On Sunday, January 12, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology in the Doctor of Ministry program at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS), Subdeacon Dr Gregory Abdalah (M.Div. ‘08, D.Min. ‘18) was ordained to the holy diaconate by the hand of his own father, His Grace Bishop John (M.Div. ‘78), Auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Worcester and New England, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America (AOCANA), and member of the SVOTS Board of Trustees. His Grace Bishop Anthony (M.Div. ‘82), Auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Los Angeles and the West (AOCANA) was a co-celebrant for the ordination, which took place at St George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Phoenix, AZ. 

Dn Gregory teaching a class of D.Min. students at St Vladimir’s Seminary

In his homily, His Grace Bishop Anthony preached that the role of the New Testament deacon was prefigured in the Old Testament with the Levites, who helped the high priests administer the sacraments.

At the consecration of holy communion, "He takes his orarion and says, 'Bless, master,' right after the celebrant says, 'Send down Thy Holy Spirit.' So, he is motioning in his gesture the fact that heaven is coming down."

Bishop Anthony conveyed the love and congratulations of His Eminence Metropolitan Saba. Turning to the new deacon, His Grace said, "I know that you will serve with all your heart. The joy that you have now is the joy of your mother, Joanne, who is with us and present with Christ and the angels. She is proud of her son because he is presenting Christ. Her husband has been doing that now for 48 years as a priest and as a bishop.

"There cannot be a fuller joy than us being together in celebrating the holy mysteries with all of your family and with all of you in our faith family."

Dn Gregory with his son, Jonathan, his father, His Grace Bishop John, his wife, Diana, and his daughter, Eleanor
 

Among his ministries, Dn Gregory is the pastoral assistant at St George Church and an instructor at the Sacred Music Institute with the Antiochian Archdiocese's Department of Sacred Music.

Dn Gregory’s connection to and love for St Vladimir’s Seminary is personal and longstanding. His father, also a SVOTS graduate, instilled in him an appreciation and respect for the institution’s commitment to providing a formative spiritual and academic experience for students from all Orthodox jurisdictions. 

Trustee Tatiana Hoff, who served alongside Dn Gregory as Trustee offers her remarks, “Noteworthy is the multi-faceted ways that Dn Gregory and his family have been connected with SVOTS over the years. Dn Gregory retains a deep connection with St Vladimir’s, first as student, then as trustee (2012 - 2018), representing the Alumni Board, followed by his D.Min. studies, and finally as faculty in the D.Min. program. He offered student-informed perspective and ideas in the board room and an energy and enthusiasm for ministry. I am overjoyed for him and for his family, and grateful for the Church as he takes an expanded role in his fruitful ministry!”

Dn Gregory during his time as a SVOTS Trustee, at the St Vladimir's Seminary 75th Anniversary Gala in 2013, alongside (from left), The Very Rev. Dr Chad Hatfield, former SVOTS President, Mr Alex Machaskee, Trustee Emeritus and former Executive Chair of the Board; Presvytera Sharon Rubis, a Trustee and Co-chair of the Anniversary Gala committee; Tatiana Hoff, a Trustee and Co-chair of the Anniversary Gala committee; Mr Tony Kasmer, of blessed memory, a longtime Trustee; Ted Bazil, longtime senior staff member at SVOTS; and the Very Rev. Dr John Behr, former SVOTS Dean and Professor of Patristics.

Members of the faculty expressed their congratulations to Dn Gregory and offered their prayers for his new ministry. 

Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program, the Very Rev. Dr Sergius Halvorsen congratulated his colleague heartily, saying, “I've had the pleasure of knowing Dn Greg and counting him as a personal friend for almost twenty years. I worked with him when he was a student in our D.Min. program, and then was thrilled to welcome him as a faculty colleague. Dn Gregory has long embodied a spirit of service and diakonia, so it is with great joy that I join the chorus of all those saying, "Axios!" I pray that God would richly bless Dn Gregory and his family as he begins this new chapter of ministry and building up the Body of Christ.”

