July 9, 2024—St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) has entered a new phase of leadership, following this summer’s retirement of seminary president The Very Rev. Dr Chad Hatfield. The new leadership team is undertaking steps to ensure a smooth transition and renewed focus on the seminary’s mission during this important stage for SVOTS’ future.

Effective July 1, Academic Dean Dr Ionuţ-Alexandru Tudorie has assumed the additional role of interim president and CEO of SVOTS, to which he was unanimously appointed by the seminary’s Board of Trustees.

“It is always difficult and challenging when a long-tenured and respected leader, such as Fr Chad Hatfield, who has worked tirelessly and faithfully for the Church and the seminary, moves on,” said Dr Tudorie. “We find ourselves at a crossroads as we look ahead to new leadership. It is not the seminary’s first such moment, nor will it be the last; but we do have the opportunity for a fresh look at how best to do our work as an academic institution at the service of the Church. We find ourselves in a position to recommit to a model of teaching in service to the Church that is Christ-centered, student-focused, and education-driven.”

Dr Tudorie will lead the faculty and staff as SVOTS continues its comprehensive search for Fr Chad’s successor, led by His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon as chairman of the Board. His Beatitude is chairing a President Search Committee, as mandated by SVOTS’ bylaws. The Board of Trustees also appointed a Transition Committee to assist with and ensure a seamless transition.

“I’ve come to know Alex Tudorie as a brilliant, skillful, and dedicated man of the Church, and I’m thrilled to be a part of the seminary's future under his leadership,” remarked seminary professor Dr Peter Bouteneff, a long-serving faculty member of SVOTS. “I am also deeply grateful for Fr Chad's solid tenure as president over these seventeen years, laying the foundation for an exciting new chapter in the seminary’s life—and his own in his well-earned retirement.”

Additionally, The Right Rev. Archimandrite Jeremy Davis, an alumnus of SVOTS (‘04), is now serving as the executive chair of the Board of Trustees. He was recently elected to succeed outgoing executive chair Dr Nicholas Pandelidis, who has devoted many years of faithful service to the seminary on the Board (as a trustee from 2005–2020 and 2022–24, serving as executive chair since 2023). Fr Jeremy is the incoming archiepiscopal vicar for the Diocese of Toledo and the Midwest, in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.

"As a seminary alumnus, an avid reader of SVS Press, and an archdiocesan administrator who depends on the seminary to meet the needs of our parishes, I am committed—heart and soul—to St Vladimir's Seminary’s mission,” stated Fr Jeremy. “We are facing some big challenges, but our board of engaged and talented trustees, our world-class faculty, our diligent staff, and especially our tireless and selfless interim president are up to task."

Dr Tudorie and Fr Jeremy have begun the initial steps of transition at the seminary by working in collaboration with SVOTS employees, the Transition Committee, and other consultants. A key emphasis of the new leadership team is strengthening working relationships within a conciliar and transparent model of governance, with greater attention to balance between the mutually dependent, mutually supporting roles of faculty and staff.

Jeffrey Hoff, a longtime trustee and former treasurer, is chair of the Transition Committee. “As we forge ahead into the future at St Vladimir’s Seminary, we are blessed to have Dr Tudorie’s leadership, complemented by the vast and deep pastoral leadership of Fr Jeremy, executive chair,” he said. “Since first joining SVOTS in 2018, Dr Tudorie has brought renewal and strength to the academic department. His respect for our community—students, faculty, and staff—and his unwavering commitment to SVOTS’ mission herald a bright period of transition for our beloved institution, promising a legacy of academic excellence and spiritual growth.”

“We seek your prayers as we work to ensure the seminary’s educational priorities can be fulfilled by a team that works collaboratively in the service of Christ and His Gospel,” added Dr Tudorie.

More information regarding the succession search will be made available in coming weeks.

Photo: (Front, left to right) Seminary Professor Dr John Barnet, Transition Committee Chairman Jeffrey Hoff, Academic Dean & Interim President/CEO Dr Ionuţ-Alexandru Tudorie, Board Executive Chairman Archim. Jeremy Davis, and CFO Andrew Schachtner convene in the seminary board room to meet with trustees (pictured on screen) through Zoom.

St Vladimir’s Seminary (SVS) Press is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopedi on Mount Athos. SVS Press will serve as the exclusive American distributor of books published by Vatopedi Monastery in the English language. 

To begin this partnership, Vatopedi Monastery’s “Holy Mountain Series” and other titles will be made available through the SVS Press Mount Athos Collection. The Holy Mountain Series shares the spiritual patrimony of the Holy Mountain with the English-speaking world, making the lives and teachings of recent Athonite saints and elders readily available and accessible.

Vatopedi is one of the twenty great monasteries on Mount Athos and has preserved the spiritual riches and heritage of the Orthodox Church for over a thousand years. Archimandrite Ephraim, the current abbot, is a spiritual son of Elder Joseph, himself a disciple of St Joseph the Hesychast. The Vatopedi publications to be released in the SVS Press Mount Athos Collection will begin with 1) Letters and Poems of Saint Joseph the Hesychast, 2) Saint Joseph the Hesychast: Life and Teachings, 3) Saint Ephraim of Katounakia: The Disciple Full of Grace, and 4) Christian Ethics Vol. 1, by Georgios Mantzarides. All four titles are now available from SVS Press.

