Atop our “New Facility” building, gleaming solar panels lie like sleek sunbathers. Soaking up the sun’s rays, they’re storing energy to power two buildings on our seminary campus.
The sparkling panels are being installed this week, September 20–24, and from now on they will provide clean, renewable energy for both our Three Hierarchs Chapel and our New Facility building, which houses classrooms and faculty and staff offices. Through the newly mounted solar grid, the Seminary expects to reduce its energy costs for the two structures by nearly 78%.
“We’ve been pursuing this project since 2007, when we decided to make a concerted effort at St. Vladimir’s Seminary to ‘Go Green’,” said The Very Rev. Chad Hatfield, Chancellor and CEO. “Renewable energy was a keystone in that plan, since statistics have proven that the largest controllable budget category in a school is typically energy related.
“Our seminary took those statistics to heart. Thus, in November and December 2007, we invested in complete energy audits for nine campus buildings, and in turn received detailed analyses and reports on these structures from the New York State Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Each report included ‘Energy Cost Reduction Opportunities,’ which our Board of Trustees reviewed. In the end, we decide to partner with NYSERDA, as a participant in the New York State Solar Electric Incentive Program, to install a solar grid.”
In June 2010, the Seminary received notice that NYSERDA had awarded them a government grant in the amount of $72,556.50 for the solar project, which represents half of the cost of the project. The Seminary is approaching private foundations and individuals to fund the full cost.
NYSERDA is an agency that provides energy audits and analyses to small businesses, churches, schools, and other facilities to help them make informed decisions and implement energy-efficient strategies. The other “partners” in the solar venture at St. Vladimir’s are D.C. Power Systems, a distributor of renewal energy products based in California, which is supplying the structural materials for the project, and Best Energy Power, a local installer.
On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, September 14th, our seminary community richly celebrated sacramental life and theological study. Highlights of the day included two student ordinations and an academic convocation in honor of Professor Christos Yannaras, making the solemn feast full and joyous from beginning to end.
We were particularly blessed by a host of distinguished guests who participated at various points in the daylong celebration, which included His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America; Archpriest Alexander Atty, dean-elect of St. Tikhon’s Seminary; Archpriest Alexander Garklavs, chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America; Professors Aristotle Papanikolaou and George Demacopoulos from Fordham University; and Professor George Parsenios from Princeton Theological Seminary.
The extraordinary day also brought together three episcopal members of our Board of Trustees, who concelebrated the morning Divine Liturgy: His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah, primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA); His Grace The Right Rev. Maxim, bishop of the Western Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church in North and South America (SOC); and His Grace The Right Rev. Savas (Zembillas) of Troas, director of the Office of Church and Society at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North America (GOA).
During the Divine Liturgy, Dn. Maximus Cabey was ordained to the priesthood, and seminarian John Frazier was ordained to the diaconate. Fr. Maximus and Dn. John, both third-year students at St. Vladimir’s, were ordained by Metropolitan Jonah, and were given a “word” by Bishop Savas at the Liturgy. “Today,” said Bishop Savas, “you have become ‘cross-bearers’ in a special way, but in a way that is meant to be joyful. May God give you the strength, wisdom, and gifts needed to fulfill your priestly ministries."
Bishop Savas also congratulated our Dean, Fr. John Behr, on the ninth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. Additionally, Fr. David Mezynski, our Associate Dean for Student Affairs, was awarded the nabedrennik, a priestly vestment in the shape of shield, for his service to the Church, by Metropolitan Jonah.
Punctuating the evening was the academic convocation honoring Dr. Christos Yannaras, professor emeritus of philosophy at the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Athens and leading Greek Orthodox ethicist. Dr. Yannaras has authored more than fifty books on ethics, theology, and modern religious philosophy, including one by St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press entitled The Freedom of Morality.
Following a chapel vespers service and surrounded by faculty in their colorful academic regalia, Fr. John Behr warmly welcomed guests and enthusiastically opened the convocation. “Although we have gathered many times in the chapel over the past few weeks,” he said, “this if the first time that we have gathered together for academic purposes, gathered together to reflect upon what it is that we do as a seminary, a school of theology.”
First, Fr. John presented the “St. Basil Award for Academic Achievement” to this past year’s “Junior” seminarian Jason Ketz and to “Middler” seminarian Michael Soroka. Established in 2003, the St. Basil Award recognizes excellence in theological studies and is given to students who rank first among their classmates in the Master of Divinity program.
