From March 2-9, 2011, Professors Peter Bouteneff and Paul Meyendorff traveled to Aghia Napa, Cyprus, to participate in an Inter-Orthodox Consultation hosted by the Orthodox Archbishopric of Cyprus. The consultation, sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC), was convened to prepare a common Orthodox response to a Faith an Order statement on "The Nature and Mission of the Church."
Nearly forty Eastern and Oriental Orthodox representatives from across the entire globe, including hierarchs, clergy, and scholars, attended the meeting. Professors Bouteneff and Meyendorff each presented papers, and Dr. Bouteneff was the primary drafter of the Orthodox response. The final text of the response will soon be posted on the website of the World Council of Churches: www.oikoumene.org.
"The fact that two representatives from St. Vladimir's Seminary were invited testifies to the important role of the seminary in both the Orthodox and ecumenical worlds," noted Dr. Meyendorff.
Also attending the meeting were two SVOTS alumni: Dr. Tamara Grdzelidze, who serves as Program Executive of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order in Geneva, Switzerland; and Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, Associate General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, responsible for Faith and Order and Interfaith relations.
St. Vladimir’s Seminary is pleased to welcome two new staff members: Matushka Robin Freeman, Annual Gifts Officer; and Matthew Garklavs, Assistant Librarian. Matushka Robin replaces as Annual Gifts Officer, Fr. Jason Foster, now attached as priest to Bossier City Mission Orthodox Church in Louisiana.
Matushka Robin Freeman graduated in 2006 from Gordon College with a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance. She and her husband, Dn. Evan Freeman, moved to St. Vladimir’s Seminary later that year in order for Dn. Evan to work on a Master of Divinity degree. While at the seminary, Mat. Robin worked in the Advancement Office, and also worked with the chapel choirs as an assistant conductor. After Dn. Evan graduated from the seminary in 2009, the Freemans relocated to Bloomington, Indiana, in order for Mat. Robin to complete a Master of Music in Choral Conducting at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Dn. Evan was ordained to the diaconate in July 2010 by His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah, and the Freemans have been serving in their local parish, All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church. Mat. Robin anticipates graduating from her program in May 2011, after which she and her husband will relocate to St. Vladimir’s Seminary, where Mat. Robin will her begin work as the Annual Gifts Officer.
“My husband and I are thrilled to be returning to St. Vladimir’s Seminary, a place that was extremely influential in our formation as Orthodox Christians,” said Mat. Robin. “In particular, I am looking forward to getting to know the seminary’s many faithful stewards on a more personal level, to the glory of Jesus Christ and the edification of one another. I am honored to be a small part in furthering the vital work of St. Vladimir’s Seminary.”
Matthew Garklavs is a 2007 graduate of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, from which he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a concentration in Russian and Eurasian Studies. During his collegiate career, he was given the Bard Publications Prize, in recognition of writing, editing, or design achievement in the preparation of a Bard publication, in 2007; and the Lindsay Watton III Memorial Essay Award, based on an essay that demonstrated excellence and dedication in the field of Russian and Eurasian studies, in 2006. Also in 2006, he studied Russian Language and Culture during his year abroad, at Smolny College, St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2010, he earned his Master of Science in Library and Information Sciences, with an Archives Management Concentration, from Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts. In 2009, he was awarded the Dolores M. Sayles '29LS Endowed Scholarship, based on academic achievements.
Mr. Garklavs noted his early association with the seminary, saying, “As the son of an Orthodox priest, who grew up in the New York area, I was introduced to St. Vladimir's Seminary at a young age. My father often took me along as his sidekick whenever he had business in Crestwood. Of course, to a kid, these excursions were not always exciting. But in hindsight I realize what an impact they made on me. Visiting St. Vladimir’s broadened my outlook on Orthodox Christianity and informed my initial impressions of higher learning. These experiences inspired me to take my studies more seriously and helped me to appreciate how Orthodoxy is present in contemporary life.
“Assuming the position of Assistant Librarian at St. Vladimir’s Seminary is an opportunity for me to put into practice what I have learned,” he continued. “After six years of studying in academic institutions and training in various libraries, I finally feel ready to make a contribution."
Last year, our Dean and Chancellor traveled extensively—to local parishes and international colloquia—delivering the Good News of the faith and spreading the news about our seminary, its programs and progress. Archpriest John Behr, dean, logged 44,449 in land and air miles, while foreign and domestic miles traversed by Archpriest Chad Hatfield, chancellor, totaled 59,416.
