The seminary community continues on its journey through the Nativity Fast. St Nicholas Day, 12/6/07. Photograph by Amber Schley.

• The SVOTS Youth Group kicked off the month on Friday, November 2, with a field trip to St Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral in Brooklyn, NY. The SVOTS youth group is made up of pre-teens and teens from seminarian and faculty families.
• Life for the children of students and faculty was "a little bit country" on Tuesday, November 6 when they all gathered for a hoedown. Bales of hay decorated the front lawn as the kids donned cowboy hats and participated in games ranging from potato sack races to bobbing for apples.
• The festive spirit continued when the entire SVS community of staff, faculty, students, and their families packed into the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium for the annual Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday, November 8. Faculty and staff tied on aprons and grabbed serving spoons to pass out the food for the feast.
• Joining the dinner were over twenty prospective students who came to campus for the fall Open House for Prospective Students. The dinner was a wonderful introduction to the seminary's community life. They also toured campus and attended presentations by faculty about the curriculum. The highlight of the three- day event was the question and answer session with a panel of current students representing different jurisdictions, programs, parts of the country and marital status.
• On the tenth of November, SVS students made an official visit to Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology as part of OISM. OISM is the Orthodox Inter-Seminary Movement where Orthodox seminarians are given the opportunity to meet while visiting each other's seminaries.
• On November 12, SVS seminarians had another inter-seminary event, but this time with non-Orthodox theology students at local Jewish and Christian Seminaries. The Inter-Seminary Dialogues (ISD) are a beneficial opportunity for seminarians to interact with people of other faiths.
• In the middle of the month, the Seminary's Board of Trustees held their twice-annual meeting. This was the first meeting of the Trustees since the new shared leadership model and new curriculum were implemented. Overall, the trustees were pleased with the progress they saw at the seminary.
• Just before the Thanksgiving Break, the Feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos was celebrated in the Three Hierarchs Chapel. During the break, SVS Chancellor Fr Chad Hatfield led a retreat at St Thomas Indian Orthodox Church in Baltimore, MD for Indian Orthodox Youth.
• Upon returning to the seminary, everyone learned of the falling asleep in the Lord of His Eminence Archbishop Peter, Retired Archbishop of New York and New Jersey of the OCA and former SVS Professor of Canon Law. Faculty, staff and the whole student body boarded a chartered bus to Manhattan at Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral to sing at the funeral vigil for the Archbishop.

Many of the above events are featured in our photograph gallery.