The Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) and the Orthodox Church in America's (OCA) Department of Youth, Young Adult, and Campus Ministry, are co–sponsoring a free and public forum on Tuesday, November 27, 2012, titled "Campus Ministry Night." The evening will feature presentations by OCF Executive Director Jennifer Nahas; The Rev. John Diamantis, regional OCF chaplain for New York and New Jersey; and the Chair of the Department of Youth, Young Adult, and Campus Ministry, Andrew Boyd. Presenters will focus on practical skills and useable resources needed for campus and young adult ministry. The forum will be held in the Bashir Auditorium on the campus of St. Vladimir's Seminary.
Schedule
7:00–7:30: Jennifer Nahas speaks generally about OCF on the national level and its history and programs
7:30–8:00: Fr. John Diamantis shares his extensive on–campus experience, and "do's and dont's" of starting an OCF
8:00–8:30: Andrew Boyd speak on OCA specific resources, and offers strategies for parish-based campus outreach
8:30 Questions and discussion, with Compline in the seminary chapel following
For more information, contact Andrew Boyd: aboyd@oca.org.
Download, save, and print a PDF or JPG of this event and other "Upcoming Events" at SVOTS: here
Beginning January 15, 2013, St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary will offer an extension course for the public: “The Music and Faith of Arvo Pärt,” taught by Peter C. Bouteneff, associate professor of Systematic Theology. Arvo Pärt, whose works rank him as the 3rd-most performed living composer globally, is an Orthodox Christian of Estonian nationality, and the course will combine the study of music with the spirituality and teachings of the Orthodox Christian faith.
“Arvo Pärt draws on his Orthodox Christian roots to compose music that seizes people of all faiths and of none,” observed Dr. Bouteneff. “Through an in-depth study of his music and the sources that directly influence it, this course seeks to deepen appreciation of Pärt’s oeuvre as well as give insight into seminal questions about Orthodox tradition and contemporary culture.”
The course is part of the seminary’s Arvo Pärt Project, an extensive collaboration between the school and the composer that focuses on discerning the Orthodox Christian underpinnings of his work. In his classroom, Dr. Bouteneff will be drawing on two decades of personal study of Pärt’s compositions and his recent intimate conversations with the composer himself.
“This ten-week journey will uncover the composer’s personal history, his musical influences, and his compositions,” continued Dr. Bouteneff. “His works will be studied in terms of his signature technique of tintinnabuli, a system that Pärt himself describes in terms of “suffering and consolation, sins and their forgiveness, the human voice and the divine.”
Arvo Pärt’s body of work has resulted in hundreds of CDs, set the mood for major motion pictures, and filled concert halls across the globe. Even non-believing listeners revere his unique compositions, sensing their innate transcendence. Though spiritually rooted in the Orthodox Christian tradition, Pärt’s creations have a universal reach, as music critic Arthur Lubow noted: “His compositions resonate profoundly for the unconverted as well as the faithful” (The New York Times).
The one-credit course, formally titled Liturgical Music 360, will meet on Tuesday evenings (7:30 p.m.–8:45 p.m.), beginning January 15, 2013, and it will run for ten sessions. Students have the option of taking the course for credit ($438) or audit ($219).
All non-degree students (i.e., individuals not currently enrolled at St. Vladimir’s) interested in taking the course are asked to contact Pdn. Joseph Matusiak, director of Admissions and Alumni Relations, via email:jmatusiak@svots.edu; or telephone: 914-961-8313 x328.
The general public will have the option of registering for the course until a January 22, 2013 deadline. Currently enrolled students at SVOTS must follow normal seminary procedures and deadlines when registering.
Listen to Dr. Bouteneff's recent podcast about the Arvo Pärt Project and its relationship to the Music Program at SVOTS on Ancient Faith Radio.
