1 February 2012 • Deborah (Malacky) Belonick

Professor Paul Meyendorff lecturing in his Liturgical Theology class.

Catch a glimpse of Dr. Meyendorff's class here.

Our seminary board and administration often receive "How's-it-going?" queries about St. Vladimir's Seminary. Everyone from venerable alumni to professors emeritii to prospective students are interested in where we're headed and what we're teaching. Our mission and vision cannot be stated often enough; we express both of these through our annual reports, Website, Facebook page, and Twitter feeds.

Especially of interest to many friends off-campus and to many seeking a theological education is the work of our seminary faculty—what they teach and why. In our most recent SVS Vine: Annual Report FY11, we featured essays by our professors, describing their approaches to their respective disciplines.

To give a further glimpse into the thought of our faculty, we will begin featuring clips from their classroom lectures on our Website; just look for them in the center "Spotlight" on our Home Page. Dr. Paul Meyendorff, The Alexander Schmemann Professor in Liturgical Theology, is the first professor to be featured.

On October 27-29, 2011, Professor Paul Meyendorff (fifth from right) traveled to Washington, DC, for the 81st meeting of the Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation.Besides his seminary work, Dr. Meyendorff is well known as an Orthodox Christian representative in intra-church and ecumenical dialogue. This past year, he represented St. Vladimir's Seminary at a meeting of "QuOTE" (Quality in Orthodox Theological Education)—a global working group of seminaries and academies—which was held in Moscow and Nizhnii Novgorod, Russia. He also attended the 81st meeting of the Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation in Washington, D.C.; in addition to focusing on questions of primacy and synodality, the consultation issued a brief statement on the plight of churches in the Middle East, which face increasing persecution as a result of forces unleashed by the "Arab Spring." Lastly, at the 8th meeting of the St. Irenaeus Orthodox-Catholic Working Group in St. Petersburg, Russia, he co-presented the most recent statement of the North American Orthodox-Catholic theological consultation, a paper titled "Steps Towards a Reunited Church: A Sketch of an Orthodox-Catholic Vision for the Future."