The St. Vladimir’s Seminary Chorale has had several incarnations over the last two decades. Most recently, it was reestablished at the beginning of the Spring 2025 semester by Seminary Liturgical Music Instructor Zachariah Mandell (M.Div. ’20), with assistance and input from Assistant Professor of Liturgical Music, The Rev. Dn. Dr. Harrison Basil Russin. We spoke with Zach about the decision to reassemble the Chorale, the process of training and preparing for future performances, and the overall history of the Chorale and other performing groups and recordings at St. Vladimir’s Seminary.

Zach, please tell us more about how the Chorale came to be this time around. What has it been like to begin rehearsing with an entirely new ensemble?

Basically, starting at the beginning of this spring semester, we put together a revival of the Chorale as an auditioned ensemble among our choirs. Yes, everybody who studies at seminary sings, everybody participates in chapel services, but for the students involved in the Chorale, this is their choir requirement. Additionally, professors and community members can audition for the Chorale. For example, Fr. Sergius Halvorsen, Mka. Nancy Rentel (wife of Fr. Alexander Rentel), and several students’ wives have joined. So it's been going well. 

We rehearse Tuesday nights in various ways—sometimes singing full services or parts of services, especially during significant feasts like the Annunciation. This allows the women of the Chorale to prepare some music, while the entire ensemble can work on more complex pieces for the service. During the semester, we aimed to have the Chorale sing a part of a service once every two weeks.

How is the Chorale dovetailing with the required choirs for the people who are not in the ensemble?

That’s definitely something we’re still figuring out, but there are aspects of it that are really positive. For those who aren’t in the Chorale, they still have a chance to sing with Chorale members when we have joint rehearsals and focus on some of the fundamental core things we’re trying to work on. In the broader scheme, we’re trying to align what we do in chapel choir rehearsal with our music curriculum. These two things inform one another, so the actual singing of services is guided by the principle that we are preparing to sing well and to sing appropriately for services. We’re also working on helping everyone understand the music they’re singing. One thing we’re balancing is that sometimes the male and mixed choirs do need to rehearse separately, so finding the right balance is a work in progress. But we’re willing to work on it and find a way to maximize everything within the limited time we have.

In your musical selections, are you focusing more on the OCA/Russian tradition? Or are you also incorporating some Byzantine or other traditions? 

In this new ensemble, the focus has been on new compositions. That focus spans various traditions, probably more in the Russian-OCA idiom, but we’ve also sung “Receive the Body of Christ,” a setting by Tikey Zes, a Greek composer who did Byzantine-style music with harmonization. In honor of his recent repose in the Lord, we performed this composition at the Commencement ceremony in May. We’ve done some Byzantine pieces as well, and we’re also considering incorporating something with a more “American” or Appalachian sound. 

Is this focus on highlighting new compositions in any way inspired by your experience at the 2023 Summer Institute, which had a distinct composing element?

Absolutely, yeah. That experience definitely inspired a funneling and focusing of this kind of vision. And then I think a “let's go do it” mentality kicked in. Before I came back to work here, following that Institute, I was working in the Twin Cities at St. Mary's in Minneapolis. Several of us attended that Institute together. When we went back to Minnesota, we organized composers' workshops for those in the area who were composing. There were people dabbling or experimenting, trying things out, but that experience made it clear: “This can be real, and this should be real.” We were able to do a lot of really good work that way. I know that, although I’ve since left and am now here, Mark Bushy, Peter Tabeling, and David Lucs—they're still working on those events in Minnesota.

Can you tell us a little bit about who the Chorale musicians are? 

The Chorale last Spring had sixteen singers, plus me as the director, and of course, Dn. Harrison Russin also sings with the group when he can. So, the composition was twelve students, one faculty member, one community member, and two spouses, with people from varying jurisdictions, including both Antiochians and OCA members. So, it was a mixed ensemble—eight women and eight men.

Will you be continually doing auditions once a semester?

I think going forward, it will be once a year, likely in the fall semester, at the beginning of the year, so that there can be a sense of direction throughout the year. That’ll also be part of the information for incoming students, because every year there's vocal testing when students come in, along with placement for the ensembles. But this will also be an opportunity to offer auditions for the ensemble each year.

How does the Chorale relate to the Institute of Sacred Arts at St. Vladimir’s Seminary?

There's an active relationship. Recently, we renovated the music room and reintroduced it as the Sacred Arts Room, expanding its purpose and versatility. The Institute of Sacred Arts hosted a beautiful opening event for the new Sacred Arts Room back in May, and the Chorale gave its first official performance as part of that event.

Do you see the potential for anything in terms of new coursework, or expanded composition seminars, etc., related to the Chorale?

From time to time, there have been these courses in the past, and I hope that the presence of the Chorale can allow those kinds of courses to be offered more frequently. The vision would be that, with the partnership with the Institute of Sacred Arts and the development of projects that highlight what's happening here, students and people interested in the music program will be drawn in. This could allow for greater offerings year to year, both in composition and conducting.

Some of the compositions sung by the Chorale are, in fact, the result of previous composition courses. One example is my composition of Gladsome Light, which I did when I was a student. Another is the rendition of Gladsome Light by recent graduate Jaime Rall (M.A. ’25), composed in her composition class with Dn. Harrison last year, which the Chorale also sang at Commencement.

I would say that whether formally or informally, through class or just by composing, the Chorale can, and already has, acted as a workshop choir for people who have composed pieces. They can sing with a group that makes it sound like it's supposed to, allowing for tweaking or adjustments. It also continues to serve as a place where people who want to conduct can get time to learn things like how to lead warm-ups for a group and how to prepare for rehearsals. This is a place where we can cultivate those skills for people who are going to be choir directors in parishes.