Download a PDF of this course and other public offerings at SVOTS: here
Download a JPG of this course and other public offerings at SVOTS: here
Nashotah House Theological Seminary recently hosted His Eminence, The Most Rev. Hilarion (Alfeyev), metropolitan of Volokolamsk and chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, and The Very Rev. Chad Hatfield, chancellor/CEO of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, for a weekend that witnessed to the relationship between the Episcopal and Orthodox communions—past and present, and nationally and internationally. The schedule of activities highlighted especially the common commitment of participants to traditionalism and conservatism within their respective faith traditions.
On Thursday, October 25, Metropolitan Hilarion met with Nashotah House’s Dean and President, The Right Rev. Edward K. Salmon, Jr. Interestingly, Bishop Edward is one of the three bishops of the Episcopal Church in the USA to whom the former Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad (now His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia), once sent a letter of support; the letter emphasized the willingness of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to contact and cooperate with members of the Episcopal Church in the USA who were remaining faithful to the Church's traditional moral teaching.
His Eminence and Fr. Chad also met with representatives of a dialogue with the Anglican Church in North America. The church body's website reported that "Metropolitan Hilarion presented a substantial paper summarizing the history of Orthodox/Anglican dialogue. At the end, he stated three areas for ecumenical discussion, the theological, the ecclesiological, and moral theology. Most significantly his Eminence expressed his desire to route ecumenical dialogue with North American Anglicanism through the Anglican Church in North America."
In the evening of October 25, Nashotah House and St. Vladimir's Seminary Press (SVS Press) co-sponsored a book signing by Metropolitan Hilarion, featuring his newly released Orthodox Christianity, Volume II: Doctrine and Teaching of the Orthodox Church. In his first volume, Orthodox Christianity, Volume I: The History and Canonical Structure of the Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion explored the Church's milestones through time. In his newly released volume, he examines the sources of Orthodox doctrine in Scripture and tradition, and then discusses the Church's teaching on several topics: God’s essence and energies; the world and man; Jesus Christ, the incarnate God; the Church as the body of Christ; the Theotokos (Virgin Mary); and eschatology (the last things).
That same evening, Nashotah alumnus Fr. Chad Hatfield preached in the Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin on the Feast of St. James of Jerusalem. It was “homecoming week” for Father Chad, who spoke in the same chapel he had frequented as a seminarian, years earlier. Fr. Chad has received three degrees from Nashotah House—Master of Divinity (1978), Master of Sacred Theology (1988), and Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa (2008).
Academic Convocation, at which he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree. In his address Metropolitan Hilarion emphasized the mission of theological schools.
"Theological schools have a special duty to preserve and further the church tradition and to educate the younger generation in a spirit of faithfulness to the teaching of Christ and the apostles,” he said. “In the era when moral principles of society have been shaken under the influence of secular and liberal ideology, Christian conservatism and traditionalism are especially needed. “Under the circumstances, the responsibilities of theological seminaries increase greatly,” he continued. “I have accepted the invitation to deliver a lecture at Nashotah House with great pleasure, bearing in mind that the seminary has always played a remarkable part in educating young people in the best traditions of Anglo-Catholicism, and that it has a special status in the structure of the Episcopal Church and shows particular interest in Orthodoxy.”
In keeping with the Convocation's theme, "J.S. Bach as Religious Phenomenon," Metropolitan Hilarion also spoke about the great composer's legacy, and his faithfulness to Christian themes in his music. Bach believed "his music to be a single voice within the great choir of the universal Church, the one which transcends doctrinal boundaries," noted His Eminence.
Afterwards, Father Chad reflected, "This was the first honorary degree awarded to a Russian Orthodox bishop by Nashotah House since St. Tikhon was honored thusly, in 1905.”
Continuing in the spirit of mutual respect and ongoing dialogue, Metropolitan Hilarion suggested a joint pilgrimage to Russia with seminarians from both Nashotah House and St. Vladimir's Seminary. St. Vladimir’s Seminary and Nashotah House signed a Concordat in 2009, pledging to a "mutual fellowship of prayer and learning in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit." Inspiration for that Concordat arose out of a conference hosted at St. Vladimir’s in 2008, titled “The Primacy of Mother Churches: Rome, Constantinople, and Canterbury.”