As Great Lent approached this year, Frs. John and Chad renewed their eagerness to reach out to communities near and far by presenting pre-Lenten retreats, as preludes to several other retreats being offered by St. Vladimir's Seminary faculty during the Great Fast.
In January, Fr. Chad acted as retreat master at a gathering for Alaskan clergy wives in the Village of Napaskiak, hosted by the village priest, Fr. Vasily Fisher. The retreat theme was "Mary, Mysteries, Mission, and Matushki." Fr. Chad, who is the former Dean of St. Herman Seminary in Kodiak, wasted no time in adding to his travelogue by employing local transportation: dogsled.
Closer to home in the Big Apple, Fr. John delivered a retreat at the historic Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection, at the invitation of Fr. Christopher Calin, dean of the cathedral. On the Sunday of the Eve of Great Lent, commemorating the "Casting Out of Adam and Eve from Paradise," Fr. John spoke on the topic "The Lenten Journey to the Cross," with a special emphasis on Melito of Sardis' treatise On Pascha, a second-century work.
This year's homilist for the Triumph of Orthodoxy Vespers service, sponsored by the Westchester County Orthodox Clergy Fellowship, is St. Vladimir's Seminary's Professor of Old Testament, The Very Rev. Dr. Paul Nadim Tarazi.
The service, which marks the 41st annual gathering for this occasion, will be celebrated at 6 p.m. at the Virgin Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church, 236 Grandview Blvd., Yonkers, NY. Our seminary Men's Choir will sing portions of the service.
Are you contemplating ministry or a deeper study of the Orthodox faith? Are you a recent or soon-to-be college grad discerning what your next step is? Or, maybe you are going through a "Quarter-life Crisis" and need a push in the right direction? No matter what life-altering questions you may be dealing with, please consider spending your Spring Break at St. Vladimir's Seminary.
"Come and see what life is like here, and where St. Vlad's might fit into your future plans," encourages PDn. Joseph Matusiak, the seminary's Director of Alumni and Recruitment.
When you visit us during your Spring Break you will have an opportunity to attend classes, worship in the chapel, tour the campus and its resources, engage faculty members and get to know current students. Detailed information on the seminary's various degree programs, financial aid, and admissions process also will be provided to you. There is no cost to visiting potential students, other than their transportation costs.
Our campus community has entered the rhythm of Great Lent, having passed the familiar signposts that mark the season: reading of pre-lenten Gospels, singing hymns from the Lenten Triodion, and finally asking for each other's mercy during the Rite of Forgiveness. Now, on the first and second days of the Great Fast, we share in a campus tradition, an intense retreat, replete with lengthy liturgical services and periods of silence, and intermittent meditations, this year given by the seminary Chancellor, Archpriest Chad Hatfield.
Father Chad's meditations, titled "Conversion of the Heart," "Life in the Kingdom," "Extending the Kingdom," and "Eucharistic Living," will be delivered to our community in Three Hierarchs Chapel over the course of the two-day retreat. They also will be podcast in the "Voices from St. Vladimir's" section of Ancient Faith Radio (AFR). Father Chad began his first meditation by urging the community to recall their vocation as "new creatures in Christ."
"Very few Orthodox Christians have the blessing that we have: to retreat from the demands of life during these two days," began Fr. Chad. "In the words of St. Paul, this is a time to remember that we are 'dead to sin and alive in Christ Jesus.' It is a time especially to remember that it is too easy in a hallowed place, like the seminary, to become merely 'paid professional holy men and women.' It is a time, instead to return to our First Love, to begin again to love God with our whole heart, mind, and soul. All we need to do so is the desire and the decisiveness to change."
How does one accomplish Orthodox Christian unity among jurisdictions? "One heart at a time," claims Monk Kilian (Sprecher), a St. Vladimir's seminarian who concluded his one-year term as President of the Orthodox Inter-Seminary Movement (OISM) at the annual Spring meeting of the group, which gathered on our campus over the course of Meatfare weekend. OISM is a society that encourages Orthodox Christian students from multiple seminaries to interact with each other and to learn about each other's liturgical and cultural traditions.