It’s really beautiful that the Chorale is also a great learning experience for someone who might not be sure of their musicianship but has growth potential. It’s for someone who wants to challenge themselves. Who wants to practice and improve, and who can realize that this is serious work. The rehearsals will be fast-paced, and that’s part of pushing development. 

How would you say this new group relates to the past musical groups at St. Vladimir’s Seminary? What’s the same and what's different?

What’s the same is that it’s an attempt to live the legacy of public-facing musical performance. The Octet was the first public-facing ensemble that St. Vladimir's had, and also the male choir in general, through some of the early recorded albums: e.g., The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (SVS Male Choir, 1972), Great and Holy Saturday (SVS Male Choir, 1975), Pascha (SVS Male Choir, 1977), and so on. Then, of course, the Octet also became a traveling ensemble. 

In 2005, when Kevin Smith was the choir director, he conceived the idea of the Chorale. There’s been a shift in demographics over the years, of course, in terms of the seminarians in general. Back in the Octet days, most of the guys here were not married; they were single, and many of them had come through the pre-theological program. They were undergraduates, and this was their early twenties, studying here for their M.Div. Being single and unattached, they had more time to travel, as the Octet did. Over time, though, the demographic has shifted toward married students. There’s also been a shift in the curriculum, especially with things like diocesan internships or, for the M.Div., Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). We don’t have the same ability to travel as we did in the past, and there are also broader jurisdictional requirements that don’t allow for that kind of thing anymore. 

However, what this new setup does is provide a chance to cultivate a cohesive sound. By having a standing ensemble, we can focus on specific projects. It gives students with higher-level musicianship the chance to engage more broadly with music. It also allows us to revisit the possibility of traveling on a limited basis, if a group is dedicated to that. 

One of the challenges that recent alumni remember is that balancing student life and concert preparation can be difficult. Having a group like this, with a standing repertoire, makes it easier to be prepared for a concert on demand. The vision is to be perpetually building a repertoire so that we can pull from it when needed. It also helps to solidify the music we are interested in singing, and that deserves to be sung, and that we want to share.

Something that really struck me when I was reading about the original version of the Chorale was something Director Kevin Smith said: there’s a trajectory of singing from chapel to performance. Everything we do is rooted in liturgical worship. So, when we prepare this other music, it’s not just for the sake of music. It’s not just a concert for the sake of a concert, but it aligns with that very Schmemann-y way of thinking, where chapel, library, and classroom are interconnected. That’s kind of the vision here—to be present and engaged, not just singing old music but also singing what is new and inspiring. It also offers the chance for people interested in composition and directing to engage in those areas. By having the group as a standing ensemble that regularly sings services together and rehearses, it’s not just, “Oh, we’ve been asked to do a concert, so we’ll put the word ‘Chorale’ over that.” It’s a cohesive entity, and I hope that’s what will give it the longevity to continue.

Why do you think music from St. Vladimir's Seminary has been so influential in the Church in North America in the past? Why do you think people have related to it so well?

In the past, there was a sense of alignment in vision—”we are here now, and therefore, we need to sing things in English.” That was such an incredible and inspiring aspect, even before Dave Drillock was the choir director. When he was a student, working with the conductor at the time, Boris Ledkovsky, a Russian composer and choir director, Dave would translate things on the fly and create music in real-time. There was a living momentum of “this is important, this is a priority, this is something we need to do.” Then, with SVS Press, they were able to produce that music. 

Early on, many of the seminary’s recordings—whether by the Octet, male choir, or the seminary choir—accompanied music books. The Pre-Sanctified music, the Pascha book, and the first green liturgy book all came out alongside recordings of this music. Maybe not exactly at the same time, but around the same period. There was a showing and telling happening at that time, and that was very successful because it was necessary. 

Now, the next step, I think, very much follows what Father Sergei Glagolev did through the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, and what’s been carried on by new generations of composers: “Alright, now we have English, so now what?” There are new sounds, a living tradition here and now. I hope we can continue this with the Chorale—bringing new music forward, both in recording and performance. And, God willing, if it's music produced here, in sheet music, so that it can live on and be experienced.

Can you tell us if you are planning to start venturing out for a few concerts off campus, maybe starting this fall?

Yes, in fact we are planning one for November 6 [Stay tuned for details!]. We are getting the word out that the ensemble is here and available for requests. We would definitely like to do at least one significant concert per semester. We’d also like to possibly have one or two trips per semester. But with a group like this, there’s also the possibility of being asked to provide services. For example, we’re open to sending a few people from the group, if someone needs a quartet to sing liturgy or a wedding, to accommodate that. These are the kinds of things we’re really open to and would like to do. 

If you would like to learn more about inviting the St. Vladimir’s Seminary Chorale to sing liturgically or give a performance, please contact Zachariah Mandell at zmandell@svots.edu.

Michael Uhr, his wife Andrea, and their son Noah moved to St. Vladimir’s Seminary from the Atlanta area in the Summer of 2025. Michael, a seminarian of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA)’s Diocese of the South, shares about his background, his wonderful family, and what he’s most excited about as he begins his journey as a seminarian.

Michael, tell us a little about yourself and what you were doing before enrolling at St. Vladimir’s Seminary?

I’ve spent most of my thirty-six years in the Atlanta area, and for the last twelve of those years I’ve been a member at St. John the Wonderworker, where I was received into the Church. Before starting my seminary journey I worked in the Live Events industry as an Audio/Video Tech and Logistics Manager. In my free time I enjoy gardening, weightlifting, good music, good coffee, and going on adventures with my wife Andrea and son Noah!

Tell us more about your fellow adventurers!

My wife and I met in 2013 on the steps of our home church on both of our first Sundays visiting. We were married in 2018 and so far we have one child, Noah, who is two and a half years old. Being Andrea’s husband is a privilege and an honor, and being Noah’s dad rocks. He’s kind, adventurous, and one of the funniest people I know. 

