir’s Alumnus (’46).

The son of a priest, Bishop Boris felt nurtured and called to service in the Church from an early age. “Ever since I can remember, I was in church, singing and chanting in English and Slavonic,” His Grace recalled. "We were blessed to be in the Church as a family, in worship, love, laughter, and sadness.” His Grace entered St. Vladimir’s straight out of high school and while at seminary also completed a Bachelor's degree at Columbia University. He attended St. Vladimir’s during the difficult first decade of the school's existence, when the seminary was located at General Theological Seminary in New York City. Bishop Boris directed the seminary choir and after graduation directed choir at All Saints Church, Garfield, New Jersey.

His Grace is known for his many years of chaplaincy in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, especially during the Vietnam War. In 1971, after Bishop Boris returned from Vietnam, his wife, Helen (née Korba) passed away unexpectedly at their home in Carlsbad, California. Bishop Boris retired from the Navy in 1975. After working at the Chancery of the Orthodox Church in America and serving parishes in the New York area, Bishop Boris answered a call to the episcopacy, and in November 1978 was consecrated as Bishop of Chicago and the Midwest. His Grace recalls making the decision: “I spent time alone in New Hampshire, fishing, playing golf, and praying. After two months I decided: ‘I am ready. I will give a certain time of my life to the Church in whatever capacity. Use me as You want—if I am worthy enough to be bishop’."

Bishop Boris served the Orthodox Church in America and the Diocese of the Midwest until his retirement in 1988. Upon retirement, he moved to Southern California and became part of the community at St. John of Damascus Church in Poway. He once recalled his time at St. John’s in the following way, “I came to St. John of Damascus in December 1988 and chose to attach myself here. I am retired, without authority and jurisdiction, but I have found this to be one of the finer experiences of my life. I live here with the people and the priest, grow together with them, and experience joys and sorrows of life as given us by the Lord Himself. I don’t wish I were twenty; I enjoy where I am. This is life itself. Leave that which you have gone through, go on to what lies ahead. One of these days you will meet your Maker. He will accept you as you are. I rest with a good conscience."

Bishop Boris fell asleep in the Lord at his home on Saturday, December 30, 2000, survived by his daughter Helena and his son Boris, daughter-in-law Alexandra, and their children Maria and Nicholas.  His funeral was celebrated at St. John of Damascus Church.

Read a full biography of His Grace. 

Archpriest Alexander Atty, SVOTS alumnus ('79), was recently installed as the seventh dean of St. Tikhon's Seminary. His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), and His Grace Tikhon, bishop of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, the seminary's rector, concelebrated the formal installation Service of Thanksgiving at St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church, Wilkes-Barre, PA. Father Alexander is the first priest of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese to hold the position of dean at St. Tikhon's, with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Philip.

Prior to his appointment as dean, Fr. Alexander served as pastor of one of the nation's largest pan-Orthodox parishes, St. Michael the Archangel Antiochian Orthodox Church, Louisville, KY. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Philadelphia, a Master of Divinity from St. Vladimir’s Seminary, and a Doctorate in Ministry from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Father Alexander, who officially assumed his duties on July 1, 2010, is joined at the seminary by his wife, Khouria Olga, and their two children, Katherine and Alexander. A recent interview with Fr. Alexander has been made available on "Come Receive the Light" radio (following an introductory interview with Protodeacon Nazari Polataiko), and a podcast of his 2009 lenten retreat at St. Vladimir's Seminary is available on "Ancient Faith Radio."

The Very Rev. Michael Westerberg and his wife, Matushka Lydia, rejoiced with friends and parishioners on Sunday, October 10, 2010, as they celebrated thirty years of service at Holy Transfiguration Church, New Haven, Connecticut. His Grace, The Rt. Rev. Nikon, bishop of Boston and New England, presided at the hierarchical Divine Liturgy in the morning and joined the hundreds of well wishers at the banquet following. Several clergy from the New England Diocese and Connecticut Deanery and their spouses, including The Very Rev. John Kreta, chancellor of the Diocese, and The Very Rev. Vladimir Aleandro, dean of the Connecticut Deanery, came to extend their congratulations as well.

