View a photo gallery of the exhibit opening

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.

The images below represent a sample of St. Tikhon's beautiful photos of the exhibit.

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.

—posted from Tuckahoe Library

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.

—posted from Wallingford, CT

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.

Order St. George and the Dragon here!

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 

Read more from the Diocese of Sourozh

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.

Read more about the distance learning D.Min. program.

Is God wholly separate from the material universe? The Very Rev. Dr. John Behr, dean and professor of Patristics at St. Vladimir's Seminary, asks this question of his diverse, virtual audience in the highly trafficked blog, Big Questions Online (BQO). "The editors at BQO have asked a number of theologians, philosophers, and scientists to write a short essay on a 'Big Question,'" explained Fr. John. "When mine is posted on October 23, I will be logging on to the site for a week or so to answer questions posted by readers. It should be interesting to participate in this venue, given the literate and engaged readership of BQO."

Big Questions Online is a publication of the John Templeton Foundation, a philanthropic trust which funds research across academic disciplines, and is often concerned with philosophical questions, and quests for life's purpose and meaning. Fr. John serves on the Board of Advisors for the Foundation, which is particularly known for fostering informed dialogue between scientists, philosophers, and theologians.

"We are so pleased that Father Behr accepted the invitation to participate," said Ansley Roan, consulting executive editor for Big Questions Online. "His expertise and knowledge allow him to bring important perspective to this fascinating question. We're excited to see how the discussion develops. It's a wonderful opportunity for our readers to ask questions and share their thoughts with him." 

In his essay's introduction posted on October 23, Fr. John wrote, "The relationship between God and the material universe—the world in which we are born, live, and die, as embodied, material beings; and the universe beyond this world with our increasing awareness of its immensity and, correspondingly, our smallness—is truly a perennial 'Big Question.' What is the 'reality,'" he continued, "if there is such, of this material world that forms the horizon of our vision and our thinking? What meaning does the fact that we are material beings embody?"

Join the discussion with Fr. John!

FAQ about Big Questions Online 

The WCC website reported that the presiding hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Nathanael of Kos and Nysiros, was joined by "His Eminence Metropolitan Prof. Dr. Gennadios of Sassima on behalf of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and His Eminence Metropolitan Mor Eustathius Matta Roham on behalf of the Oriental Orthodox Church."

Dr. Meyendorff attended the consultation as a representative of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), and chaired the drafting committee, which prepared a common Orthodox response concerning the theme of the Assembly: "God of Life, Lead Us to Justice and Peace." The statement, which affirms the commitment of the Orthodox to work for justice and peace on the basis of the Orthodox theological tradition, will be published on the WCC website.

Meeting on the island of Kos, Greece, amidst an atmosphere of economic distress and difficulty, the theologians and hierarchs prayed for the sufferings of the Greek people, and expressed the hope that they would soon experience relief from hardship. Throughout the week of the consultation, delegates visited several local parishes for worship, to learn about the realities of daily life in Kos. 

Some of the bishops and theologians participating in the consultation hailed from the Middle East, and they spoke to the group about new developments in the troubled region. Attendees expressed "their deep concern for the escalation of violence in the region, especially in Syria, (and) prayed for peace in the Middle East," noted the WCC's report afterwards.

Read about Dr. Meyendorff's participation in March 2011's Inter–Orthodox Pre–Assembly Consultation in Aghia Napa, Cyprus.

On Sunday, October 14th, the St. Vladimir's Seminary Octet joined the community at St. Mary's Antiochian Orthodox Church, Brooklyn, NY, where they had been invited to sing the Divine Liturgy by the parish's pastor, The Very Rev. Michael Ellias, SVOTS Class of '85. Octet Director Hierodeacon Herman (Majkrzak), lecturer in Liturgical Music and Chapel Choir Director, noted that it is a cherished seminary tradition for the choir to minister in nearby parish communities, which they typically do at least three times each semester.

Parishioners at St. Mary's have enjoyed a long history of such Octet visits. Some recalled the yearly visits of the group in previous eras, under the direction of David Drillock, professor emeritus of Liturgical Music. 

In addition to harmonious melodies offered by the Octet, seminary clergy also contributed to the day's events.The Very Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield, chancellor/CEO, offered the homily, preaching from the book of Titus on the topic, "The Living of a Virtuous Life." Protodeacon Joseph Matusiak, director of Admissions and Alumni Relations, also served alongside Fr. Michael and Fr. Chad throughout the Liturgy.

One of the parishioners at St. Mary's is well known to the Seminary. Mrs. Anne Glynn Mackoul is a long time member of St. Mary's, and is also a current member of the SVOTS Board of Trustees, on which she served as Executive Chair from 2006 to 2011.

"It was a wonderful day and really gratifying to me personally to see two parts of my world coincide—St. Vladimir's Seminary and St. Mary's Antiochian parish," said Mrs. Mackoul. "I loved being present while Fr. Chad and Pdn. Joseph served alongside St. Mary's pastor Fr. Michael, and hearing the all–male Octet serve as the choir on this one special day, in lieu of St. Mary's own wonderful parish choir.

"Almost as memorable," added Mrs. Mackoul, "was the warm and generous hospitality extended to the visitors by Fr. Michael and Kh. Laila Ellias and their family at their home afterwards, which reinforced the legendary reputation of Arab Christian hospitality."

As is often the case with such musical forays, the St. Vladimir's Press's "traveling bookstore," under the supervision of Customer Service Manager Mike Baez, also accompanied the vocal ensemble.

Listen to two selections sung by the St. Vladimir's Octet