How did you first hear about St. Vladimir’s Seminary? What made you decide to apply?

I first became aware of St. Vladimir’s Seminary around a decade ago, when two of my close friends and their families were here. I saw the transformation that happened in their lives as a result of their experiences at SVOTS, and their effectiveness in ministry is evident to those that know them. Andrea and I discussed Seminary early on in our marriage and we trusted that the Lord would guide us here once the time was right. After seeking wise counsel, we agreed that this was the season to make this leap of faith.

What are you most excited about in starting your journey as a seminarian?

The Lord is always the one who initiates and says, “I love you. Come and follow me.” I dropped my “nets” and we are here in response to that love and invitation to follow Him in a deeper way. As with everyone else who comes here, we’ve sacrificed a lot. We’ve put skin in the game, as it were. These next three years are my family’s free will offering, our raw gifts brought before the Lord, who is good, loves mankind, and always, always gives more than He asks for. I’m excited to see what He does with our offering, and how He blesses and returns this to us. I trust it will be better than we can imagine. 

We are grateful for the prayerful and financial support of our home parish, and the family and friends who have partnered with us to make this all possible. It’s humbling to be on the receiving end of so much love and generosity. 

To help support the education of seminarians like Michael, visit SVOTS.edu/give.

In recent months St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) has made historic investments into its campus. The major campus-wide improvements are part of the Seminary’s renewed commitment to remain at its current location in the Crestwood neighborhood of Yonkers, NY.

“Investing in our campus is really about investing in our seminarians, faculty, staff, and their families,” said SVOTS Dean Dr. Ionuţ-Alexandru Tudorie. “We have a responsibility to them to keep our campus and facilities updated and improved as part of the overall experience of living, being formed, and worshiping here.”

Support Campus Improvements at SVOTS

The improvements include:

• The turnover of 21 apartments to prepare for incoming seminarians and staff members (work included professional painting, the installing of new flooring, new appliances where needed, and professional cleaning and repair);
• Professional cleaning, repair, and painting of all single student dormitory rooms and bathrooms;
• Professional cleaning of Three Hierarchs Chapel and Kunett Auditorium;
• Painting of Three Hierarchs Chapel nave and entrance;
• Complete repair of Three Hierarchs Chapel steps;
• Clean-up of all campus buildings and property, including the removal of over 120 cubic yards of old furniture and accumulated debris;
• Transfer of more than 150 pallets of SVS Press inventory to an off-site warehouse (as part of cost-cutting measure with WarePak to handle shipping and fulfillment needs for the Press), which will free up old storage areas on campus to accommodate classroom expansion and other needs (work began in Feb. 2025);
• Deep cleaning and removal of old and outdated kitchen and refectory equipment and furnishing, to accommodate improvements and new professional catering company which began serving the campus in August;
• Repair and replacement of deteriorated masonry, concrete, and asphalt throughout campus;
• Partnering with an outside professional landscape contractor to maintain the twelve-acre campus for weekly lawn care, tree trimming, and shrub pruning (starting in Spring 2025);
• A rebuild of the front porch of the Germack building;
• Improvements and repairs made to five faculty homes, including total renovation of some, with new HVAC systems and replacement of deteriorating decks and appliances;
• The purchase (in March) of a 2025 heavy-duty Chevy pickup truck with hydraulic snow plow for the grounds and maintenance crew.

The overall cost of this round of capital improvements is approximately $350,000—more than four times the amount invested into campus improvements the previous summer.

“The scope and scale of all this work in such a short period of time is really unprecedented in the history of the Seminary,” said Senior Staff member Ted Bazil, who has been instrumental in overseeing the improvements made on campus. “These major improvements could not be done without the incredible generosity of our donors.

“But we are not finished improving our campus for this generation and generations to come,” he added, “so we look to their continued support and prayers to help fund and make this all possible.”

If you are interested in helping fund more major improvements on the campus of St. Vladimir’s Seminary, consider making a donation to the Seminary’s capital improvements fund. For more information, contact Ginny Nieuwsma, Chief Advancement Officer, at ginnyn@svots.edu. 

Support More Campus Improvements at SVOTS

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Beloved St. Vladimir’s Seminary alumnus and faculty member Archimandrite Vasily (Permiakov) has joined the ranks of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). His Grace Bishop Vasily was ordained to the episcopacy Saturday, August 16, 2025, with His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon presiding over the hierarchical Divine Liturgy and episcopal ordination rites at San Francisco’s historic Holy Trinity Cathedral.

The Holy Synod had elected then-Archimandrite Vasily as Bishop of San Francisco and the West during a special session convened at the 21st All-American Council on July 16, 2025, following his nomination by the Diocese of the West.

“Today, as we celebrate the feast of the holy image of Edessa, the holy icon of Christ Not-Made-by-Hands, I remind and exhort you that the bishop is called to present an icon of Christ to his flock—not an icon of wood and paint, but a living icon,” said His Beatitude to Bishop Vasily on Saturday. “As an overseer and archpastor of the Church, the bishop must be the first to show forth Christ in his words and actions, through his entire way of life. You must emulate, incarnate, and become the Good Shepherd who today calls you to episcopal service.”

Read the full text of His Beatitude’s Exhortation

Hierarchs of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, representatives from other Churches, and many clergy, faithful, and guests, gathered for the joyful event. Members of the St. Vladimir’s Seminary community including Dean Dr. Ionuț-Alexandru Tudorie, faculty members, seminarians, and alumni traveled to San Francisco to attend the ordination.

During the Liturgy Saturday, as his first episcopal act Bishop Vasily ordained Subdeacon Serge Liberovsky to the Holy Diaconate. The next day, Bishop Vasily celebrated his first hierarchical Divine Liturgy at Holy Trinity Cathedral.