Fr. Michael, who also was commemorating the thirty-fifth year of his ordination to the priesthood, recalled the extraordinary events that led him to his assignment at Holy Transfiguration, from his first parish in Berlin, New Hampshire. He also acknowledged the special support given to him throughout his ministry by Mat.' Lydia, particularly in her faithful direction of the choir. After various speakers had lauded his accomplishments, Fr. Michael took the podium and began humbly, "I would like to meet this fellow you've been talking about."

Over the years, Fr. Michael has been dedicated to mentoring seminarians from St. Vladimir's Seminary, who come to his church on weekends to fulfill their parish placement duties required by the seminary curriculum. The Very Rev. Steven Belonick, chaplain at the Seminary and overseer of the parish placement program, commended Fr. Michael on his exceptional care for SVOTS seminarians, saying, "You open your church doors, your sanctuary, and your home to them. You provide them with guidance, wisdom, counsel, inspiration, and love. But most importantly, you mentor them not only by what you teach them but also by your own example of a priest who loves to be a parish priest. And, there is no better lesson for them than that." Fr. Steven also presented Fr. Michael with correspondence from the seminarians who had been mentored under his wing, as mementos of his faithful and conscientious care.

Axios! to Fr. Michael and Mat.' Lydia as they continue their ministry in God's vineyard.

At the invitation of His Beatitude Sawa, archbishop of Warsaw and metropolitan of All Poland, Fr. John Matusiak delivered the keynote at a national gathering of Orthodox catechists held at the Orthodox Culture Center, Bialystok, Poland, September 24–25, 2010. The conference was organized by the Publishing Department of the Orthodox Church in Poland and the Department of Christian Education of the Diocese of Bialystok-Gdansk.

Since the fall of Communism in 1991, Fr. John has traveled throughout Eastern Europe at the invitation of the churches there, speaking and teaching on youth ministry and Christian education as well as organizing youth camps and conferences for SYNDESMOS, The World Fellowship of Orthodox Youth.

Father John is the Rector of St. Joseph Orthodox Church, Wheaton, IL, and the Managing Editor of The Orthodox Church, the official publication of the Orthodox Church in America.

His Grace Basil (Essey) (SVS '73), has been named secretary to the Episcopal Assembly of North and Central America. His Grace is the Bishop of Wichita and the Diocese of Mid-America in the Self-Ruled Antiochian Christian Archdiocese of North and South America. The SVS Board of Trustees bestowed the degree Doctor of Divinity honoris causa on His Grace at our May 2010 commencement ceremonies.

Founded in 2010, the assembly consists of all the active Orthodox bishops of North and Central America, representing multiple jurisdictions. It is the successor to SCOBA and has assumed responsibility for all SCOBA agencies and ministries. The primary purpose of the Assembly is to prepare the Orthodox of the region for an upcoming "Great and Holy Council" which will include all Orthodox bishops throughout the world. The secondary purpose of the Assembly is to provide a forum for the formation of a common pastoral vision in the region, examining various matters of common concern. Read a full interview about Bishop Basil's views on the Episcopal Assembly here.

As we approach Pascha, the Feast of Feasts, it is fitting that we consider once again the nature of the banquet to which we are invited.  As we will sing at Matins on Holy Thursday, we are called to ascend, with our minds on high, to enjoy the Master’s hospitality, the banquet of immortality in the upper chamber, receiving the words of the Word.  The nourishment that we are offered is a feast of theology; the food that we will feast on is the body and blood of the Word, the one who opens the Scriptures to show how they all speak of him and provide the means for entering into communion with him.

Our chapel here at St Vladimir’s Seminary is dedicated to Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom.  Although they each have a particular day of celebration, our patronal feast celebrates them together, as the Three Great Hierarchs.  The hymnography for the feast celebrates first of all their words, their words of theology, how they spoke about God.  The feast was conceived in the eleventh century as a feast of oratory: it was a celebration of those who found the words adequate to express the Word of God.  Such theology is a sacred art – the Byzantines even called it a mysterion, a sacrament – and it is charged with divinity.  It embraces and elevates the words of men to convey Jesus Christ, the Word of God.

The Church celebrates the Three Hierarchs as great examples of those who took on this work.  Having studied at Athens and other intellectual centers of the ancient world, they used all their God-given intellectual powers for the celebration of this divine task.  If we too wish be disciples, or, more accurately, “students” of Christ, we must take on this task of theology, learning Christ and being renewed in our minds.  And there are two very important aspects of this that we always need to bear in mind.