Fr. John then proceeded to introduce Professor Yannaras, saying, “From its beginning, seventy-two years ago, St. Vladimir’s Seminary has been committed to standing in the tradition of the great Fathers of the Church, thinking through what they said, to be able to address our own contemporary world. Today, we honor someone who exemplifies all this in an extraordinary manner throughout his long and distinguished scholarly career.”
Dr. John Barnet, associate dean for Student Affairs at St. Vladimir’s, reiterated Professor Yannaras’s expertise in critical engagement with church tradition and the contemporary world, as he read the citation that officially bestowed the degree of Doctor of Divinity honoris causa upon him.
In his remarks just prior to his address to the audience, titled “The Trinitarian God as the Causal Principle of Existential Freedom,” Professor Yannaras expressed his gratitude to the Seminary. “The theological ‘climate’ that St. Vladimir’s has represented for so many decades,” he noted, “has been for me a real ‘nursery,’ a point of reference, a place that I have always experienced, even from a great distance, as a place I belong to.
“Today,” he continued, “you are bestowing on me a great academic honor. But for about fifty years you have been nourishing me with something of great importance: with criteria of theological orientation. The brief lecture that, as is customary, I shall now deliver, has as its title, ‘The Causal Principle of Freedom.’ I should like it to evoke a sense of the presence of Father John Meyendorff and Father Alexander Schmemann.”
Also participating in the liturgical services and the convocation was the Student Choir from the Theological Faculty at the University of Belgrade, with their faculty advisor, Nenad Milosevic. The choir visited the seminary campus after completing a tour of parishes in the Western Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
St. Vladimir’s welcomes back to our campus alumnus (’06) Protodeacon Joseph Matusiak, as he assumes his new position as Director of Alumni and Recruitment. “I am excited to use my experience, both growing up in the Church and also being a student here, to encourage other students in their vocations and service to the Church,” he said. “I want to create a similar excitement in other students to attend our seminary and to re-ignite the relationships of our alumni with their alma mater.
“Especially, I want to see my work, and that of the seminary, as meeting our alumni where they are. In other terms, what can we do from here, in the areas of continuing education and assistance to them? What can we offer?”
PDn. Joseph formerly spent four years as the deacon and secretary to Archbishop Job, bishop of the Diocese of the Midwest of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), of blessed memory. He also is on the Board of the Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF), a nationwide college campus ministry.
PDn. Joseph will be employed by both SVOTS and the OCA. He will continue with his current positions at the OCA—as Youth and Campus Minister and as the Protodeacon for Metropolitan Jonah—in addition to his new duty of overseeing the departmental ministries of the Church.
PDn. Joseph’s wife, Nina, and sons, Alexander (5) and Daniel (3), have settled into their new campus apartment, and the SVOTS community is pleased to have them!
View our Alumni Association activities and message from Alumni Board Chairman, Fr. David Barr, and catch up with our Alumni in our Voices section.
The Crestwood Historical Society has invited our seminary Chapel Choir Director, Hierodeacon Philip (Majkrzak), to present a lecture about Orthodox Christian liturgical music on Saturday, September 25th, in the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium of the John G. Rangos Building on our campus.
HDn. Philip, who says that liturgical music has been "since childhood, one of my greatest joys," is eager to share the beauty of the liturgical services with members of the society and any guests wishing to attend the free and public lecture. Refreshments will be served at 10 a.m.; HDn. Philip will begin his lecture, titled "An Introduction to Orthodox Christian Liturgical Music," at 10:30 a.m.
The society has been a long-time friend of St. Vladimir's, and in 2008 presented St. Vladimir's with its "Exemplified Civil Spirit Award."
Have you ever wondered about the "harps, stringed instruments, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals" mentioned in the Psalms, and the role instruments played in the religious, social, public, and private life of ancient Israel? Have you ever wondered why the Orthodox Church ceased using musical instruments in its worship? Then please come to a fascinating free and public lecture by Russian music scholar Dr. Yelena Kolyada at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 5, 2010 in the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium of the John G. Rangos Family Foundation Building on our campus.