Born to a Russian-speaking family in Riga, Latvia, the Right Rev. Vasily relocated to the United States in 1999 after completing his undergraduate studies. He entered St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary with the blessing of late Archbishop Dmitri (Royster) of Dallas (+2011). After finishing seminary in 2004, Bishop Vasily enrolled in a doctoral program in Liturgical Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where in 2012 he defended his dissertation on the history and origins of the Byzantine rite for the consecration of churches. His Grace taught at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary (Jordanville, NY) from 2011 to 2020, and joined the full-time faculty at St. Vladimir's Seminary in August 2020. He served as Assistant Professor of Liturgical Theology until May 2025. 

By the grace of God, Bishop Vasily becomes the 51st alumnus of the Seminary to have been ordained to the episcopacy.

“His Grace Bishop Vasily’s outstanding scholarship, teaching ability, and prayerful presence will be greatly missed as a member of full-time faculty on campus, though we are pleased he will remain a part-time faculty member with St. Vladimir's Seminary,” said Dr. Tudorie. “His devotion to Christ and unique abilities have been called upon by the Church, so we lovingly remember His Grace in our prayers as he begins his episcopal ministry in the OCA Diocese of the West.”

May God grant the newly ordained Bishop Vasily many years!

Axios, Axios, Axios!

View Photos from the Ordination

Headline Photo Courtesy of OCA.org

Mitchell Tobler, from the Orthodox Church in America (OCA)’s Diocese of the West, is a former Baptist minister who never expected to be a St. Vladimir’s seminarian. Yet in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, he faced ministry burnout and health issues, and he and his wife Christina began to explore the Orthodox Faith. As he begins his first semester at St. Vladimir’s—together with Christina and their children, Charlie (age 8) and Jamie (age 1 ½ )—Mitchell shares the challenges they faced leaving their life and home behind, and why St. Vladimir’s Seminary was instrumental in his conversion to Orthodoxy.

Mitchell, what were you up to before you became a Seminarian at St. Vladimir’s?

About thirteen or fourteen years ago, I did an undergraduate degree in Biblical studies with an emphasis in theology, with the intention to do ministry. I was in a Baptist Christian school and did my undergrad in Southern California, and then I was asked to be Associate Minister for a Baptist church back in a small town where my grandparents were. It was a town that had always been kind of connected to my family, even myself when I was really little, called Overton, Nevada. I was ordained and became the youth minister. I also did a couple of other jobs to make that job happen, because the church was really small, and so I worked full time at a local hardware store, in management, and also helped operate my grandparents’ apartment complex, where we were living. I did that for seven years. I had the privilege of having a small group of kids and saw them from the beginning of middle school all the way through the end of high school. It was a wonderful experience. Then when the head pastor retired I became the head pastor. I did that for about two years.

That was right at the time of COVID—I stepped into that position in the fall of 2019 and then COVID happened—and it was a really difficult time for everybody, right? It wrecked everything. And my health had been kind of declining. I'd just been really burned out, had been really pushing it for far too long. That was really, though, on the cusp of us becoming Orthodox. My wife and I were kind of journeying out of our tradition, looking for spiritual nourishment and answers to a lot of questions that had grown over the years of ministry, and we were finding our way. And then near the end of COVID is when we discovered the Orthodox Church and decided to convert. We were received into the Church at St. Paul the Apostle Orthodox Church in Las Vegas under Fr. John Dresko [SVOTS Class of 1980]. He's our spiritual father, and so he brought us in and that became our home parish.

When we came into the Church, it was just really a time for us to recover, find our place, settle. Of course, when we converted I had to step down from the ministry in the Baptist Church. I set ministry aside and I went back to work at the hardware store, full time in management again. We then just kind of found our life in the Church, and saved questions about the potential for ministry for later.

When did you start considering ministry again, and how did you find out about St. Vladimir’s Seminary?

Since Fr. John Dresko was a graduate of St. Vladimir’s, naturally a lot of the resources I was exposed to were connected to the Seminary. My very first introduction to the Orthodox Church was Fr. Thomas Hopko's The Orthodox Faith series through the OCA website.  I couldn't believe it when I found it the first time! I was just like, here it is, right here: doctrine, Scripture, church history, and spirituality. I mean, it was like the bombshell of my adult life to find those books. Everything we'd been searching for, everything that had been changing in us, was all there in one place. And so when I reached out to Fr. John, we started to get to know each other, and everything like St. Vladimir’s was kind of connected in my mind to the Orthodox Church in America, because that was a gateway for me coming into the Church. Then, when I later started the conversation with Fr. John about seminary, the only option in my mind was, well, there’s St. Vlad’s. So the ball had already kind of started to roll in that direction, and I'm one of those types that won’t disrupt something once it’s already in motion. I’m just going to see where it leads, and if it continues to unfold before me, I'm going to continue to follow that path. And so it continued to unfold before me, and here I am!

What was that decision like for you and your family, given that you and your wife were already no strangers to sacrifice and difficult journeys?

Leaving the ministry before was difficult in a couple of ways. One of them was that we truly did love doing ministry. The circumstances were hard. We had felt over the years that we were doing what we were kind of made to do, and that included my wife. She has loved life in a ministry capacity. And so leaving that was difficult, but we knew that we were doing the right thing. We were kind of in the wrong place, as things had changed in us. We knew that our place was now somewhere else. So when we revisited the conversation about seminary, my wife was—I don't want to put words in her mouth—but I remember her communicating something like, “Well, that was kind of always my thought of what was going to happen next if, God willing, that’s what unfolds.” As far as she was concerned that was kind of always in our future, I think maybe because we had been a part of that for so long. Now, I'm not assuming that I’m gonna do ministry on the other side—we’ll see what the Church decides, right, and what Christ decides. But as far as us testing that out, that was the next question in her mind. And so when we started the process of selling our stuff, moving, packing up, and everything else, she had already prepared herself, I think, for that. And so she was, in a way, more enthusiastic than me. Because, while doing ministry I felt like I was made for it, there was also a lot of pain that I had to process from the years before. Re-entering into that has been hard to get my own mind and heart around, but she's been really a wonderful spirit when it comes to this decision, and I've drawn a lot of encouragement from her. 