An exhibit entitled "Icon: The Way to the Kingdom," will run until December 16 at the Villanova University Art Gallery, housed in the Connelly Center, Villanova, PA. Choirs from St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) and St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary (STOTS) in South Canaan, PA, jointly sang a molieben, to launch the exhibit.
"This is the first time the SVOTS Octet and the STOTS Mission Choir have performed together as one combined choir away from the campus of either institution," noted Octet Director Hierodeacon Herman (Majkrzak), lecturer in Liturgical Music and Chapel Choir Director at SVOTS. "The music director at St. Tikhon's, Benedict Sheehan, and I, have had many occasions to work closely with each other on joint projects, and we see in such events as this, the fruit of our co-operation. Plans are already underway for future collaboration."
Both choirs have very similar make-up, explained Hdn. Herman: each consists of between 8–10 male seminarians who excel musically, and both groups travel regularly to raise awareness of their respective seminaries.
The Very Rev. John Perich, rector of St. Herman of Alaska Church, Gradyville, PA, and administrator of St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral, Washington, D.C., gathered and organized the icons for the exhibit, in collaboration with Fr. Richard G. Cannuli, OSA, director and curator of the Villanova University Art Gallery. The display showcases many of the treasures housed in the St. Tikhon's Museum and Icon Repository, as well as pieces from other private collections. Icons in "The Way to the Kingdom" exhibit come from the Russian, Romanian, Cretan, Syrian, Coptic, Greek, Serbian, Ukrainian, and Carpathian-Rusyn traditions, and the exhibit also includes vestments, Gospel books, chalices, and miters. Some of the artifacts have never before been publicly displayed.
His Eminence The Most Rev. Tikhon, archbishop of Philadelphia and the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), and Igumen Sergius, abbot of St. Tikhon's Monastery, presided over the opening, along with other clergy and hierarchs.
In the wake of "Frankenstorm Sandy," which knocked out power to the campus of St. Vladimir's Seminary this past Monday evening, seminary administrators have decided to close the campus and cancel all classes until November 10–11. The reason: temperatures in Yonkers are rapidly dipping and predictions of total power restoration in the Crestwood section of Yonkers are being prolonged until at least November 9, according to conEdison, the power supplier to Westchester County.
For further communication with the Seminary, and to be alerted when classes and normal seminary life will resume, please follow St. Vladimir’s on Twitter: St Vlads Seminary@stvlads.
When tropical storm Sandy struck the seminary campus Monday evening, lights flickered and then quickly faded altogether as wind and water took down power lines and caused electrical substations to blow up like Roman candles. Now, the Seminary is expected to be without power for 7–10 days, and effective today through Monday, November 5th, administrators are calling for suspension of classes, cancellation of chapel services, and a shutdown of the campus, including SVS Press and Bookstore customer service. Also cancelled are two events scheduled for this week: a Board of Trustees meeting and the annual basketball rivalry between St. Vladimir’s and its sister seminary, St. Tikhon’s in South Canaan, PA.
“We’re asking campus residents to treat this period of time as a sort of ‘semester break,’ and we’re encouraging them to leave campus if they wish, to stay with family and friends,” said The Very Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield, chancellor and CEO, who met with top administrators this morning. Today, at 3 p.m., Fr. Hatfield will meet with all campus residents to discuss further the plan forward.
Seminary administrators will re-evaluate the situation at a meeting scheduled for Saturday, November 3rd, and if power is restored by Monday, November 5th, classes will be held, stated Fr. Hatfield.
Although the campus suffered only minor damage—two downed trees on the property—residents are without electricity and heat, and therefore are without essential services (like refrigeration and, in some cases, working stoves) and important needs (like Internet and phone service). Public water service has not been disrupted. Residents still remaining on campus have scheduled a community meal for Thursday, November 1st at 1 p.m., in order to use and share rapidly defrosting and perishing food sources.
For any communication with the Seminary, and to be alerted when classes and normal seminary life will resume, please follow St. Vladimir’s on Twitter: St Vlads Seminary@stvlads.
