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.
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.
Clickhere to create your personal account and start the application 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.”
*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!
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.
UPDATE (March 12, 2020): Due to ongoing concerns over the new coronavirus (COVID-19), this event has been postponed until further notice. We are so sorry for any inconvenience but appreciate your understanding at this time. Please contact us at events@svots.edu if you have any questions. Donations are still being accepted through this page, however (please see the note below).
Support a team of St. Vladimir’s seminarians traveling to Uganda this summer!
Three seminarians will be part of a missions team through the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) May 18-30: Priest Giorgi Tskitishvili, Cornelius Schuster, and Aaron Rutz. The trip is also part of the efforts of one of the Seminary’s student interest groups, the St. Innocent Mission Society.
St. Vladimir’s Seminary will host a fundraising dinner for the team on March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation. The dinner will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Seminary’s Germack Refectory. You may donate at the event or through this page at any time (see donation form below).
This will be the second time in as many years a team from St. Vladimir’s has taken part in a missions trip to Uganda. In 2018, a team of nine seminarians, including Cornelius, traveled to the country as part of a teaching missions trip also sponsored by OCMC. During this trip, the team will spend most of its time in the newly formed diocese in Northern Uganda, where St. Vladimir’s Alumnus Priest Simon Menya (’18) currently serves. Father Simon will accompany the team.
*In the event the trip is postponed due to Coronavirus concerns, any money donated will be still go toward the missions trip whenever it is rescheduled. If the trip must be cancelled entirely, funds raised will be given to the Orthodox faithful in Uganda.
St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) is pleased to announce the hiring of Rev. Dr. Bogdan Bucur as Professor of Patristics and Dr. Vitaly Permiakov as Professor of Liturgical Theology.
The hires come after an extensive search process to fill these two important faculty positions. The new Seminary professors will follow in the footsteps of some of the most famous academics in the history of SVOTS, including Fathers Georges Florovsky (Patristics), John Meyendorff (Patristics), and Alexander Schmemann (Liturgical Theology).
“The Seminary has worked hard to bring in the best Orthodox scholars when faculty positions have come open,” said SVOTS Academic Dean Dr. Ionut-Alexandru Tudorie. “That is why we searched not only in North America but internationally, and made use of external reviewers to assist our in-house Search Committees in the process. We are all very pleased with the results of these academic searches.”
“I am thankful to everyone who worked hard to fill these incredibly important positions, including the Seminary’s Academic Affairs Committee and Board of Trustees,” added SVOTS President Very Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield. “I’d also like to thank Dr. Tudorie, especially, for his excellent leadership in guiding this complex process. We are excited to add the great scholarship of these two new professors to the ranks of our academic team.”
The new professor of Patristics, Rev. Dr. Bogdan Bucur, comes to SVOTS from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, where he has been teaching as a tenured Associate Professor of Theology. Father Bogdan studied Theology at the University of Bucharest in his native country of Romania. He left for the United States in 2000 as he and his wife pursued further graduate studies. Father Bogdan completed his M.A. and Ph.D. at Marquette University, under the academic guidance and mentorship of now-Archbishop Alexander (Golitzin). At Duquesne, where Father Bogdan has been since 2007, he has worked in the areas of biblical reception history and early Christianity. He has also taught a yearly course in Patristics at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary in Pittsburgh, PA, and a Scripture course each semester (alternating Old and New Testaments) for the M.Th. program at the Antiochian House of Studies. Father Bogdan is a priest in the Antiochian Archdiocese and has been serving as parish priest at St. Anthony Orthodox Church in Butler, PA.
“Although I've spent thirteen good and, as they say, ‘productive’ years at Duquesne University, and although I am heartbroken to leave my parish family of St. Anthony's, I count it as a privilege to come to St. Vladimir's, where a conscious attempt is made to overcome the compartmentalization of academic instruction, liturgical formation, and preparation for social ministry,” said Father Bogdan. “My intention is not simply to be added to the Faculty roster, but to join a team of Orthodox scholars and teachers invested in mentoring the preachers and pastors of tomorrow, and to participate in the development of the Seminary.”
Dr. Vitaly Permiakov is already familiar to St. Vladimir’s seminarians. He began the current academic year teaching as an Assistant Professor at the Seminary. Born to a Russian family in Riga, Latvia, Dr. Permiakov relocated to the United States in 1999 after completing his undergraduate studies. He entered SVOTS in 2001 with the blessing of the late Archbishop Dmitri (Royster) of Dallas. After graduating with an M.Div. in 2004, he enrolled in a doctoral program in Liturgical Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where in 2012 he defended his dissertation on the history and origins of the Byzantine rite for the consecration of churches. In addition to Dr. Permiakov’s M.Div. from SVOTS and Ph.D. in Theology/Liturgical Studies from Notre Dame, he holds an M.A. in Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas (2001). Dr. Permiakov has been teaching Liturgical Theology, Dogmatics, and Comparative Theology at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary (Jordanville, NY), the seminary of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), since 2011. He was tonsured to the ecclesiastical rank of Reader in the Orthodox Church in America at Three Hierarchs Chapel, St. Vladimir’s Seminary, in 2002.
