St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary
Alumni Association
E-News - May/June 2007
Volume 7, No. 5/6

Dear Friends,

As previously mentioned in the last issue, a change of leadership at the seminary will take place on July 1 when Fr John Behr assumes the position of Dean of the Seminary; Fr Chad Hatfield, the position of Chancellor of the Seminary; and, Dr John Barnet, the position of Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. In addition, Fr Steven Belonick, the current Director of Recruitment and Alumni Liaison at the seminary, will succeed Fr Paul Lazor as Associate Dean for Students Affairs on July 1. Fr Paul, who held that position as well other important positions with distinction for forty years, will retire on June 30.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

The installation of Fr John Behr and Fr Chad Hatfield will be held in the afternoon after the Hierarchical Liturgy on the Feast of the Cross, Friday, September 14. Given the significance of this day, the installation will be connected to a Symposium held Saturday, September 15 titled, “The Challenges for Orthodox Theology and Orthodox Theological Education in the Twenty-First Century.” The two-day event will culminate with a banquet held on the evening of Saturday, September 15. Please mark your calendars and check the seminary’s website for further information. As these changes take place, we ask your prayers for all of us.

Please inform us of any milestones and transitions in your life so we can publish them. The seminary community extends its very best to you!

ARCHBISHOP KYRILL PASSES

Just before the release of this issue of E-News, we learned that His Eminence, Archbishop Kyrill of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania and the Bulgarian Diocese, fell asleep in the Lord yesterday, Sunday, June 17. His Eminence was a long-time member of the seminary’s Board of Trustees and a supporter of the school, both prayerfully and monetarily. He had been ailing for over a year. For more information and funeral arrangements, please visit the OCA’s website: www.oca.org. May His memory be eternal!

NEW CURRICULUM MEANS NEW STARTING DATE FOR CLASSES AND ORIENTATION

For decades, as you know, the fall semester began just after Labor Day. This year, for the first time, the fall semester will begin before Labor Day on August 30, with orientation for new students set for Sunday, August 26 and continuing through August 29. The extended orientation will include four orientation sessions led by Fr John Behr, Fr Chad Hatfield, Dr John Barnet, and Fr Steven Belonick. Fr Thomas Hopko will be present to develop an overlying theme of vocation, church service, and St Vladimir’s each evening during the orientation. New to the orientation will be community-building events such as a cookout on the seminary lawn and an excursion to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. A special one-day workshop on “Time Management” will be held on the Friday of the first week and will include returning students.

ALUMNI BOARD HOLDS EXTRAORDINATRY SESSION

At the end of April, the Alumni Board learned that its President, Fr John Dresko, expressed his desire to resign from that position. The Board was saddened by this news, but extended its thanks to Fr John for his dedicated service over the last five years to the Alumni Board and to the seminary. We wish Fr John every success in future endeavors. With the resignation of Fr John, the Board needed to elect a president to guide its work until the spring of 2008. By then, the Board will have discussed a general election process at its fall meeting and begin the implementation of that process. The Board unanimously elected Board member Fr David Barr (‘83) to be its interim president. Please visit the seminary’s alumni page for Fr David’s message and photo. We welcome his leadership. http://www.svots.edu/Alumni/Alumni_Content/alumni-welcome/

FR THOMAS HOPKO ALUMNI SCHOLARSHIP FUND UPDATE

To date, $17,992 of the targeted $100,000 has been received into the Hopko Alumni Scholarship Fund. This is very promising, given that the appeal is new and the initial gift to the fund was $5,000. We appreciate your donations, which will help sons and daughters of our alumni study at St Vladimir’s. If you would like to contribute to this important fund, please contact Fr Steven Belonick at his email address: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Every donation helps and is tax deductible. Please visit the progress of our fund on the seminary’s alumni page: http://www.svots.edu/alumni/index.html/

FORTY STUDENTS GRADUATE

A record-breaking class graduated from the seminary in May. Seminary President, Metropolitan Herman, along with His Grace Bishop Antoun of the Antiochian Orthodox Church in America, and SVS alumnus His Eminence Mor Tithus of the Syrian Orthodox Church in North America were present at the commencement exercises. The graduating class honored Fr Paul Lazor with a beautiful icon of St John of Kronstadt for his dedicated service as Associate Dean for Student Affairs. For more information, please visit: www.svots.edu.

SEMINARY HONORS BISHOP

The seminary will award His Grace Bishop Atanasije (Jevtic) of the Serbian Orthodox Church the degree of Doctor of Divinity honoris causa during his visit here June 23-24. His Grace was a student of Archimandrite Justin Popovich. Later, His Grace became a professor of patrology and Dean of the Orthodox Theological Faculty in Belgrad. His Grace’s delegation will include Bishop Maxim of the West, a number of priests and hieromonks from Serbia, along with SVS Trustee Brian Gerich and SVS alumnus Fr Nicholas Ceko. His Grace will concelebrate the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, June 24 with Metropolitan Herman and Bishop Maxim. The honorary doctorate will be awarded on Sunday evening, June 24.