In addition to St. Vladimir's students who took part in OISM's Spring activities, twenty-five men and women from six other Orthodox seminaries were present, representing: Holy Trinity Seminary, Jordanville, New York; Holy Cross School of Theology, Brookline, Massachusetts; St. Tikhon's Seminary, South Canaan, Pennsylvania; St. Sophia Seminary, South Bound Brook, New Jersey; Christ the Saviour Seminary, Johnstown, Pennyslvania; and St. Herman Seminary in Kodiak, Alaska. Seminarians who gathered represented five jurisdictions: the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOA); the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the United States of America (Ecumenical Patriarch); and the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Archdiocese of the U.S.A. (Ecumenical Patriarch).
Father Kilian was especially pleased that two students from Alaska could attend. "Our brothers from St. Herman's," he explained, "whose flights were sponsored by the OCA and a donation of air miles, spent an entire week with us at St. Vladimir's. They sat in on classes, visited with students, and took trips to St. Tikhon's Monastery and Seminary, as well as pari," said Fr. Kilian.
As a final note upon leaving his office, Fr. Kilian reflected, "I'm thankful for the opportunity that organizing events for OISM gave me, in learning about and reaching out to seminarians across jurisdictional and geographical lines. So much of the work towards Orthodox unity, in my humble opinion, must take place on the level of each person's heart, and the face-to-face contact of brothers and sisters in Christ that OISM provides is one step in the direction of manifesting that unity.
"I'm also thankful," he continued, "that this year we welcomed the involvement of a new seminary in our organization, St. Sophia's Ukrainian Orthodox Seminary. We also were gratified in Fall 2010 by the first hosting in many years of an OISM meeting by Christ the Saviour Seminary in Johnston, Pennsylvania. At this, our Spring meeting, I was especially pleased to have the great gift of two brothers from St. Herman's able to make the transcontinental journey to fellowship with us.
"My closing impression at the end of the Spring 2011 meeting—the end of my presidential term—comes from the words of the Psalmist: 'Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!' (Ps 133:1). My hope is that this delight and unity will continue into the next year of OISM, and throughout all our years, as we move out into ministry and strive to make that unity manifest in all that we do," he concluded.
Our faculty will be delivering several retreats and homilies throughout North America during this season of Great Lent. Please check your local church listings and come to hear them when they visit your geographical area.
Archpriest John Behr, Dean
Saturday, March 12, 2011, 7 p.m., St. Joseph Church, Wheaton, IL, public lecture on "The Meaning of Icons"
Monday & Tuesday, March 14–15, 2011, New Gracanica Monastery of the Holy Mother of God, Grayslake, IL, a clergy retreat sponsored by The Orthodox Clergy Association of Greater Chicago, with three presentations: “Through the Cross,” “For This We Were Created,” and “Glorify God in Your Body”
Friday, April 8, 2011, St. Elias Orthodox Church, Austin, TX, 6 p.m. Akathist followed by 8 p.m. lecture, "Orthodox Christianity as Paideia: Faith, Reason, and Culture in the Early Church."
Saturday, April 9, 2011, 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., followed by Vigil, St. Elias Orthodox Church, Austin, TX, parish lenten retreat, with three presentations on the theme, "Journey to Jerusalem."
Fr. Harry Pappas, Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Theology
Sunday, March 13, 2011,St. Mary’s Antiochian Orthodox Church in Pawtucket, RI, as guest of the Rhode Island Pan-Orthodox Clergy fellowship, "Truth Is Strongest of All," Homilist for the Sunday of Orthodoxy.
Dr. Albert Rossi, Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Theology
On Wednesday, March 23, at 6:30 p.m., our seminary Men's Choir will be singing the responses to the Presanctified Liturgy at the Church of Our Saviour Greek Orthodox Church in Rye, New York. The Men's Choir, led by Hierodeacon Philip Majkrzak, is versed in several styles of traditional church music, including Byzantine chant.
The Rev. Fr. Elias G. Villas, rector of the parish, will preside at the liturgy, and a lenten repast will be held following the service.
At an Academic Convocation held on our campus Monday evening, Anne Glynn Mackoul, Executive Chair of the seminary’s Board of Trustees, announced a decision by the Board to reappoint the seminary Dean, Archpriest John Behr, and Chancellor, Archpriest Chad Hatfield, to their positions for additional five-year terms, beginning in 2012. In reappointing the two leaders, said Mrs. Mackoul, the Board recognized “the considerable accomplishments and distinctive leadership” of each leader and also reconfirmed the Board’s commitment to the model of shared governance instituted at the beginning of their first terms.