First, that theology is not an abstract discipline or specialized profession.  It is not speculation about God himself, separated from his own revelation or what his revelation says about us.  It is not taking all the things that humans might think of as divine – omnipotence, omniscience, immortality – and then projecting them into the heavens.  This approach creates nothing better than a “super-human”, with divine attributes, perhaps, but nothing more than the best we can humanly conceive.  Rather, theology begins and ends with the contemplation of the revelation of God, as he has shown himself to be.  Anything else is not theology at all, but fantasy.  We do theology when we contemplate God’s own revelation: God, whose strength and wisdom is shown in the weakness and the folly of the cross.  Christ himself, the Word of God, demonstrates his strength and power in this all-too-human way, by dying a shameful death on the cross, in humility and servitude – trampling down death by death – showing that true lordship is service.  This one is the image of the invisible God: in Christ the fullness of divinity dwells bodily – the whole fullness, such that divinity is found nowhere else and known by no other means.

All of us, therefore, all of the people of God, must focus on the transforming power of God revealed in Christ by the power of the Spirit.  As the Great Hierarchs affirmed, we cannot know what God is in himself, but we know how he acts.  We are invited to come to a proper appreciation of the work of God in Christ by the Spirit.  We are called to understand that Jesus Christ is indeed the Word of God, whom, by the same Spirit, we must convey in our words.  To recognize him as the Word of God is not a matter of human perception, but to find the words to convey him certainly demands the application of our minds.  It requires that we raise our minds to a properly theological level, that we may be transformed by the renewal of our minds.  As Great Lent prepares us for the Feast of Feasts, so also honing our mental skills should prepare us for the feast of theology.

The second point to remember is that the theology that we celebrate is a pastoral theology.  The hymns for the Great Hierarchs proclaim that the pastoral power of their theology has overthrown the illusory words of the orators, of those who play with words, speaking on a merely human level.  Their theology is pastoral, in that it shepherds us into true life.  It invites us to understand ourselves, and the whole of creation, in the light of God revealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit.  This is not simply a matter of asking “What Would Jesus Do?”  Nor is it simply a matter of being “pastoral,” as we often hear that word used today, in the sense of ministering to others on their own terms, enabling them to feel comfortable with themselves.  Rather, it is the challenge to transfigure our own lives by allowing God’s own transforming power to be at work within us.

This means that we must confront our own brokenness and weakness, for this is how God has shown his own strength: it is only in our weakness that God’s strength is made perfect.  And we will only have the strength to do this, we can do this only if we begin with God’s own revelation, if we begin with the theology taught to us by the Great Hierarchs.  We have to abandon what we humanly think divinity is, and to let God show us who and what he is.  We must begin, therefore, with the God who confronts us on the cross, who shows his love for us in this:  the love that he embodies.  Reflect on this: that when we are confronted with divine love in action, it is in the crucified Christ.  This reality reveals two things: how alienated we are from the call that brought us into existence, yet, at the same time, how much we are loved and forgiven.  In the light of Christ, we can begin both to understand our brokenness, our emptiness without him, and also to be filled with his love.  Theology shows us that the truth about God and the truth about ourselves always go together.

So, as we approach the Feast of Feasts, let us prepare ourselves to receive this revelation of God on his own terms.  Let us prepare ourselves for the challenge that his revelation presents, so that the Resurrection will transform us and renew our minds and we will find the words appropriate to offer the Word to others.

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Fr. John Behr (SVOTS ’97) is Dean and Professor of Patristics at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. His early work was on issues of asceticism and anthropology, focusing on St. Irenaeus of Lyons and Clement of Alexandria. After spending almost a decade in the second century, Fr John began the publication of a series on the Formation of Christian Theology, and has now reached the fifth and sixth centuries. He has recently completed an edition and translation of, and introduction to, the remaining texts of Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia. He has also published a synthetic presentation of the theology of the early centuries, focused on the mystery of Christ. He is also a passionate cyclist, often rescheduling family events around the Tour de France. Fr. John’s wife, a Tour de France enthusiast and armchair cyclist, teaches English at a nearby college, and their two sons and daughter are being taught to appreciate the finer points of French culture: the great “constructeurs” of the last century, Le Grande Boucle, and … cheese.

This article was originally published April 3, 2012.