His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon led the St. Vladimir’s Seminary community into retreat Clean Monday and Tuesday, as Great Lent began. His Beatitude delivered four meditations at the Seminary’s annual two-day Lenten Retreat, presenting reflections loosely built around his own experience of life in community.
“Whether we are speaking of the monastery, the family, or the Seminary community, we are both alone and yet never alone—striving in our own hearts to meet God, but also struggling to figure out how my brother, my wife, my husband, my professor, my student have a part in this….," he said.
“Certainly, we are all weak, frail, lacking in faith, lonely, and despondent at times,” he continued, “and these states are not always pleasant. But it is often in the midst of these experiences, which are in turn aggravated by our having to deal with others in our life, that we are able to receive fruit in our ascetical endeavors. This fruit is manifested in our hearts...[and] they are received in the community that we are a part of."
Listen to each of Metropolitan Tikhon’s four Lenten meditations in their entirety below.
The Metropolitan was joined at the retreat by Orthodox Church in America (OCA) Chancellor Archpriest Alexander Rentel, Archdeacon and Secretary to the Metropolitan Joseph Matusiak, seminarians, faculty, staff, and members of the community. Classes were cancelled each day of the retreat and students were encouraged to practice silence. Each day, the Seminary community entered the chapel together several times for a fuller cycle of prayers in addition to His Beatitude’s meditations.
Saint Vladimir’s Seminary (SVS) Press has released a special commemorative book celebrating the Orthodox Church in America (OCA)’s fifty years of autocephaly.
The Time Has Come, edited by St. Vladimir's Seminary Academic Dean Ionut-Alexandru Tudorie, contains a collection of debates over autocephaly initially published in the St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly. The various articles were written in the years leading up to and following the Russian Orthodox Church granting the Tomos of Autocephaly to the OCA (then known as the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of America) in 1970.
“The storm provoked by the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in America is probably one of the most meaningful crises in several centuries of Orthodox ecclesiastical history,” wrote Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann in his article, “A Meaningful Storm: Some Reflections on Autocephaly, Tradition, and Ecclesiology” (1971).
Along with Schmemann, other voices found in The Time Has Come include Metropolitan Leonty (Turkevich), Protopresbyter John Meyendorff, Archbishop Peter L’Huillier, Elizabeth Prodromou, Archbishop Elpidophoros (Lambriniadis), Alexander Bogolepov, and several others.
The book is available exclusively in a hardcover edition. The Time Has Come may be purchased at SVSPress.com or by calling 1-800-204-BOOK (2665).
The community of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) will enter into its annual two-day retreat as Great Lent begins next week. Because of the two full days of retreat, the Seminary will be closed for business and classes will not be held on Clean Monday and Tuesday, March 2 and 3. The Seminary bookstore will be open from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. both days.
Over the two days students, faculty, and staff will enter Three Hierarchs Chapel together several times for a fuller cycle of prayers and a series of talks for meditation. This year, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon, archbishop of Washington and metropolitan of All America and Canada, will deliver meditations during the Lenten retreat.
2020 Lenten Retreat Daily Schedule
8am – Matins
11:30am – First Talk (Monday); Third Talk (Tuesday)
12pm – Third and Sixth Hour
4pm – Second Talk (Monday); Fourth Talk (Tuesday)
4:30pm – Ninth Hour, Typika, Vespers
8pm – Great Compline
The Seminary’s Lenten Retreat is also open to members of the public. His Beatitude’s meditations will be recorded, and the audio will be posted on the Seminary and Ancient Faith Ministries websites following the retreat.
Members of the public are kindly asked to note that the Seminary holds this retreat in silence from Sunday evening to Wednesday morning.
Conferences aimed at forming and strengthening Orthodox Christian leaders are being held over the coming months in four cities across the U.S. These Servant Leadership Retreats are an initiative of The Orthodox Christian Leadership Initiative (OCLI), in partnership with St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS). The OCLI is developing an Intensive Program in Servant Leadership for both laity and clergy who currently serve their local church body in a variety of roles or who are interested in serving the ministry of their parishes. The upcoming retreats will serve as pilots for the Servant Leadership curriculum.
The Servant Leadership Retreats are being held in the following cities:
Achieving a better understanding of Christian leadership as doing the will of God in personal, community, church, and secular environments;
Becoming better leaders at home, neighborhood, job, and the parish, witnessing to Christ in loving service to others and helping to bring about his Kingdom;
Learning to attract and inspire young adults to assume increased positions of responsibility in the Church;
Adopting a stewardship approach to life, receiving gifts from God, and giving generously to the needy;
Acquiring a better understanding of ministerial leadership and the co-leadership of laity and clergy;
Learning to work together strategically in a parish, seeking to be the "city on a hill" that witnesses to Christ and works in the Holy Spirit;
Mastering the everyday managerial aspects of community effort: meetings, councils, conflict, stewardship, ethics, and finances.
