St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary - Events Installation of New Dean September 14, 2002

CRESTWOOD, NY - Professor John H. Erickson will be installed as the new dean of St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary on the Feast of the Elevation of Holy Cross, September 14, 2002. Metropolitan Herman, the newly elected primate of the Orthodox Church in America and president of the school, will preside.

The Board of Trustees of the seminary elected Professor Erickson to the office of Dean in December 2001. He joined the seminary faculty in 1973 and has taught courses in church history and canon law. He is a well-known author and canonist, and currently is the Peter N. Gramowich Professor of Church History at the school.

Dean Erickson’s election inaugurates a number of “firsts” in the history of the seminary. He is the first convert and first person of non-Russian background to hold the position of dean since the seminary’s beginnings in 1938. He is also the first layperson to hold the position. Although a lay dean is a first for St Vladimir’s, it is not unusual for a layperson to head an Orthodox theological institution. This is quite common in Greece and has been the case at St Sergius in Paris and at Holy Cross/Hellenic College in Brookline, MA.

Dean Erickson has served the Church in many capacities. Over the years, he has been a member of the Canonical Commission, Department of External Church Relations, Statute Commission, and Department of History and Archives of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). He also currently serves as an elected member of the OCA’s Metropolitan Council. Because of his involvement in scholarly and ecumenical activities for many years, he has gained wide recognition as an articulate ambassador for Orthodoxy and for St Vladimir’s Seminary in non-Orthodox circles.

Installation activities will begin on Friday evening, September 13 with the Vigil of the Cross at 6:30 pm. Metropolitan Herman will preside at the feast day liturgy at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 14. A brunch will follow for hierarchs, guests, and the student body. The installation ceremonies themselves will begin at 2:00pm in the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium of the seminary’s new John G. Rangos Family Foundation Building.

Professor Erickson and his wife, Helen Breslich Erickson, have two adult sons, Paul and David.

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