The Very Rev. Dr John Behr, former Dean and Professor of Patristics, also offered his congratulations and words of appreciation for Dn Gregory, remarking, “I am delighted to hear about Gregory’s ordination to the Holy Diaconate. It was clear that ordination would be in his future from his earliest days at St Vladimir’s, where I had the pleasure both to have him in class and also to work with him in the chapel, the two destinations that, as Fr Alexander Schmemann used to say, should be the places where seminarians are always headed. In the former, Dn Gregory could always be counted on to bring both insight and humor into our discussions, and in the latter, he fulfilled the role of ecclesiarch with diligence and grace. Dn Gregory has continued his ministry with love and energy over the years; it has been my great pleasure to keep in touch with him as a good friend, and also to visit with him and his community to lead retreats. I am sure that his ministry will bear ever more fruit. Axios!”

Interim President and Academic Dean, Dr Ionuț-Alexandru Tudorie, who offered his presence and prayers at St George Church in Phoenix for the ordination, added his words of appreciation for Dn Gregory, noting the “great joy that Dn Gregory, already a devoted servant of Christ and the church, and a beloved member of the D.Min. faculty, has now been ordained to Holy Orders. We pray for him and his family that God grants them many blessed years in continued ministry!”

Article adapted in part from antiochian.org. Photo credit: John Karadsheh and Issa Sweilem

With faith in Christ and hope in the resurrection, we join the many voices sharing the news of the repose of His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania. His Beatitude was 95 years old.

His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durrës, and All Albania was a visionary leader who played a pivotal role in restoring and revitalizing the Orthodox Church of Albania after decades of oppression under communist rule. Elected Archbishop in 1992 by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, he undertook the immense task of rebuilding a church that had been nearly eradicated. Over the following decades, he oversaw the construction and restoration of over 450 religious and community buildings, including more than 150 new churches, monasteries, seminaries, and schools. He established institutions such as a theological seminary, a printing press, medical centers, and youth programs, ensuring the church’s sustainability and its ability to serve the faithful.

Beyond physical reconstruction, Archbishop Anastasios nurtured the spiritual and communal life of Albanian Orthodoxy. He trained and ordained a new generation of clergy, created a self-sufficient church administration, and developed charitable initiatives that supported Albanians of all backgrounds. Under his leadership, the church provided critical humanitarian aid, including assistance to victims of the Bosnian War and Kosovar refugees, regardless of their religious affiliation. 

Archbishop Anastasios was also a distinguished academic, earned both his B.D. and Th.D. with highest honors before serving as Professor of History of Religions (1972–1992) and Dean of the Theological Faculty of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (1983–1986); he later became Professor Emeritus of the same university. His academic contributions were recognized globally, as he received honorary doctorates (Th.D., D.D., and Ph.D. honoris causa) from 19 universities across Greece, the United States, Cyprus, Romania, Georgia, Albania, and Italy. Additionally, he was a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens (1993–2005) and an Honorary Member since 2006.

Before his tenure in Albania, Archbishop Anastasios had already established himself as a distinguished theologian and missionary. He played a pioneering role in rekindling the Orthodox interest in foreign missions (from 1958). He was ordained Deacon (1960); Priest-Archimandrite (1964), Bishop of Androussa (1972) for the position of the General Director of the Apostolike Diakonia of the Church of Greece (1972-92); Locum Tenens (Acting Archbishop) of the Holy Metropolis of Irinoupolis in East Africa (1981-1990); Metropolitan of Androussa and Patriarchal Exarch in Albania (1991-1992), and then Archbishop of Tirana, and All Albania (June 1992 onward). His earlier missionary work in East Africa, particularly in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, helped strengthen Orthodox communities, ordain local clergy, and establish seminaries and schools. 

A firm advocate of inter-Christian dialogue, Archbishop Anastasios played a significant role in the World Council of Churches, serving on its Central Committee and later as a member of its presidium. 

His Beatitude published two books with SVS Press and contributed to the St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly. His publications with the Press include Facing the World, Orthodox Christian Essays on Global Concerns, published in 2003, and In Albania: Cross and Resurrection, published in 2016, translated by the Archdeacon Dr John Chryssavgis. He also visited St Vladimir’s Seminary on a number of occasions, receiving an honorary doctorate in 2003.