“I have come to profoundly enjoy the working environment at St. Vladimir’s and the dedication and intellectual level of its students,” said Dr. Permiakov. “It is my hope to bring to them an understanding of Liturgical Theology informed by a thorough knowledge of Scriptures, Church Fathers, and theological reflection. This approach will not only tell us what Liturgy meant in the past, but will give future pastors an understanding of how the Liturgy, the Church’s lex orandi, is the foundation of the Church’s mission and apologetics in the modern, changing world.”
Professors Bucur and Permiakov will begin their new appointments at the beginning of the 2020-2021 academic year.
UPDATE (30 March 2020): For the sake of safety, stability, and continuity, the Seminary's Faculty Council has decided that classes will continue to be held online until the end of the spring semester.
UPDATE (17 March 2020): To further keep the campus and surrounding community as safe as possible, St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary has enacted the following safety measures in addition to the actions taken last week:
All chapel services, including Sunday Divine Liturgy, have been suspended until further notice.
The St. Vladimir's Seminary (SVS) Press Bookstore is open for online and phone orders ONLY. The brick-and-mortar store is closed to all walk-in business until further notice.
The process to move all Seminary classes online for current seminarians has begun this week.
The Seminary has contracted with professional cleaning companies to sanitize public spaces on campus and clean ducts in the main administrative building.
UPDATE (12 March 2020): Due to ongoing concerns over the new coronavirus (COVID-19), all Seminary events scheduled for the Month of March have been postponed until further notice. We are so sorry for any inconvenience but appreciate your understanding at this time. Please contact us at events@svots.edu if you have any questions. Seminary offices remain open and classes are still being held for now. Any further updates will be posted to this page.
St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) remains open amid global concerns regarding Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), but is closely monitoring developments to take appropriate action as needed.
As of this week, the Seminary is maintaining disinfecting procedures as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other state offices. If further measures are called for, such as suspending classes and/or conducting class and work remotely, the Seminary will take appropriate action. But for now, Seminary classes and events over the coming days and weeks will take place as previously scheduled.
Thus far, no one living on or commuting to the Seminary’s campus has been compromised by exposure to Coronavirus. The Seminary, however, strongly urges individuals and families to remain vigilant, follow good hygiene practices, and to stay home if feeling unwell.
SVOTS will continue to monitor the situation as it unfolds daily and will communicate any changes that result.
Saint Vladimir’s President Very Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield visited multiple Orthodox communities in the “land down under” this winter, teaching, speaking, and strengthening the Seminary’s relationships there.
Father Chad traveled to Australia in February for two weeks primarily to teach at St. Cyril’s Coptic Orthodox Theological Seminary in Sydney. He was invited by St. Cyril’s dean, Rev. Dr. Daniel Fanous, the author of the recently published SVS Press title A Silent Patriarch. Over the two weeks, Fr. Chad taught intensive seminars on missiology to thirty students from around the world including New Zealand and Zaire. He also spoke to a young adult group at St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church, Sydney, and visited two other Coptic Churches in the area.
Fr. Chad then visited His Eminence Metropolitan Basilios at the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese Residency in Illawong. At the Archdiocese Residency, His Eminence and Fr. Chad discussed various Church matters, including the enhancement of relationships and future cooperation between the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese and St. Vladimir’s Seminary.
Finally, Fr. Chad traveled to St. Malkeh Syriac Orthodox Church just outside Sydney. The Syriac Orthodox community there is working on establishing a scholarship for the first Syriac Orthodox seminarian from Australia to attend St. Vladimir’s.
“What struck me the most about my time in Australia was the hunger for Orthodox teaching and resources and the love so many people have for the Seminary and SVS Press,” said Fr. Chad. “Orthodox bookstores there are filled with SVS Press books. I heard stories from people who were impacted by the visits of Seminary teachers dating all the way back to Fr. Thomas Hopko in the 1990s! It was also good to build on the good relationships forged there by Fr. John Behr in recent years.”
“Australia is hungry for Orthodoxy, and I think St. Vladimir’s can play an even stronger role in helping fill that need.”
In the short term, St. Vladimir’s is already working on making access to SVS Press books easier and more affordable in both Australia and New Zealand.