Our son Jamie was born after we came into the Church, so he’s just a little one. He’s finding his way and seems to be embracing things really well. My son Charlie, he’s struggling. He’s having to find his way, but I’ve seen so much courage in him. Overton was our home. It fit him like a glove. He had his best friends there, and so for him to leave, I could see the difficulty and the struggle. But he’s constantly trying to be like, I’m ready for a new adventure. I want to see New York. He’s really trying. I couldn’t be more proud of him.

As someone who has experience in ministry and theological education already, what’s on your mind as you begin your journey as an Orthodox seminarian?

If I'm really candid, the quality of the institution here, in a good way, intimidates me and sobers me. I don't want to go in with a sense of overconfidence or anything like that. There are things, sure, that feel familiar, but to be around these professors, even the students and the people who are running this institution, there is such sincerity. I sense that they're here because they love this, this institution, what it does for the Church, Christ and His Kingdom. So there is that, but I am also looking forward to exploring in depth how everything in our tradition comes together and impacts us spiritually. I'm a bit nervous, in a good way, but also I'm excited and open, and I want to be changed. I want to be open to that opportunity to change and to explore the richness of our faith in this place. I’ve just really looked forward to it for some time.

YONKERS, NY—Giving thanks to God, St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) kicked off its 2025–2026 Academic Year on Monday, August 25, with new faces among the student body, faculty, and staff.

Twenty-seven (27) students—including both men and women, single and married—are beginning their first year of studies in their respective degree programs: nineteen (19) in the Master of Divinity (M.Div.) program, seven (7) in the Master of Arts (M.A.) program, and one (1) in a specialized program.

One of those first-year seminarians, Michael Uhr, hails from the Atlanta area, where he was a member of St. John the Wonderworker Orthodox Church (OCA) with his wife Andrea and son Noah.

“I first became aware of St. Vladimir’s Seminary around a decade ago, when two of my close friends and their families were here,” said Michael. “I saw the transformation that happened in their lives as a result of their experiences at SVOTS, and their effectiveness in ministry is evident to those that know them. 

“Andrea and I discussed Seminary early on in our marriage and we trusted that the Lord would guide us here once the time was right. After seeking wise counsel, we agreed that this was the season to make this leap of faith.”

Michael and his fellow first-year seminarians represent six (6) Eastern and Oriental Orthodox jurisdictions:

• Orthodox Church in America (15 seminarians)
• Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America (6)
• Armenian Apostolic Church (3)
• Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch, Malankara Archdiocese (1)
• Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (1)
• Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (1)

Counting the incoming class, SVOTS' total student body is eighty-seven (87) seminarians across its M.Div., M.A., D.Min., and Th.M. degree programs.

“The Gospel of our Lord and His calling to the Church resound throughout St. Vladimir’s Seminary at the beginning of this and every academic year: in the vigorous singing and chanting in our Three Hierarchs Chapel; in the joyful shouts of children and their parents on our campus playgrounds; in the faculty voices in our classrooms; and in the stories of the new seminarians who, like the Apostles, have left everything to follow Him,” said Seminary Dean Dr. Ionuț-Alexandru Tudorie.

“In good conscience, I assure all our new and returning seminarians and their families that we do see your sacrifices. We do know that many of you have left behind jobs, opportunities, houses, and friends to follow God’s call,” added Dr. Tudorie. “Speaking on behalf of the faculty and staff, we are committed to honoring your decision by living out our own vocation to serve the Lord and His Church by serving you, our students. To the best of our abilities, we all—seminarians, faculty, and staff—seek to do our work in a way that is Christ-centered, student-focused, and education-driven.”

New members of faculty and staff have also joined the Seminary as the 2025–2026 academic year begins:

• His Grace Bishop John Abdalah (SVOTS Class of ’78), Assistant Professor for Pastoral Theology;
• The Rev. Dr Mark Roosien (’24), Assistant Professor for Systematic Theology;
• The Very Rev. Dr. Kirill Sokolov (’07), Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology (D.Min. Program);
• The Very Rev. Michael Nasser, Director of Spiritual Formation
• The Rev. Dn. Alexander Hatcher (’13), Director of Institutional Communication
• Dr. Daniel Stauffer, Operations Manager (SVS Press);
• Abby Legaspi (’25), Student Affairs Administrator; and
• Laura Ionescu (’25), Administrative Coordinator.

“I have been blessed with so many wonderful settings in which to serve my ministry, from a small but vibrant mission to a large, bustling parish, as well as serving as a camp director and missionary in between,” Fr. Michael reflected. “I now find myself at St. Vladimir's and am thrilled to share what I have learned with the next generation of leaders of the Church. I couldn't feel more blessed.”

May the intercessions of the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, our patron Great and Holy Prince Vladimir, and all the saints be with our seminarians, faculty, and staff as a new academic year commences in service to Christ!

About St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary

St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) is a higher education institution that embraces the challenge of serving the Church and the needs of Orthodox Christians in the twenty-first century. SVOTS trains priests, lay leaders, and scholars to be active apologists of the Orthodox Christian Faith, focusing on academic rigor and spiritual formation within a residential Orthodox community. The Seminary is chartered by the University of the State of New York and accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) to offer the following program degrees: Master of Divinity, Master of Arts, Master of Theology, and Doctor of Ministry. Learn more at www.svots.edu.