More information and registration for each retreat are available on the OCLI website.
During the 2020-2021 academic year, OCLI and SVOTS will focus on extending the program at the Seminary to develop an “Organizational Leadership” emphasis for SVOTS’ existing Master of Arts (M.A.) program.
About OCLI
The Orthodox Christian Leadership Initiative exists to nurture and empower Orthodox Christian servant leadership. It is a national initiative to increase generosity, servant leadership, and social outreach by clergy and laity of all jurisdictions working together nationally, regionally, and locally.
The Institute of Sacred Arts (ISA) at St. Vladimir’s Seminary (SVOTS) is pleased to announce that three full scholarships are available to Orthodox Church musicians for the 2020 Pan-Orthodox Music Symposium co-hosted by SVOTS and the International Society for Orthodox Church Music (ISOCM), June 10-14, 2020.
In addition to keynote presentations by leading scholars, this event will include six workshops, eight masterclass options, specialized rehearsals, a concert by Cappella Romana in New York City, daily divine services, and many opportunities for meaningful conversation with other individuals interested in Orthodox music from across North America and around the globe.
The scholarship will cover the following expenses for the award recipients:
Round trip (air/ground) transportation to the Seminary campus in Yonkers, NY
2020 ISOCM/SVS Symposium registration fee
4 nights of hotel lodging Wednesday, June 10 to Sunday, June 14, 2020
All meals during the 4-day event
1 ticket to the Cappella Romana concert in New York City on Friday, June 12, 2020
Click here to download the application form. Applications must be postmarked or received electronically no later than Saturday, April 25, 2020.
Award recipients will be notified via email by Saturday, May 9, 2020, and those receiving the scholarship will be reimbursed for previously purchased airfare/ground transportation expenses.
A new CD by the renowned Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Octet, Arise! Music of the Psalms, sets ancient, sacred wisdom to classic and contemporary musical settings. The album is now available through St. Vladimir’s Seminary (SVS) Press.
“This new recording presents music from a wide variety of times and places, but it all draws from the same ancient well: the Psalms," said Seminary Music Director Robin Freeman.
“Music for Christian worship has always centered on the Psalms,” said Harrison Russin, assistant director of Arise! and lecturer in liturgical music at St. Vladimir's. “The text articulates those cries, while the music situates us as hearers, forcing us into the role of ‘the coming generation’ (Ps 78:4), fusing ancient words and modern melodies.”
The first track on the album is Freeman’s new arrangement of Arvo Pärt’s Habitare fratres in unum for men’s voices, which she arranged specifically for this recording with the composer’s permission (The Seminary has a long-established relationship with Pärt, which began with the Arvo Pärt Project.). Other tracks on Arise! include the traditional Russian arrangements of Pavel Chesnokov’s Da ispravitsa (“Let My Prayer Arise”), Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov’s classic setting of Bless the Lord, O my Soul, A. Arkhangelsky’s O Lord of Hosts, and G. Lvovsky’s O Taste and See; the modern Russian stylings of Viktor Kallinikov’s Blazhen muzh (“Blessed is the man”); the Byzantine Arise, O God; an Alaskan setting of The Lord is My Shepherd; and American settings like Nicholas Reeves’ Wedding Hymn and Samuel Babcock’s Gratitude. Another track, James Budinich’s Peace, O Lord, was composed specially for the Octet.
Directed by Robin Freeman, the St. Vladimir’s Seminary Octet singers on the new album are Priests Christopher Moore, Gregory Potter, and Andrew Honoré, Harrison Russin, Brenden Link, Angelo Niqula, Zachariah Mandell, and Phillip Ritchey. Also featured are Seminary Lecturer in Liturgical Music Deacon John El Massih, who directed the two Byzantine pieces and is featured prominently as the soloist on By the Watersof Babylon; Seminarians John Thetford, Theodore Werthmuller, and Priest Herman Fields; and Khouria Mary Honoré.
The first St. Vladimir’s Seminary Octet was formed in the summer of 1962 and visited some 80 parishes throughout the United States that same year. Since then, Octets featuring seminarians and members of the Seminary community have continued to promote liturgical music in English—in a style conducive to worship—and brought sacred music to countless Orthodox and non-Orthodox people alike through live concerts and recordings. More albums featuring Seminary Octets through the years can be found at SVSPress.com.
To order a copy of Arise! Music of the Psalms, visit SVSPress.com or call 800-204-BOOK (2665).