CONFERENCES FILL SVS SCHEDULE AFTER GRADUATION

Since the end of the semester, the seminary has been abuzz with activity. Three conferences were held, namely, a meeting of the Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops in America (SCOBA) and Standing Conference of Oriental Orthodox Church Hierarchs (SCOOCH), May 23; the North-American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Dialogue, June 4-6; and the Orthodox Theological Society of America (OTSA), June 11-13. The latter conference included this year’s Florovsky Memorial Lecture on June 13, featuring His Eminence Nikolaos, Metropolitan of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki, founder of the Bioethics Institute in Athens, Greece. His public lecture was entitled “From an Ethics of Dilemmas to a Theology of Transcendence.” Visit www.svots.edu for full descriptions of these conferences.

SUMMER INSTITUTE FOCUSES ON LITURGY

This year’s summer Institute will be held June 24-27 and have as its theme “Why Liturgy Matters: Worship as Witness in a Changing World.” The keynote speaker is Hieromonk Gregory Woolfenden, who will set the tone on Sunday evening as he draws on his wealth of scholarly, liturgical, and pastoral experience. His keynote address will answer the question, "Could, or should, there be a common Orthodox Liturgical practice in North America? - Learning from the past and searching for the future." Seminary faculty will provide additional talks and workshops. See: http://www.svots.edu/News/Upcoming/2007-0624-summerinstitutenewformat/

FIRST-EVER COMPOSERS’ SEMINAR TO BE HELD SVS

is hosting its first-ever Composers' Seminar aimed at composers of Orthodox liturgical music from June 27-30, 2007. Current and renowned former SVS faculty members Mark Bailey, Fr Sergei Glagolev, Dn Kevin Smith, and Professor Emeritus David Drillock will present topics of direct and timely relevance to Orthodox liturgical music ministry in North America today. For further info, please visit: www.svots.edu.

PLEASE HELP!

In our continual attempt to strengthen relationships between our seminary and its alumni and the relationship between alumni, the Alumni Office wishes to remember and recognize ordination dates of our alumni to the diaconate, to the priesthood, and to the episcopacy. The Office of Systems and Information Technology has the capacity to identify these significant events on a weekly basis and to disseminate them through E-News. We believe that you may want to recognize these dates as well. Please send your information to Fr Steven Belonick at his email address: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

ALUMNI REUNION TO HONOR ANN HOLOD ZINZEL

For the fourth consecutive year, an Alumni Reunion will be held on the seminary campus. The dates are Tuesday, October 16 to Thursday, October 18, 2007. The 25th anniversary class of 1982 and the 50th anniversary class of 1957 will be honored along with other classes reaching milestones. The Alumni Association will also honor the seminary’s alumni best friend, Ann Holod Zinzel, recognizing her many years of service to the seminary. Activities will include a banquet, daily liturgical services, Divine Liturgy on the Feast of St Luke, a continuing education program, an update on the work of the Alumni Board, and fellowship. In addition, participants will have an opportunity to meet the new leadership on campus. We hope you will be able to join us. An information and RSVP packet will be mailed to all alumni at the beginning of August. For your convenience, a schedule of activities is included in this email.

TESTIMONIAL SCHEDULED

Due to a long illness, our dear friend and alumnus, Fr Dennis Pavichevich (’75) will enter early retirement. His parish, Holy Resurrection Serbian Cathedral, is hosting a retirement testimonial in his honor on Sunday, July 22 at 2:00pm. Friends, parishioners, former parishioners, classmate, and former Octet members are traveling to show their support. At the dinner, tribute speakers, Serbian choirs, and hopefully, many Octet members will honor his many years of fruitful ministry. Your presence or notes of appreciation would be very welcome. If you have any questions, please refer them to Fr Dennis’ sister-in-law, Gordana Trbuhovich at the cathedral.

FACULTY/STAFF NEWS

Fr John Erickson, current Dean, participated in a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF), May 29-30; represented SVS (along with Ted Bazil) at celebrations honoring St Anthony Orthodox Church, Bergenfield, NJ, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary and Fr Joseph Allen on the occasion of his 40th anniversary of ordination to the Holy Priesthood, June 2; and presented a paper on “Episkope and Episcopacy in Orthodox – Catholic Dialogue” at the annual convention of the Catholic Theological Society of America, Los Angeles, June 7-10. On June 20 he will undergo cataract surgery – fortunately now a relatively minor procedure. His five-year term as Dean will end on June 30, but he will continue teaching at the seminary as the Peter N Gramowich Professor of Church History. On August 8-11 he will be participating in a final meeting of the advisory group for volume 2 of History of the World Christian Movement, by Dale T Irvin and Scott W Sunquist.