Top Photo: Incoming seminarians attend a faculty presentation before the first day of classes.

Sunday marked the 45th anniversary of the falling asleep of Alexander Bogolepov (+Aug. 31, 1980), longtime Professor of Canon Law at St. Vladimir's Seminary, and about whom Fr. Alexander Schmemann wrote “He remains forever one of the school’s founding fathers.”

Born on January 16, 1886, Prof. Bogolepov graduated from the Riazan Theological Seminary and in 1910 from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, where he then taught from 1915 until 1922. That year, he was arrested and expelled from Russia by the Communist state. After teaching for several years in Berlin and Prague he was elected Professor of Canon Law at St. Vladimir’s Seminary in 1951, where he also taught Russian and Church Slavonic. He retired from the Seminary twenty years later, in 1971, at the age of 85.

Prof. Bogolepov's legacy endures not only at the Seminary, but throughout the Orthodox Church in North America, as noted by Fr. Alexander in a tribute he penned following Bogolepov's repose.

For all of us at St. Vladimir’s, Alexander Bogolepov was a living link with the traditions and the spirit of the prerevolutionary Russian academic world. His sense of duty, his total dedication to his academic vocation and his exquisite politeness all contributed to creating at the Seminary a climate of mutual respect and cooperation. For him, everything pertaining to teaching was not only important but sacred, and the Seminary was not an ivory tower but, above everything else, a way of serving the Church.

As a member of the Canonical Commission he played an important role in the preparation of the Church Statutes adopted by the All-American Sobor in 1955. His book Toward an American Orthodox Church [1963] had an important impact on the long and difficult process that led to the establishment of the Orthodox Church in America. He also wrote on the liturgical life of the Church and the Orthodox canonical tradition. While in retirement, as Professor emeritus, he remained in close contact with the Seminary, interested in all the details and the progress of the school to which he contributed so much of his work, his heart, and his vision. 

For the Seminary community he remains forever one of the  school’s founding fathers.
(Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, “In Memoriam,” St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly, Vol. 25, no. 3 [1981].)

This week, the Seminary community served a memorial for Prof. Bogolepov at Three Hierarchs Chapel.

May his memory be eternal!

Members of the St. Vladimir’s Seminary (SVOTS) family brought a taste of the Seminary home to Kernersville, North Carolina this summer.

On Sunday, August 10, SVOTS Dean Dr. Ionuț-Alexandru Tudorie made a trip to Holy Cross Orthodox Church to attend Divine Liturgy and lead a coffee-hour discussion about the Seminary’s mission with Holy Cross parishioners. His visit there was made possible by Fr. Christopher Foley, an alumnus of SVOTS (M.Div. ’06); current seminarian Dn. Sergio Lopez, who is serving a parish ministry assignment at Holy Cross this summer; and a group of parishioners who call Holy Cross home: Dr. Ana Iltis, a member of SVOTS faculty and board of trustees; fellow trustee Jennifer (Genevieve) Lyday; and SVOTS staff member Ksenia Lin. The group wanted their fellow parishioners to get an in-depth look at the work of the Seminary and learn about opportunities to support seminarians and SVOTS’ mission.

“We had a great time getting to know Dr. Tudorie better and hearing about the life of the Seminary,” said Fr. Christopher. “A few parishioners commented to me how helpful it was to see the larger picture of Orthodoxy in the US and were encouraged to see how we are all connected. Many thanks to Ana and Genevieve for helping to plan it and Ksenia for doing the leg work.”

Dr. Tudorie was joined by Fr. Christopher, Dn. Sergio, Dr. Iltis, and Ms. Lyday as they shared different perspectives to the large group which had gathered after Liturgy.

“I am so grateful for the warm welcome I received from Holy Cross, and for their hosting this special event,” said Dr. Tudorie. “It was a great experience and blessing for me, and I was happy to share more about what St. Vladimir’s Seminary does and how our Orthodox brothers and sisters can take part in our mission together, no matter where they are. We are deeply connected with each other—parish and seminary—and a gathering like this helped us appreciate that even more.”

If you are interested in bringing members of St. Vladimir’s Seminary to your parish, or want to learn more about getting your parish involved in the mission of the Seminary, visit our Parish Partners page and contact Ginny Nieuwsma, Chief Advancement Officer, at ginnyn@svots.edu or (408) 693-9260 (text or call)

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In recent weeks members of the St. Vladimir's Seminary community traveled to the gravesites of two luminaries in the history of the Seminary and the Orthodox Church in America (OCA)—Frs. Georges Florovsky and John Meyendorff—to pray for the souls of the departed.

On August 11, a group led by Archpriest Alexander Rentel, Dn. Harrison Basil Russin, Dr. Ionuț-Alexandru Tudorie, and Zachariah Mandell visited St. Vladimir’s Russian Orthodox Cemetery near Trenton, NJ. While there Fr. Alexander led memorial prayers at the graves of former dean Archpriest Georges (+Aug. 11, 1979) and Matushka Xenia Florovsky (+Nov. 5, 1977), as well as the grave of longtime Seminary trustee Anthony Kasmer (+Oct. 11, 2020). The group also visited nearby Rova Farms Cemetery to pray for departed alumnus Archpriest Daniel Skvir (+March 23, 2025). A couple weeks earlier, in July, members of the Seminary community, led also by Fr. Alexander, conducted a memorial service at the graves of Protopresbyter John (+July 22, 1992) and Mka. Marie (+Nov. 24, 2024) Meyendorff.

“It is our honor to remember these faithful servants of the Church,” said Fr. Alexander. “Each had their unique gifts that they offered to the Seminary and the Orthodox Church.”