To celebrate the launch of this series in the English language, Archimandrite Ephraim will give a live-streamed talk on the Letters and Poems of Saint Joseph the Hesychast in the near future. 

The Rev. Ignatius Green, senior editor of SVS Press, helped to establish this new relationship with Vatopedi Monastery through ongoing communication with the monks leading its publishing operations. 

“I am overjoyed to see the lives, writings, and teachings of recent Athonite saints and elders made available in English,” said Fr Ignatius. “The Ladder of Divine Ascent says, ‘Angels are a light for monks, and the monastic life is a light for all men.’ This light will shine all the more clearly now that these most recent fruits from the Garden of the Mother of God are available to spiritual strugglers in the English-speaking world. Glory to God!”

St Vladimir’s Seminary (SVOTS) was well represented at the most recent annual meeting of The Orthodox Theological Society in America (OTSA).

The gathering was held June 6–8, 2024 at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, MA. Among the participants were The Very Rev. Dr Bogdan Bucur, the seminary’s associate professor of patristics; former SVOTS faculty member and alumnus The Very Rev. Dr John Jillions (M.Div., '80; D.Min., '05), who serves as OTSA’s vice president; alumnus The Very Rev. Dr Peter Baktis (M.Div., ‘85; D.Min., ‘20); and Ph.D. candidate and seminary alumnus Mark Chenoweth (M.Div., '17; Th.M., '18).

“I think it was important that I and a number of St Vladimir’s alumni participated in both OTSA and Paideia conferences this year,” said Fr Bogdan. “I hope that, in the years to come, there can be greater involvement of our faculty and community with both societies. We need to, at least try to, resist the temptation of hunkering down in our respective ideological echo chambers."

At the OTSA annual meeting, Fr Bogdan was part of a panel presenting the work of the group Orthodox Christians in Dialogue With Judaism, and he gave a separate paper titled “I Am the Icon of Your Ineffable Glory: The Image and the Scars of Human Identity.”

The Orthodox Theological Society in America was organized in 1966 under the auspices and with the blessing of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas. To learn more about the OTSA, visit the Society’s website, otsamerica.net.

Photo: Maliotis Cultural Center of Hellenic College Holy Cross 

St Vladimir's Seminary was a big part of this year's Paideia Conference at Antiochian Village, as faculty, staff, and alumni joined discussions about the life of the mind, the creation of culture, and our life in Christ.

Around fifty Orthodox Christians convened for the conference, held May 29 through June 1, 2024. Paideia held its second annual event this year as a “society of Orthodox Christians drawing upon the riches of holy tradition to address issues of modern and postmodern thought and culture.”  Paideia comes from the ancient Greek word meaning “education” or “learning,” and most importantly “culture” as a whole.

Notable contributions from members of the seminary community included keynote addresses by St Vladimir’s Seminary President Fr Chad Hatfield and Alumnus Fr Thomas Soroka; talks were given by Professor Fr Bogdan Bucur; Alumnus and St Vladimir’s Seminary (SVS) Press Senior Editor Fr Ignatius Green; Alumnus and Assistant Professor of Literature Fr Anthony Gilbert; Associate Professor of Medicine Dn Sampson Ryan Nash; Alumnus Fr Alexander Earl; and SVS Press author Dr Edith Humphrey (read more about each paper and speaker here). Fr Chad was also named a co-convener of the Paideia Conference moving forward.

Listen to Fr Chad Hatfield’s Keynote Address

To learn more about the conference and register for future editions, visit the Paideia Society’s website: paideiasociety.org. 

Paideia was the first of two gatherings of theologians and scholars the seminary community participated in this June. The following week, from June 6 through 8, faculty and alumni joined the annual gathering of the OTSA.

Photos courtesy of the Paideia Society

Over the winter and spring months of 2024 one new bishop, five new priests, and five new deacons were added to St Vladimir’s Seminary’s student body and alumni fellowship. Together with ordinations and elevations occurring last fall and summer, twenty-four seminarians and alumni of St Vladimir’s Seminary were ordained to holy orders during Academic Year 2023–2024 and the summer preceding it; another three faculty/alumni were elevated in rank. Glory be to God!

We keep them all in prayer as they continue in their ministries. AXIOS!