Fr John Behr, Professor of Patristics and president of Orthodox Theological Society of America (OTSA), oversaw their annual meeting at SVS last week (Jun 12-14); spoke at the "Orthodox Readings of Augustine Conference" at Fordham (Jun 14-16). He delivered a paper entitled "Calling upon God as Father: Augustine and the Legacy of Nicaea". He will travel to the United Kingdom on June 24 to July 8 to examine the Syriac manuscripts at the British library which he has been working on for the past year. He and Fr Chad Hatfield will travel to Montreal to represent the seminary at the 48th Antiochian Archdiocese Convention, July 23-29. In addition, he will deliver a talk entitled “The Pastoral Power of Theology” at St John Chrysostom Church, St Louis, MO during a Patristics symposium, September 28-30, remembering the 1600th Anniversary Celebration of St John Chrysostom.

Dr Peter Bouteneff, Assistant Professor of Dogmatic Theology, was elected Vice President of the newly formed International Association of Orthodox Dogmatic Theologians at a meeting last month in Romania. He will speak at the summer Institute (June 24-27) on "Praying the Liturgy.” From July 19-23, he will attend the NCCC Faith and Order Anniversary Conference, Oberlin, Ohio. This coming August 5-10, he will be at the International Conference on Patristic Studies in Oxford, delivering a paper entitled "Whatever That May Have Been: Paradise According to Gregory of Nazianzus.”

Fr Harry Pappas, Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology, will deliver two talks at the summer iInstitute (June 24-27) entitled “Preparation of a Sermon” and “Delivery of a Sermon.” In addition, he will attend and speak at the Southeast Family Conference of the Indian Orthodox Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (July 26-28); and will lead a mission trip to Project Mexico from Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, New Rochelle, NY (August 16-22).

Dr Paul Meyendorff, Fr Alexander Schmemann Professor of Liturgical Theology, will give a plenary presentation at the summer Institute (June 24-27) entitled “Priesthood of the Laity.” In addition, he will present papers on baptismal ecclesiology in Athens, Greece, August 24-30, at a conference on liturgical renewal organized by the Orthodox Church of Greece.

Dn Kevin Smith, Instructor in Liturgical Music, will give a plenary presentation entitled "Liturgy and Culture: In Our Voice, Through Our Eyes," during the summer Institute (June 24-27). In addition, he will deliver a presentation and coach participants during the first-ever SVS Composers' Seminar immediately following the Institute (June 27-30.

Fr Alexander Rentel, Assistant Professor of Canon Law and Byzantine Studies, will give a plenary presentation entitled “Why Liturgy? Why Ritual?” at the summer Institute (June 24-27). He will also speak on the topic “Liturgical Lexicon.”

Fr Paul Tarazi, Professor of Old Testament, will speak at Christ the Savior Church, Southbury, CT on the Gospel of Mark on November 2-3. On November 19, he will speak on the topic “Land and Covenant; the New Jerusalem” at St John of Damascene Antiochian Orthodox Church, Vancouver, Canada.

Protodeacon Kirill Sokolov, Director of Systems, will lead a nine-hour workshop focusing on “Liturgics Training” at the summer Institute (June 24-27). The workshop is geared particularly to those who are newly ordained clergy and in a late vocations diaconal program.

ALUMNI NEWS

Fr Joseph Allen, (‘69), will celebrate his 40th anniversary to the holy priesthood on July 2, 2007. The event was combined with the celebration of the 50th anniversary of his parish, St Anthony’s Orthodox Church, Bergenfield, NJ on June 2. AXIOS! 

Bradley Nassif, Ph.D (‘85) was promoted from Associate Professor to full Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at North Park University. Congratulations!

Fr Andrew Tregubov (‘95) invites you to look at iconographic engraving on cemetery monuments, which he has developed. Visit his website: IconMotif.com.

Fr Russel Radoicich (‘99) is assigned to Holy Trinity Church in Butte, Montana. Fr Russell and his wife Susan, son Paul, and daughters, Vesna, Katherine, and Rebecca will be leaving Fresno, CA in mid-June.

Ann Mitsakos Bezzerides (’00) has been awarded her Ph.D from Boston College, with her dissertation entitled “Conversing with John Chrysostom as Christian Religious Educator.” Ann will continue as Director of the Office of Vocation and Ministry at Hellenic College (www.vocations.hchc.edu).

Nicholas Belcher (‘05) was ordained to the holy diaconate by Metropolitan Philip on April 22 at St George Church in West Roxbury, MA. He will be assigned to serve there as deacon, while retaining his duties as the Assistant Director of the Office of Vocation and Ministry and Director of CrossRoad. His wife Sonia and he are also expecting their first child in October. AXIOS!

Michael Corbin (’06) was ordained to the holy priesthood by Bishop Thomas (AOCA) on May 20 at St George Church, New Kensington, PA. AXIOS!

ORDINATIONS RECOGNIZED

We congratulate the following alumni on the dates of their ordination. Please remember them in your prayers, and if you can, send them a note.

• Metropolitan Emanuel (Silva) - September 15, 1973 - Episcopacy
• Fr Joe Abud - July 26, 1987 - Priesthood
• Fr Joseph Honeycutt - June 19, 1994 - Priesthood
• Fr Timothy Sawchak - August 13, 1994 - Priesthood
• Fr George Dahdouh - July 6, 1997 - Priesthood
• Fr John Erickson - May 7, 2006 - Priesthood

ALUMNI CLASS REUNION