The Seminary keeps updated the list of departed hierarchs, leaders, faculty, and alumni along with others whose names have been sent to be remembered at the altar. To submit names of departed loved ones or any other prayer requests to St. Vladimir’s Seminary, you may email chapel@svots.edu at any time.

May the memories of the departed whose names have been entrusted to St. Vladimir’s Seminary, as well as all the faithful departed who have fallen asleep, be eternal!
 

Dr. John Barnet is Associate Professor of New Testament at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, where he teaches courses in New Testament and biblical Greek—but the details of his life almost read like something out of a spy novel. His path to the Seminary took him from Italy to the United States, from the West to the East Coast, from a Navy submarine to the CIA, from St. Vladimir’s Seminary to Duke University, and back again to St. Vladimir’s. It should come as no surprise, then, that someone with his impressive range of experiences and expertise has contributed to the mission of St. Vladimir’s Seminary in numerous ways over the years, both in and outside of the classroom. Yet you wouldn’t know it by his always-joyful, humble demeanor. In fact—as any of his students or seminary colleagues could attest to—he rarely if ever speaks about himself or his life (maybe he is a spy after all…). But mention the Gospel in passing in any setting, and you’re in for a lengthy, impassioned conversation. 

St. Vladimir’s Seminary is once again drawing upon Professor Barnet’s love of the Gospel and his diverse skillset as he takes up his appointment as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. The appointment gave us an opportunity to chat with him about his work and his blessed, fruitful history with the Seminary.

Dr. Barnet, you have seen and been a part of so much at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. But I can’t recall ever hearing much about your history with this place. What first brought you here as a seminarian?

Well, there are some classified stories in there, but I guess I’ll have to tell you about it [smiles]. 

I was born of a Roman Catholic father and an Orthodox mother, and they were actually married by Fr. Georges Florovsky! They were married at Holy Virgin Protection Orthodox Cathedral in Manhattan. I grew up with the photos of the wedding and everything, and it wasn't until much later that I recognized the priest in that picture. My father was at West Point, and he was president of the Russian club at the Military Academy. There was absolutely no reason for him to be president of the Russian club, except that when he was in high school he loved reading the Russian novelists and learned the language. Through that club, someone arranged a blind date with this Russian woman, my mother. For my grandfather, who fought in [General Pyotr] Wrangel’s army during the Russian Civil War and had to leave through Constantinople when the White Army was defeated, it couldn’t get any better than his daughter marrying a graduate of West Point, the preeminent Military Academy! When my parents got married, the Orthodox were absolutely delighted, and the Catholics were absolutely delighted, but the Orthodox played hardball and said, “This is great. We would love to have this man married in the Church. But the kids are going to be Orthodox.” My father was stationed in Trieste, Italy, and so right after they got married they went there, and I was born. 

We returned to the States not long after my birth, though. I always say, “I’m Italian. I know pasta,” but then my wife will say, “You only lived there until you were ten days old!” We moved to Monterey, California, where my father was then prepared to be an intelligence officer following the Soviet Union. We moved around a lot, which probably contributed to my being kind of restless about things.

There was a formative time when I was in the third and fourth grade. We were living with my very Roman Catholic grandparents. I think my grandfather managed to cut a deal with God, because my grandmother had been very ill. He said that if she was healed, then he would go to church every day. And she was healed, so every day after that he would go to the daily Mass on the way to work. When I spent my summers there later, when I was in high school, the routine was get up and no breakfast, because we had to go to Mass. But when I was in third and fourth grade, we used to have to come to class and recite prayers that we were memorizing. When I got up and crossed myself, as the Orthodox kid, a nun scolded me for crossing myself incorrectly. I tried a second time, and she said, “No,” again—I hadn’t even gotten to the prayer yet! The third time I crossed myself the “right” way. Of course, I went home and discussed that with my mom. She talked to the rector, and the rector had a conversation with the nun, so it was all good in the end. But I ended up being very involved, knowing the Latin responses at Mass, and learning a lot of stuff. My friends and I started playing pretend Mass before one of the parents found out and shut us down. Then we had to take the operation underground [laughs]. So those years were pretty formative for me.

As you can imagine, with that experience, but also growing up Russian, with Russian as my first language, going to the Orthodox Church but having no idea what was going on, there I was trying to figure things out. There’s a part of me that wishes I had studied philosophy as an undergraduate, but I went on to do economics. I went from college to the Navy for four years as a supply officer on a submarine. I went and got an M.A. in Russian Literature at Michigan, then went to work at CIA. During that time, I met Bishop Basil (Rodzianko), a Serbian bishop who had been imprisoned. He was also doing a ministry into Russia, the Soviet Union at the time. I also got to know some of the monks at New Skete Monastery. This was my moment of meeting with remarkable men. At that point, I decided I was going to leave CIA after four years and just do something else. I wanted immersion in a deeply religious culture. At the last minute, I heard about a presentation from [St. Vladimir’s Seminary alumna and longtime librarian] Eleana Silk, who was from the parish in Washington D.C. where I was at the time. She presented her M.Div. thesis to the parish. I said, “Oh, you were at St. Vladimir’s Seminary? I know Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s For the Life of the World! You mean you can go to seminary and not have to be a priest?” So immediately, my direction shifted. I submitted an application in the middle of summer and came that August, in 1986.

Fr. Paul Tarazi was my teacher in the first class of my first day as a seminarian. I was like, wow, he’s making sense for me. My second semester, Fr. Tom Hopko came back from sabbatical. He asked me how old I was. I said, “thirty-three,” and he said—memorable moment—“The age to be crucified!” 

I didn’t feel particularly called to priestly ministry, but had encouragement to continue my studies from Professor Veselin Kesich, Fr. John Breck, and Fr. Paul Tarazi, in particular. And so I did in Scripture, New Testament, after I graduated from the Seminary in 1989.

What brought you back to the Seminary a few years later?