In 2007 the Board devised a unique model of shared governance for the seminary, assigning to Fr. John as Dean primary responsibility for the spiritual and academic life of the school, and Fr. Chad as Chancellor primary responsibility for financial and operational leadership, but with elements of shared responsibility in all areas between the two administrators. At the same time the Board established a board position of Executive Chair, elected from among the lay trustees, to serve as a point of reference for the Board and to consult with the Dean and Chancellor.
In evaluating the strengths and achievements of these two administrators, the Board took particular note of their success as a team in leading the seminary. “Their particular gifts and personal attributes are complementary,” said Mrs. Mackoul, “allowing the seminary and its students to benefit from the best of both approaches to leadership. We could not have anticipated the financial crisis that so dramatically impacted their first years in office. The board has been gratified by their grace under pressure and clear-sighted focus on both the immediate needs of the seminary and the long-range vision and mission of St. Vladimir’s.
“We are particularly impressed,” she continued, “with the new curriculum, developed to support enhanced pastoral training and practical preparation of priests for Orthodox parishes and including new courses in missiology. We also welcome the many significant events on our campus that fulfill the seminary’s mission to serve Christ, his Church, and the world through Orthodox Christian theological education, research, and scholarship, and the promotion of inter-Orthodox cooperation.
“Many thanks also are due to the alumni, benefactors, and donors who support the seminary, both materially and in prayer,” she concluded. “The work of the seminary leadership, both past and future, would be impossible without their help.”
Fr. John, in acknowledging the renewal of his role, said, “I am very honored to be asked to serve the Church for a further term as Dean of St. Vladimir’s. Many new initiatives have been begun over recent years, and I look forward to seeing them bear fruit in the lives of our graduates and our service to the Church more generally.”
Likewise, Fr. Chad expressed his gratitude, saying, “I am thankful to the many who were part of the evaluation process which contributed to the decision of our Board of Trustees to offer a second five-year term to both the Dean and Chancellor. Much of our first term was dominated by our institutional response to the economic challenges of our time. I expect this to continue in the second term, but an equally strong force driving the agenda will be this administration’s determination to keep SVOTS the leading Orthodox seminary in both pastoral formation and academic excellence. I look forward to meeting the great opportunities God will provide for us.”
In Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and non-Orthodox contexts, the profile of St. Vladimir’s had been raised by various initiatives of the current administrative team. In particular, the Board noted international scholarly campus colloquia on the subjects: “Rome, Constantinople, and Canterbury: Mother Churches” (2008); “The Council and the Tomos: Twentieth-century Landmarks towards a Twenty-first-century Church” (2009); and “Hellenism & Orthodoxy” (2010); and major events, such as the recent concert performance of the St. Matthew Passion, which drew a diverse audience of over one thousand persons to the heart of Manhattan. Especially notable was the reception of the prestigious “Unity of Orthodox Peoples Award,” presented to the school by His Holiness Kirill, patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, in 2010.
Faculty member Dr. Paul Meyendorff, The Father Alexander Schmemann Professor of Liturgical Theology at the seminary, commented on these efforts, saying, “The faculty is deeply appreciative of the efforts of Frs. John and Chad in leading the seminary through this challenging era in the life of the seminary and the Orthodox Church, and we offer them our strong support."
Theodore Bazil, the seminary's Associate Chancellor for Advancement, also congratulated the Dean and Chancellor. "With more than forty years of institutional and working history behind me, I can attest to the leadership demonstrated by the previous deans, faculty, and administration at St. Vladimir's. Based on the strength of their character and unique talents, Fr. Chad and Fr. John have proven they are eminently prepared to continue to follow this remarkable tradition as the seminary faces new challenges to articulate and witness to the faith in a secular society," said Mr. Bazil.
Particularly gratifying to the Board was the strong support of the students for the renewal, who were invited to comment during the evaluation process. The Student Body, through their Student Council President, Aaron Oliver, expressed their congratulations to the Dean and Chancellor. “On behalf of the Student Council, I would like to congratulate Fr. John and Fr. Chad on their appointment to a new term. Their complementary leadership has done much to support student life and formation at the seminary, and also to usher in a new era of student involvement and initiative,” said Seminarian Oliver.