St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press (SVS Press)— the publishing arm of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Yonkers, NY — has garnered a gold medal for its storybook, Saint George & the Dragon,written by Jim Forest and illustrated in iconographic style by Vladislav Andrejev. SVS Press & Bookstore Marketing Manager Dn. Gregory Hatrak was recently notified that the children’s book had received a 2012 Moonbeam Spirit Award.
Moonbeam Spirit Awards are given “for dedication to children’s books and literacy and for inspired writing, illustrating and publishing,” according to Jenkins Group, Inc., which bestows the awards. This year, five books in five different areas were chosen, all gold-medal winners:
Mentoring: Your Stories, Volume 1, selected and edited by Taylor S. Joseph (Four Star Publishing)
Peacemaking: The Sky of Afghanistan, by Ana A. de Eulate; illustrated by Sonja Wimmer (Cuento de Luz)
Imagination: Pirate & Hoopoe, by Diarmid Cammell; illustrated by Karima Cammell (Dromedary Press)
Preservation: Saint George & the Dragon, by Jim Forest; illustrated by Vladislav Andrejev (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press)
Compassion: Operation Marriage, by Cynthia Chin-Lee; illustrated by Lea Lyon (Reach and Teach)
“St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press is honored that the Moonbeam Spirit Award has been bestowed upon our children’s book St. George and the Dragon,” said Theodore C. Bazil, senior advisor at SVS Press. “Many countries have appropriated this universal story, tying it to their particular culture and belief system.
“The ‘wedding’ of words by Jim Forest, incredible images by Vladislav Andrejev, and beautiful design by Amber Schley Iragui,” he continued, “represents an effort to communicate Judeo-Christian moral and ethical teaching to children and youth. This book project—conceived of and led by St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press—required the identification and blending of an appropriate author, artist, and designer to publish a unique book that would stir children’s imaginations and touch their hearts.”
The Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards are presented by the publishing services company Jenkins Group, Inc., of Traverse City, Michigan. Jenkins Group has been involved in book packaging, marketing and distribution since 1988. The awards ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, November 10, 2012, in conjunction with the Traverse City Children's Book Festival. The festival is open to the public and runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; the awards ceremony will run from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
According to Jim Barnes, awards director at Jenkins Group, Inc.: “The MoonbeamChildren’s Book Awards are intended to bring increased recognition to exemplary children’s books and their creators, and to support childhood literacy and life-long reading. The awards recognize and reward the best of these books and bring them to the attention of parents, booksellers, librarians—and to children themselves."
Awards are given in 39 categories covering the full range of subjects, styles, and age groups that children’s books are written and published in today. Each year's entries are judged by expert panels of youth educators, librarians, booksellers, and book reviewers of all ages. Award recipients receive gold, silver and bronze medals and stickers, depicting a mother and child reading and silhouetted by a full moon.
Because of the impending storm, Hurricane Sandy, St. Vladimir's Seminary is canceling Monday afternoon classes and evening services and all Tuesday services and classes. Matins was held in Three Hierarchs Chapel this morning.
Prayers are requested for the members of the St. Vladimir's community and for those millions who are being impacted by this storm, which has been labeled "exceptionally large and extremely dangerous" by weather.com's Hurricane Central.
One of St. Vladimir's Seminary's foremost road warriors, Dean and Professor of Patristics, The Very Rev. Dr. John Behr, accumulated more frequent flier miles from October 17 through October 22. Father John first traveled north to the Toronto School of Theology in Ontario, Canada, and then across the Atlantic Ocean to London for an embassy reception and the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Moscow Patriarchate's Diocese of Sourozh.