Hieromartyr Grigol Peradze of Georgia (1889-1942) was a profoundly gifted theologian, historian, and linguist who used his vast knowledge for the sake of others. He preached and published homilies, worked tirelessly to recover and preserve treasures of Georgian Orthodox history and culture, and imitated the Lord he so fervently pursued in his studies as he sacrificed his own life to save others in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
In honor of this great martyr, St. Vladimir’s Seminary has established the St. Grigol Peradze Scholarship Fund to support seminarians from the Orthodox Church of Georgia, who desire to serve Christ as he did. And on Sunday, February 16, the Seminary is hosting a free luncheon and Georgian musical performance to raise donations for the scholarship!
Join us for Divine Liturgy at 9 a.m. at the Seminary’s Three Hierarchs Chapel and the luncheon and performance to follow at the Metropolitan Phillip Auditorium (located in the John G. Rangos Family Foundation Building). The event will also feature special guest His Grace Bishop Saba (Inskirveli) of the Georgian Apostolic Orthodox Church in North America.
This free event supports Georgian Orthodox seminarians studying at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. Donations to the St. Grigol Peradze Scholarship Fund will help pay for students’ tuition and other educational expenses. Match their sacrifice and help create an educated future for the Georgian Church!
Donations to support Georgian Orthodox seminarians may also be made anytime on this page (see below), on our Give Now page (click on the Georgian scholarship fund in the “Designation” options), or by calling St. Vladimir’s Seminary’s Office of Advancement at (914) 961-8313 x360.
Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) is now accepting applications for Academic Year 2020-2021 from candidates who want to enroll in its degree programs. The application deadline is April 1, 2020 with a late application deadline of June 1, 2020.
In a major new development, the Seminary is now using an online, cloud-based admissions system. Applicants are no longer required to submit paper-based application forms and documents via physical and/or electronic mail, as in previous years. Applicants are instead required to create an online account on the new admissions system, where they will be able to fill out the standard application form, pay the admissions fee, submit documentation required by the degree program they apply for, track the progress of the admissions process, ask for information and assistance from the Admissions Office, receive and manage their offer of admissions, and pay the required deposits before enrollment.
"Saint Vladimir’s acknowledges the major role played by technology in the twenty-first century and the benefits of its usage, especially in the area of higher education administration," said Alexandru M. Popovici, the Seminary's Academic and Recruitment Advisor. "This is why our institution is starting to use a cloud-based education management system, which will allow us to better manage and track the needs of our students over the course of their entire relationship with us—from the moment they submit an inquiry to their eventual graduation. Regarding admissions, the use of this new system will streamline the process, making it easier for both domestic and international applicants to apply for seminary."
Click here to create your personal account and start the application process.
St. Vladimir’s Seminary (SVOTS) celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA)’s autocephaly Thursday on an event-filled Feast of the Three Holy Hierarchs. The day included Hierarchical Divine Liturgy, workshops, the annual Father Alexander Schmemann Lecture, and the Seminary’s Mid-Year Commencement.
Following Divine Liturgy and lunch, the Seminary hosted three workshops Thursday afternoon focusing on the theme of autocephaly. Priest Anthony Roeber, the Seminary’s professor of church history, led the first workshop, “Autocephaly: The OCA, the Greek Archdiocese, and Antioch.” His eye-opening and candid lecture shed light on motivations and circumstances leading up to the granting of the Tomos of Autocephaly in 1970 by the Russian Orthodox Church to the OCA (then known as the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of America) and addressed the reaction of other Orthodox jurisdictions to the Tomos.
"At one level, we can argue the Tomos was a failure because it did not achieve all of the ends that autocephaly is presumed to serve,” said Fr. Anthony. “I will also argue that, in some respects, the Tomos granting was premature, and I will even more strongly argue that what came out of the Tomos is what's most important in the long run."
Listen to Fr. Anthony Roeber’s lecture in its entirety below.
Archpriest John Parker (SVOTS Class of ’04, ’18), who has served as chair of the OCA’s Department of Evangelization, led the next workshop, titled, “Autocephaly & Evangelism.”
"The change of the name of the autocephalous Orthodox Church in America [in 1970 from the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of America] was and is an indicator that this church is here for all….,” said Fr. John. "Autocephaly is an inner evangelism in reminding all Orthodox Christians that, in Christ, Jews and Greeks, Turks and Cretans, Romanians, Latinos, Africans, Asians all find true motherland in the nave and at the chalice."
Listen to Fr. John Parker’s lecture in its entirety below.