Dr. Kolyada is the author of A Compendium of Musical Instruments and Instrumental Terminology in the Bible (Equinox Publishing, 2009), a reference book based on historical fact, linguistic analysis, and musical study, which draws on biblical translations and works by rabbinic teachers, church fathers, medieval exegetes, and contemporary scholars. The volume not only addresses the origin and role of musical instruments within the Hebrew culture but also traces the development of these instruments in post-biblical times, demonstrating their new symbolic significance in the writings of the church fathers.
Dr. Kolyada graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and completed a doctoral thesis at the Vilnius Conservatory in 1987. In the early 1990s she was a Senior Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she gave lectures on early Russian hymnography. She also made a series of programs on Russian church music for BBC Radio 3 and World Service. She is the author of many articles on early Russian chant and modern Russian church music, on biblical themes in the works of Russian composers, and on the liturgical music cycles of the English composer Sir John Tavener.
This volume published in Russian in 2003 was awarded the laureate diploma as “the event of the year” in the first national competition of Orthodox books in Russia. It was also awarded the prestigious gold medal of the Orthodox St. Makarius Foundation.
Half-way around the world, in a church in Moscow, the famous Benedictine monk and spiritual writer, Fr. Gabriel Bunge, was welcomed into the Orthodox Christian faith on August 27, 2010. His reception into Orthodoxy holds special significance for our seminary, since Fr. Gabriel has written two exquisite volumes for St. Vladimir's Seminary Press (SVS Press): Dragon's Wine and Angel's Bread and The Rublev Trinity.
Moreover, and coincidently, other highly respected authors of our academic press were present as Fr. Gabriel was received into his newly chosen faith: Metropolitan Hilarion (Alefyev), archbishop of Volokolamsk, who authored Christ the Conqueror of Hell; Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware), bishop of Diokleia, who wrote The Orthodox Way and The Inner Kingdom; and Fr. Andrew Louth, Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University, who authored Greek East and Latin West and is the Series Editor for our press's Church in History series.
Father Gabriel was received into the Orthodox Church just prior to the beginning of the All-Night Vigil service for the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, according to the Julian Calendar. Metropolitan Hilarion officiated and Metropolitan Kallistos concelebrated at the service. Mingled with the parish congregation was a delegation from "The Friends of Mount Athos Society," who were visiting with the blessing of His Holiness Kirill, patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Congratulating Fr. Gabriel on his entrance into the Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion presented him with an icon of the Mother of God called “Joy of All the Afflicted”—which also is the name of the church in which Fr. Gabriel was received.
Fr. Gabriel, who lives in Switzerland, has been practicing an eremitical monastic life since 1980. He has been a contributor to numerous spiritual and monastic journals, and his books and articles demonstrate his expert knowledge of the writings of the church fathers.
Orientation Week 2010 concluded with a special visit from His Beatitude Jonah, primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) and president of the SVOTS Board of Trustees. Metropolitan Jonah presided at the Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, and his sermon centered on lessons that incoming seminarians might glean from the gospel reading for the feast day.
"You are embarking not just on an academic journey," His Beatitude stated, "but also upon a spiritual one—a 'podvig' as the Russians would say—an ascetic effort. The words of St. John the Baptist, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,' must be taken as a theme for the whole of our lives; for, authentic repentence leads to joy and healing and away from the slavery of our passions and egos."
Also concelebrating at the Divine Liturgy was Archpriest Seraphim Gan, rector of St. Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Church in Sea Cliff, NY, a parish of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). Fr. Seraphim was warmly welcomed by our Dean, Fr. John Behr, who expressed his hope for a deepening fellowship within the brotherhood of Christ.
Metropolitan Hilarion [Alfeyev] of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church and a permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Moscow, was scheduled to concelebrate on the feast, but was not present due to illness. Metropolitan Hilarion traveled to the OCA Chancery on Monday, August 30, to contribute to the reflections within the OCA regarding its participation in the Episcopal Assembly process. Joining Metropolitan Jonah and Metropolitan Hilarion at that meeting, from our Seminary, were Archpriests John Behr and Chad Hatfield, and Fr. Alexander Rentel, Assistant Professor of Canon Law.
View a photo gallery of Divine Liturgy and fellowship hour.