HOLY EPISCOPATE

Bishop Nektarios (Papazafiropoulos; M.Div.,’99)
Jurisdiction: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOA)
Consecration: 13 April 2024 Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York, NY
Current Ministry: Bishop of Diokleia, Archdiocese Chancellor

HOLY PRIESTHOOD

Priest Joshua Birdsall (M.Div. ’24)
Jurisdiction: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America (AOCANA)
Holy Priesthood: Ordained 7 January 2024 at St Mary’s Antiochian Orthodox Church, Brooklyn, NY

Priest Peter Ries (M.Div. ’24)
Jurisdiction: Orthodox Church in America (OCA)
Holy Priesthood: Ordained 30 March 2024 at Holy Myrrhbearers Orthodox Church, St Cloud, MN
 

Priest Giorgi Lomsadze (M.Div. ’24)
Jurisdiction: Orthodox Church in America (OCA)
Holy Priesthood: Ordained 13 April 2024 at St Athanasius Orthodox Church, Nicholasville, KY
 

Priest Gabriel Khoury (M.Div. ’22)
Jurisdiction: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
Holy Priesthood: Ordained 24 March 2024 at St Ignatius Antiochian Orthodox Church, Franklin, TN
 

Hieromonk Jacob (Bogdan) Manga (M.Div. ’23)
Jurisdiction: Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas
Holy Priesthood: Ordained 16 June 2024 at St Dumitru Romanian Orthodox Monastery, Middletown, NY

HOLY DIACONATE

Deacon Richard Okello (M.Div. ’25)
Jurisdiction: Holy Diocese of Gulu and Northern Uganda, under the Archdiocese of Kampala of the Patriarchate of Alexandria
Holy Diaconate: Ordained 7 January 2024 at St Basil Orthodox Parish in Gulu, Uganda
 

Hierodeacon Stephen Guirgis (M.Div. ’25)
Jurisdiction: Orthodox Church in America (OCA)
Holy Diaconate: Ordained 30 January 2024 at Three Hierarchs Chapel, St Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY
 

Hierodeacon Cyril Hanna (M.Div. ’25)
Jurisdiction: Orthodox Church in America (OCA)
Holy Diaconate: Ordained 22 April 2024 at Three Hierarchs Chapel, St Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY
 

Deacon Mark Sultani (M.Div. ’23)
Jurisdiction: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America (AOCANA)
Holy Diaconate: Ordained 27 April 2024 at St George Orthodox Christian Cathedral, Wichita, KS
 

Deacon Justin Taylor (M.Div. ’25)
Jurisdiction: Orthodox Church in America (OCA)
Holy Diaconate: Ordained 19 May 2024 at Three Hierarchs Chapel, St Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY

St Vladimir’s Seminary Alumnus Antwian (Anthony) Davis (‘19) has been experiencing and witnessing God's miraculous grace from a time beyond his own memories as a small child, and seemingly at every turn since: through the profound faith of his parents; in his journey from serious illness and near death in childhood to health and adulthood; from ordained Baptist minister to seminarian at St Vladimir's Seminary; and during his encounters with the sick, suffering, and incarcerated. In this episode of Voices from St Vladimir's Seminary on Ancient Faith Radio (AFR), Antwian shares powerful stories from his life and conversion to Orthodox Christianity—including why he's thankful to his Baptist parents, who he says "actually raised me to be Orthodox." Antwian, who currently serves as SVS Press Bookstore manager, also reveals his favorite Press books and announces the next stop in his grace-filled journey, this time away from St Vladimir's Seminary.

Listen Now on AFR

Photo: SVS Press Bookstore Manager Anthony (Antwian) Davis (M.Div. ‘19) is raised to the rank of reader at the seminary's Three Hierarchs Chapel on the Feast of Annunciation, March 25, 2023, by the hand of His Eminence Metropolitan Tikhon.

With faith in Christ and hope in the resurrection, we share news of the repose of Archpriest James Bernstein, an alumnus of St Vladimir’s Seminary. Fr James fell asleep in the Lord in the morning hours of June 17, 2024, surrounded by his family.

The Very Rev. A. James Bernstein was born in Lansing, MI on May 6, 1946, and was raised in a conservative Jewish family in Queens, NY. A teenage chess champion, Fr James had a dramatic conversion experience at the age of sixteen after reading the New Testament. His spiritual journey included a number of twists and turns: he was chapter president of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship at Queens College, helped found the Jews for Jesus ministry in San Francisco, was a staff member of the Christian World Liberation Front in Berkeley, served as a pastor of an Evangelical Orthodox Church near Silicon Valley, and in the 1980s was received into the Eastern Orthodox Church. Fr James went on to attend St Vladimir’s Seminary and graduated with a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree in 1989. He was ordained to the holy priesthood the year prior.

Fr James’ priestly ministry took him to the state of Washington, where he was assigned pastor of St Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Brier. He served there for more than twenty-five years before retiring in 2017. During his parish ministry he also authored numerous works through Ancient Faith Publishing and was a contributor to the Orthodox Study Bible: New Testament and Psalms (Thomas Nelson, 1993).

Fr James is survived by his wife, Kh. Martha (Bonnie); children Kh. Heather (Fr David) Sommer, Holly Bernstein, Peter Bernstein, and Mary (James) Curry; grandchildren John (Audrey), Nicholas, Ephramia, Elizabeth, and Irene Sommer; Violet Bernstein; and Noah, Levi, Lina, and Sarah Curry.

Funeral information may be found on the Antiochian Archdiocese website, here.

May the memory of Archpriest James be eternal!

A section of this article was adapted from Ancient Faith Ministries’ website.

Photo: St Paul’s Antiochian Orthodox Church