The final workshop was led by Bishop Daniel. His lecture explored the importance and canonization of North American saints including St. Herman of Alaska, who was canonized the same year the Tomos of Autocephaly was granted (but decided upon a year earlier). Bishop Daniel’s workshop, titled “Autocephaly & New Saints,” also touched upon the possibility of new North American saints.
"This decision to canonize St. Herman [a year before the granting of autocephaly] was a sign that the then-Metropolia...did indeed understand that it already possessed everything that was necessary for the fullness of Church life, and thus the autocephaly was the formal, canonical confirmation of that fact," said His Grace.
Bishop Daniel added there is ongoing discussion about potential candidates for canonization by the Orthodox Church in America, although no formal action has yet been taken, and there is much work that needs to be done before moving forward. He mentioned two of note among the candidates, Metropolitan Leonty (Turkevich, d. 1965) and Matushka Olga Michael of Alaska (d. 1979).
Listen to Bishop Daniel’s lecture in its entirety below.
"The Holy Synod continues to collect stories of the lives, intercessions, and miracles worked by God through these two servants of the Church,” said Bishop Daniel, “and the Church continues to reflect upon their holiness, the significance of their lives and example, and to prayerfully await the day when the Holy Spirit will indicate that it is time to move forward with formal canonizations."
ANNUAL SCHMEMANN LECTURE
In the evening, the 37th Father Alexander Schmemann Lecture was delivered by Archbishop Michael of New York and New Jersey, the secretary of the Holy Synod of Bishops and rector and professor of New Testament and pastoral theology at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. Archbishop Michael’s lecture, “The Gift of Autocephaly,” was a heartfelt, passionate reflection of the OCA’s legacy and purpose and how the OCA can take the lead in working toward pan-Orthodox unity in America.
council going to deal with it—the reality is, the Church has to be one."
Coinciding with the celebration of fifty years of autocephaly was the launch of preorders for a special, commemorative book edited by Seminary Academic Dean Dr. Alexandru Tudorie and published by SVS Press. The book, The Time Has Come, is expected to launch to the general public in the coming weeks.
MID-YEAR COMMENCEMENT
The Seminary’s Mid-Year Commencement Ceremony followed the Schmemann Lecture. The Seminary granted degrees to one Master of Arts (M.A.) student, Michael Kupec, Jr (in absentia) and four Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) candidates: Archpriest Peter Baktis, Priests Teo Merras and Theophan Whitfield, and Sarah Byrne-Martelli.
Byrne-Martelli, a Board Certified Chaplain endorsed by the Antiochian Archdiocese, became the first woman to graduate from the D.Min. program in its current format.
“I appreciate how St. Vladimir's has been intentional about including men and women serving in all different types of ministries for this program….," she said.
"The carefully chosen course material and written reflections brought new meaning and infused new life into my daily work."
Each of Byrne-Martelli’s fellow D.Min. graduates also spoke at the commencement ceremony. The final graduate to speak, Priest Theophan Whitfield, who also holds an M.Div. from St. Vladimir’s (’10), stressed how much he believed in the D.Min. program’s “dual-focus”: receiving wisdom as students from the faculty and convening as a cohort with other ministers to share experiences and discuss challenges in ministry.
"Pastors need to gather and share wisdom, because when that happens, the craft of ministry is improved, it's sharpened, and we are able to better go out into the world and face those challenges that we do, in fact, meet there," said Fr. Theophan.
The evening concluded with words from His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon.
"Faith in Jesus Christ and a constant renewal of this faith is what we are called to do in the Church,” said His Beatitude. “For fifty years of autocephaly and, indeed, from the first days of the Alaskan mission, we have climbed this high mountain of faith. To the glory of God, we have also descended this mountain and labored in this land....
"To all who have labored, who are laboring, and who will labor, be assured that our Lord God will remember what has been done to His glory in the Church in this land."
On Friday, members of St. Vladimir’s and St. Tikhon’s Orthodox seminaries joined His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon and other Orthodox hierarchs and faithful at the 47th March for Life in Washington, D.C. There, they marched alongside tens of thousands of men, women, and children rallying for the lives of the unborn lost to abortion.
At the March, Metropolitan Tikhon led the group of Orthodox faithful in a prayer service for the innocent children whose lives have been taken.
“Today, we march in solidarity with many others from across our nation to show our government leaders our commitment to life—to life that begins from the very moment of conception,” His Beatitude said following the prayer service. “As we march today, we sing praises to God, our God Who does wonders, praying that He work His wonders and move the heart of our nation to repentance.”
The delegation from St. Vladimir’s Seminary, led by Seminary President Archpriest Chad Hatfield, was organized by the school’s St. Ambrose Society, a pro-life student interest group.
(Some information for this article has been reprinted from OCA.org)
