Fathers John Behr and Chad Hatfield reflect on the recent interview with His Grace, Bishop Hilarion.

Dear Friends,

Our recent posting to the St Vladimir's Seminary website of an interview with His Grace, Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, has provoked much and intense discussion: this is good!

Bishop Hilarion was already being discussed as a candidate for the position of Metropolitan of the OCA, and in order to raise this discussion to a serious and informed level, we conducted an interview with His Grace, soliciting his views on a wide range of topics, concerning Orthodoxy in the West, in America, and the place and role of the OCA, for his thoughts on such matters are not widely known. Regardless of his candidacy for Metropolitan (about which there are widely disparate views), His Grace is an important person in world Orthodoxy and has much to say that we can benefit from hearing, not least his comment that the autocephaly of the OCA should not, and indeed cannot, be revoked, for the role and vision of the OCA is too important.

Providing space for such comments had led to a more serious and informed discussion, and as such it has been of service. St Vladimir's Seminary has always stood for serious discussion of the issues of the day.

To those who have been offended by our posting, or have misapprehended it as an institutional endorsement of the Seminary, we apologize. We ask, however, that prayerful, open-minded and serious discussion be encouraged and supported, as the only proper and possible way to reach a consensus.

Archpriests John Behr and Chad Hatfield

The Martyrs Galacteon and his wife Epistime at Emesa
November 5, 2008