While in Toronto, Fr. John spoke at the Wycliffe Centre for Scripture and Theology, which is under the auspices of Wycliffe College, one of the colleges in the Toronto School, Canada's largest ecumenical consortium. As a featured guest for the conference on "The Rule of Truth," on Friday, October 19, Fr. John spoke on "Irenaeus on the Rule of Truth," about which he has written much. Father John also presented a special open lecture on the Wednesday evening, entltled "Becoming Human: In the Image of Christ," which encompassed the theme of his upcoming SVS Press book Becoming Human, slated for release in the first half of 2013. He also met with Ph.D. students on Thursday morning. Additionally, he spoke at Trinity College, another member of the Toronto School, on the nature of theology, asking students to reflect on the question, "What do we mean, talking about God?"
After wrapping up his time in Toronto, Fr. John flew to London to participate in the 50th anniversary of the Diocese of Sourozh and the fifth anniversary of the reunification between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). Following the Saturday evening Vigil on October 20, a "Jubilee Divine Liturgy" was celebrated on the morning of October 21, at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God in London. The festive services were presided over by His Eminence The Most Rev. Hilarion (Alfeyev), metropolitan of Volokolamsk and chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, together with His Eminence Hilarion, metropolitan of Eastern America and New York and first hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, as well as other hierarchs present for the occasion.
"It was wonderful to be able to attend these celebrations," noted Fr. John. "My family has been associated with the community in London and the Cathedral at Ennismore Gardens for generations, ever since my great–grandfather, Fr. Nicholas Behr, was sent to London in 1926 by Metropolitan Evlogy."
Listen to Fr. John's lecture series, "Becoming Human," presented at the summer 2012 Eagle River Institute in Alaska: Part I Part II
St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) is very pleased to announce a new, accredited Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) program. Priests, chaplains and professionals in ministry from across the US, Canada, and from throughout the English speaking world, now have an opportunity to earn a Doctor of Ministry from an Orthodox Christian seminary in this new hybrid program, which uses distance learning and one–week, on–campus intensives.
"Pastors today face immense challenges," emphasized The Rev. Dr. J. Sergius Halvorsen (SVOTS Class of '96), assistant professor of Homiletics and Rhetoric, and the program's director. "The depth and intensity of suffering and spiritual darkness in the lives of the people we serve is startling. Facing such serious challenges, there has never been a greater need for excellence in pastoral ministry."
In November 2012, St. Vladimir's will begin accepting applications for the first cohort of fifteen students who will begin their studies in the fall of 2013. The cohort will go through the program as a community of learners who support one another academically, spiritually, and personally. The cohort will serve as an essential support network for the students during the course of the program and will model a form of collegial ministry in which pastors lift up and inspire one another in the ongoing work of building up the Body of Christ.
The D.Min. will strengthen pastoral ministry by integrating doctoral level academic work with applied pastoral praxis. Members of the SVOTS faculty, along with Orthodox scholars from other institutions, will teach the eight core courses:
Ministry in a Secular Age
Ministry to the Sick and Dying
Advanced Preaching and Communications
Counseling in the Parish
Missiology
Scripture: Exegesis for Preaching
Youth Ministry
Bioethics for Ministry
Each academic term, students will do preparatory work via distance learning, and then will come together on the SVOTS campus for one–week intensives to work with their
colleagues and professors. Throughout the program students will integrate their academic work with their pastoral ministry, thus gaining valuable feedback from the faculty, their peers, and the people they serve. The final phase of the program will be a project which combines research at the doctoral level, with the intentional application of pastoral theory in pastoral ministry.
Students will gain deeper knowledge about the practice of serving others in Christian love as they grow in spiritual maturity as ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The program intentionally combines Orthodox Christian scholarship with advanced communication skills in order to make pastors more effective in sharing the love of Christ with others. From pastoral counseling to preaching, and from scholarship to social media, students in the D.Min. program will strengthen and refine their God–given talents and abilities.
"My hope is that the D.Min. program at St. Vladimir's will provide priests, chaplains, and other pastoral professionals with advanced knowledge and skills in order to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who are suffering," noted Fr. Sergius. "It is also my hope that the program would foster deep and lasting friendships among the students and contribute to authentic spiritual and pastoral renewal."
Anyone interested in learning more about the program may contact Fr. Sergius Halvorsen, at shalvorsen@svots.edu, or (914) 961-8313, x367.