I had just finished my doctoral exams and I got a call from Fr. Tom, who had by then become the dean. He needed a teaching assistant for the dogmatic sequence. So I became his TA for the dogmatic sequence in the first year, then for a course he did on Russian literature, and I was TA for the pastoral theology sequence. 

Fr. Tom was, of course, a hugely popular speaker and was traveling a lot. What’s the best travel day when you’re giving a retreat on Saturday? It’s Friday. What’s the best departure time? Probably Friday morning, exactly when the PT class I was TA for was scheduled. So, my gosh, I ended up having to prepare the lectures for about half the classes one year!

While I was here, I met my wife, Laura. She was completing her M.A. in liturgical music at the Seminary at the time. She graduated in ’95 and we were married in ’96. She then became the choir director at Holy Resurrection in Wayne, NJ for fifteen years. Our first son was born in 2000, our second in 2002.

After I had finished assisting Fr. Tom and Fr. John Erickson became the dean, I approached Dave Drillock and Ted Bazil and said, “Do you need me to do anything? I used to be a supply officer on a submarine …” The jobs I had after that were varied. They really needed someone to help Glen Mules, an extraordinarily talented guy who was a member of the board at one time, did all the wiring for the campus, website work—my gosh—everything. So some of my work also involved tech. Eventually Fr. John Erickson asked me to be his “special projects guy.”  I later got involved in grant proposals and the 2003 Self-Study [related to ATS accreditation]. When Fr. John Behr became Dean and Fr. Chad Hatfield became Chancellor in 2007, Fr. John asked me to be his associate dean. I was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for ten years.

So now is the second time you’re serving as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs!

Yes, it is really interesting to come back and see some of the things I helped put in place and think, “Who the heck came up with this?”

I look at things now, with the needs of the Seminary having evolved and in different times, and say, “This is complicated.” One of the things I want to do is to try approaching things saying, “Can you keep everything pretty simple?” In the Navy we used to say, “Does it pass the drop test?” If you hold it from here, drop it, and it doesn’t break, it passes the drop test. If it breaks, it’s too complicated. So my approach is, can it be simple? And I’m seeing that already with the way [Dean] Dr. Tudorie has approached things. And that is encouraging.

I had no intention of doing anything other than teach moving forward, but I kept getting called in to do some things here and there over the past year. Because of all the good things I’ve seen Dr. Tudorie do, I said to myself that if he wants me to do something extra I’ll do it.

So we are preparing for the next Self-Study, and are also building a system of conducting ongoing evaluations of the Seminary’s programs. That will allow us to assess the strengths and weaknesses of things like, for example, our parish ministry and clinical pastoral education (CPE) for our seminarians. Those programs in particular are immensely important, because they challenge us to ask whether we actually take seriously our charge to love our neighbor. All our academic programs here should remind us that we serve the other. If you understand this, you’ll certainly get an A on my midterm!

Assembling the right team who can determine what the challenges are and how to address them—knowing that we don’t have unlimited resources—is always a challenge. Here at the Seminary we still bear in mind the image of the babushka who sends in $10 every month to support the school and the seminarians. We are caretakers of that trust. But while we can’t be extravagant, we also want to make sure that when people leave mother, father, brother, sister, career, and bring their family to the Seminary that we are taking care of them. And there is a real renewal happening with the commitment to keep the Seminary here in Yonkers—about investing in the campus and improving how we approach everything for the sake of the families and mission entrusted to us by the Church. So I’m very excited about being able to introduce these improvements, in keeping with our ongoing commitment to the residential model of Seminary formation and education.

There always seems to be so much on your plate—what do you and the family do when you do have downtime?

One of our sons is in grad school, and the other is working in the private sector, specializing in building decarbonization and battery storage. Laura is no longer directing choirs, but she’s teaching, and she has a full load teaching in two music schools. She teaches violin and early childhood music. 

Laura and I recently went to Saratoga Springs, and we knew the places you could go with a dog and so on. Then we went to Manchester, Vermont, which is not far from New Skete Monastery. My sister's up there with her husband, so we spent some time there as well, so that was one of the relaxing things. 

Do you share her love of music?

Yes, I do! In my family growing up everyone did piano. 

Do you still play?

I don’t—I mean, I’ll sit down and play the first part of the Moonlight Sonata. But you know, it’s a percussion instrument. And although beautiful music is clearly made and everything, it's not the violin. The violin is as close as you get to reproducing the human voice. So anyway, yes, I'm in love with my wife and the violin.

One of the things I’ve always appreciated about you is that you are always joyful and excited to talk about your craft and teaching. How do you maintain that joy and passion?

Well, thank you for saying that. I think it has to do with coming to the Seminary at “the age to be crucified,” because I had a question: Why am I an Orthodox Christian? I still remember liturgies at St. Nicholas, the cathedral in Washington, where my younger brother used to lock his knees. And when it's warm and there’s a lot of incense, and you're standing and you lock your knees, the blood doesn’t flow, and I would have to then go sit with him in the car until he recovered. So, I mean, I had no idea what was going on then, you know, but it made an impression on me, and I wanted to understand. And so I came to seminary to understand why I was an Orthodox Christian. I came to understand the answer to that question was the Gospel, and that led to the question “What is the Gospel?” And that main question leads to other questions. For example, this year, I redid the syllabus for the New Testament, the Gospel course. I revisited a quote from Fr. Alexander Schmemann that I've been using before, but I played with it a little bit. He says, the genuine sermon is not about your erudition. It's not about, you know, whatever. It's the Gospel itself. It's the preaching of the Gospel itself. And that's a big deal for me, because I grew up without hearing that. I grew up hearing a paraphrase of what was just read. So I try to get it right, and try to figure out how to also persuade others that it’s important. To have a chance to continue to work on that—man, it doesn’t get any better than that.