His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios receiving a Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa, from St Vladimir’s Seminary in 2003
 

In 2011, three SVOTS seminarians visited Albania as the culmination of a summer course titled "The Missiology of Archbishop Anastasios (Yannoulatos) and Practical Evangelism," taught by Fr Luke Veronis. 

During his last visit in 2014, His Beatitude met for a conversation about missions and book publishing with administrators, faculty, and staff from the seminary, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon, primate of the OCA and The Very Rev. Dr. John Jillions, OCA chancellor at the time, as well as several other hierarchs and representatives of local churches.

His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios in Three Hierarchs Chapel, 2014
 

Dr Ionuț-Alexandru Tudorie, Interim President and Academic Dean, offered his reflections on the repose of His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios, saying, “The St Vladimir’s Seminary community mourns the repose of such a great luminary for our contemporary Orthodox Church; we are commemorating him in our prayers and chapel services every day. However, we also rejoice in the hope that such a ‘good and faithful servant’ has departed this life to eternal rest in the presence of our Lord.”

May the memory of Archbishop Anastasios be eternal!

In celebration of the Feast of Three Hierarchs, St Vladimir’s Seminary will celebrate the Divine Liturgy on Thursday, January 30, at 9 a.m. at Three Hierarchs’ Chapel.

On Thursday at 7 p.m., in the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium, St Vladimir’s Seminary will hold its Commencement ceremony for all mid-year graduates. Following the ceremony, the 42nd Annual Father Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture will begin. This year, Dr Henry Maguire, Emeritus Professor of the History of Art at Johns Hopkins University, will deliver the keynote presentation, “Heaven to Earth, Earth to Heaven: Neoplatonic Theology and the Art of Byzantine Churches.”

Dr Maguire describes his presentation with the following summary:

Recently some scholars have interpreted early Byzantine churches, such as the great sixth-century church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, with reference to Neoplatonic ideas, especially those disseminated by the anonymous Christian writer known as Pseudo-Dionysios the Areopagite. But much less attention has been paid to the impact of Neoplatonism on the art of later Byzantine churches, those which dated to the period after the iconoclastic crisis of the eighth and ninth centuries. This lecture will look at some of these splendid medieval buildings in the light of Neoplatonic theology, using as our guide the voices of contemporary Byzantines who saw and used these buildings. Pseudo-Dionysios described a mystical hierarchy in which the material world, characterized by variety, reflects the light emanating from the One, the divine unity. Following these ideas, medieval writers gave to their churches a cosmic interpretation, seeing in their interiors a hierarchy of lights reaching up from the gleaming multicolored marbles of their pavements, which represented the diversity of the earth, to the overwhelming splendor of the gold mosaics in the vaults above, which represented the unity of the heavenly realm. In the words of one poem, the church was a ladder, leading up from the muted gleam of the earthly stones below to the more brilliant light of the heavenly orbit. This vertical exchange of light was associated by Byzantine writers on art with prayer, which reflected, as in a candle, the desire of the faithful ascending from earth, and was responded to by the greater light descending from heaven.

You are invited to attend the Liturgy, Mid-Year Commencement, and the lecture in person or watch live online. You will receive one link to watch both after you register. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Light reception to follow the lecture. 

Registration Closed.

About Dr Henry Maguire:
Henry Maguire, Ph.D. is Emeritus Professor of the History of Art at Johns Hopkins University. He has also taught at Harvard and at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. From 1991 to 1996 he served as Director of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington DC. He has authored six books on Byzantine art, and co-authored three more with his partner, Eunice Dauterman Maguire. Together with Ann Terry he carried out a survey and publication of the wall mosaics in the Cathedral of Eufrasius at Poreč, which was published in 2007. Throughout his career he has been interested in the relationships between art and literature in Byzantium, although he has also written on other topics, including ivories, Byzantine secular art, and attitudes toward nature in Byzantium.