Ever since our Dean, Fr. John Behr, made his extensive tour through the churches and seminaries of India in the Fall of 2009, St. Vladimir's has been strengthening its friendship with the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church in a series of cordial exchanges. Most recently, in August 2010, Fr. John welcomed His Grace Dr. Yuhanon Mar Demetrios, Assistant Metropolitan of the Delhi Diocese, to our campus, and in turn attended and spoke at a reception for His Grace at St. Mary's Orthodox Church, Bronx, NY.
Mar Demetrios is the Professor of New Testment at the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Kottayam, India, and also is Secretary of the Inter-Church Relations Committee of the Orthodox Church in India. As well, he is a member of the WCC Committee on Education and Ecumenical Formation. He has authored several books and articles, including the volume, Gospel of Mark: An Interpretation, and many articles about the Virgin Mary. Formerly, Bishop Demetrios served St. Mary's Church as a layman and a deacon, in the position of Sunday School Headmaster and Youth Leader.
Our Dean, Fr. John Behr, warmly welcomed new seminarians to the campus for Orientation Week 2010 by conducting a prayer service and by centering his welcoming remarks around a line from the Gospel of John: "Father, the hour has come" (Jn 17:1). Reminding the freshman class that the gospel passage referred to the hour of Christ's Passion, he noted that the "hour had come" for each of them to share in the Cross of Christ as they begin their theological studies. Fr. John also reminded the incoming class that they had taken a "further step out of the world" by enrolling at St. Vladimir's, with the intention of more deeply dedicating their lives to God.
Fr. John also gave two lengthy presentions—"Introduction to Seminary Life" and "The Crucible of Formation"—through which he introduced the new students to the history of the Seminary, the rigors of Seminary training, and the true meaning of "traditional" theological study.
"Theological study thus demands sweat and blood," emphasized Fr. John. "It is an ascetic endeavor that brings us face to face with our own weakness, brokeness and falleness, but also to an experience of the transforming grace of God, so that we can become ministers of this grace to others. What makes theological study traditional at St. Vladimir's is our fidelity to the gospel message of the One who died and rose form the dead, as proclaimed in the Scriptures and as handed down—literally traditioned—by the apostles. Our fidelity to Him who is the 'same yesterday, today, and forever' (Heb 13.8) allows us to think as the Fathers of the Church thought; engaging, challenging, and leavening the surrounding world until the end of the age."
The incoming class includes 16 full-time and 3 part-time students, from five Orthodox Christian and three Oriental Orthodox jurisdictions. Six students are enrolled in the M.A. program, 12 are in the M.Div. program, and two have non-degree status.
Both new and returning students are entering the rhythm of seminary life in preparation for Fall semester by attending Orientation Week, which runs from August 21–29. Students may view a complete Orientation Week schedule, which also includes details about the first few days of classes and chapel services.
We look forward to greeting old friends and new faces as we begin our academic year, and we look forward to worshipping together on the first major feast day, The Nativity of the Theotokos.
View our photo gallery of Orientation Week. We will add images as the week progresses, so look for your friends and relatives who have become students at SVOTS.
On Saturday August 7th, seminarians, children, spouses, faculty and staff worked together on a campus clean up. The clean-up part of a very hot day began at 9 a.m. outside the North Dorm where a crowd gathered to collect tools and receive instructions.
The first task was laying new mulch in the playground. Everyone was involved. Some hauled mulch in wheelbarrows. Children used their wagons. Others attacked “mulch mountains” with rakes and hoes. David Wagschal, who is joining the seminary faculty to teach Church History, showed his skills on the SVOTS tractor.
While most were working in the playground, Fr. Chad Hatfield, our Chancellor and a keen gardener, was working to tidy the flowerbeds and trees in the front of the Rangos Building. Once the playground flooring was in place, the crew moved on to tidy the shoreline alongside the Lakeside married-student apartments, collecting bags full of debris.
Some enthusiastic seminarians took garbage bags down to the base of the waterfall and collected the litter that had swept down from Central Ave. through Crestwood Lake. Our Dean, Fr. John Behr, and his family collected glass, bottles, and assorted other refuse from the Seminary’s border with Scarsdale Road.
Many filled refuse bags and blistered hands later, the community happily ate vegetarian pizza together on the veranda of the Germack Building.
“I was really impressed by the commitment to the Seminary that the community showed today,” said Fr. Chad. “Just about everyone on campus showed up cheerfully and worked extremely hard.”
Job well done!
Read more about our campus activities and see more photos of our campus family on Our Community page.
