Meet a Seminarian: Alexander Earl

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Alexander Earl is a 28-year-old Master of Divinity student in his first year at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS). A graduate of Yale Divinity School, he had been on his way to becoming an Anglican priest when he discovered Orthodoxy reading St. Vladimir’s Seminary (SVS) Press books for his patristics classes. He and his wife, Danielle, who is now the librarian at SVOTS, were teaching at a private high school in the Los Angeles area when they attended their first Divine Liturgy in 2017. Feeling like they had come home spiritually, they were received into the Orthodox Church the following year. In this interview, Earl discusses the many religions he sampled before coming to the faith and his hopes for contributing someday to the evangelization of the U.S. as an Orthodox priest.

Q: Tell me about yourself.

AE: I was born and raised in Orlando, FL. My family was culturally Christian but it was vague, and I was not raised to go to church. My mom started going to the Baptist Church later in life, but that was not something I was interested in at all. Basically I was an atheist. I lived an Augustinian life; I partied a lot as a young man. By the time I graduated from high school, I thought there has to be more to life than pursuing materialism, so I explored other religions. I went to a mosque. I went to a Buddhist temple. I even explored Mormonism. I was open to whatever claimed to be the truth. Liturgical Christianity won out for a lot of reasons, so I converted to Anglicanism when I was around 18. 

I went to Yale to pursue ordination to the priesthood in the Anglican Church. I started to have my doubts so I began to investigate the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. I met my wife at Yale, and when we graduated we moved to Los Angeles for work. The more I read about Orthodoxy, the more I began to feel like this was the Christianity I had always believed in. After my first Divine Liturgy at St. Matthew’s Orthodox Church (Antiochian Archdiocese) in Torrance, CA, I turned to my wife and I said, “this is it.” Danielle’s background was Baptist but a big chunk of her family is Armenian Orthodox, so she felt like she was coming home.  

Q: What is the difference between attending seminary at Yale and attending SVOTS?

AE: At Yale it was all about historical criticism as a way of dealing with Scripture. Postmodernism is the method of the day, deconstruction. How do we pull these things apart? There was no idea whatsoever that these texts have been read and reflected on and prayed over by the fathers. The sensibility was that we are more enlightened; we know better than, say, Gregory Nazianzus. 

I was introduced to St. Vladimir's at Yale. For our patristics courses all of our books came from SVS Press. I had read [Fr. Alexander] Schmemann early on and I kept engaging with SVS Press even after Yale. I knew about the seminary and that it had a reputation for being an academically serious institution. Even when I was Episcopalian I had this admiration for it. Then when I became Orthodox, I knew I wanted to go to St. Vladimir’s. 

Q: Now that you are at SVOTS, has it lived up to your expectations?

AE: I love it. In many ways it is exactly what I thought it would be. So right now I am really loving the classes, the professors, talking to professors, the ideas, the theology, the philosophy. I love the perspective. These are serious scholars here who have impressive CVs. It can be just as academically rigorous as Yale but it has not wed itself to postmodernity. There is a special awareness in the scholars here. They are more willing to be critical of modernity and postmodernity. In fact, there is something more postmodern about an Orthodox scholar because they are more willing to question our working assumptions. However, the purpose is not merely deconstruction, but an ability to be critical of ourselves so we can be more humble in engaging these thinkers and texts. 

Q: What do you think of the liturgical life at SVOTS?

AE: Even given COVID, it’s fantastic. It is amazing to be doing this stuff in the classroom, yet your whole life is structured around attending Matins, Vespers, Liturgy, the feasts. It is a life-giving rhythm. Father Chad [Hatfield, president of SVOTS] said that there is a kind of Benedictine spirituality here in the rhythms of prayer and work. I think he is right. I think it is really important that the structure is there.  

Q: What made it possible for you to attend SVOTS?

AE: I wouldn’t be here without Fr. Chad. I was interested in St. Vladimir’s but, for a number of reasons, I didn’t think I would come here for another year or so. I put in an application for this year thinking that it would be for the following year. Father Chad reached out to me and he said, “We want you to come here.” I wanted to come, but there were so many hurdles. He assured me to not worry about it and he cleared the hurdles. It is really a miracle. Danielle and I were teaching but, even before St. Vladimir’s she had said that she wanted to be a librarian. When we saw St. Vladimir’s was hiring, I said why don’t you apply [at SVOTS] and we’ll see what God does. Here we are. 

Someone like Fr. Chad really excites me. He has a background in missions and started all these churches. He cares deeply about evangelism. He was a former Anglican; I am former Anglican. He really has a sense of what the future of Orthodoxy ought to look like in the U.S. For these reasons I am really happy Fr. Chad is at the helm, leading St. Vladimir’s into the future.

I also would like to add that Dr. [Alex] Tudorie [SVOTS’ academic dean] has made my transition here lovely. It was entirely plausible that I would come here and have to do introductory course work all over again. I would happily have done so, but it would certainly have felt like a waste of an opportunity to go deeper and make the most of what St. Vladimir’s has to offer. Working with Dr. Tudorie in that regard has been a blessing. He’s been a great academic advisor in discerning how St. Vladimir’s can contribute to my existing academic background, instead of merely overwriting it. 

Q: Who are some of your favorite professors at SVOTS?

AE: Father Bogdan [Bucur, associate professor of patristics] brings a really fresh perspective. He was a student of Archbishop Alexander Golitzin. He and the other professors definitely have picked up the Schmemann/Florovsky neopatristic synthesis, but Fr. Bogdan also brings in the Jewish mystical tradition and Biblical theophanies. He calls these theophanies of God the “greatest hits” of scripture. It’s the driving theme of the whole thing. He is likewise a very serious scholar who I think bridges this divide between academia and spirituality. Through him, you get a sense that when we are studying the fathers and the biblical witness, we are simultaneously on the journey to encountering God.  

Q: What do you think of the community life at SVOTS?

AE: Coming to a new place inevitably comes with some anxiety. Everyone who comes here wants to have a community. Many people here are preparing for the priesthood, a unique vocation. But everyone here has been so hospitable and inviting. There is no sense of judgment. I don’t feel out of place being a convert; there are many converts here. There’s no pretentiousness, either. At other institutions, the senior students might think this place belongs to them. But I haven’t found that here. The atmosphere is very collegial, very friendly. If there were anxieties, they are no more.

Q: You have spent time as a teacher and you attended academically rigorous institutions. What role do you think academia plays in the priesthood?

AE: I do think academia is so important to Orthodoxy. Part of evangelizing the U.S. will be intellectual and academic. Orthodoxy sometimes likes to distance itself from scholasticism. Yet it’s a mistake to think being intellectually rigorous means being a Western scholastic. If you are a priest going out into the world, and if you are not able to substantively answer people’s intellectual questions, you’re in trouble. You have to show them how to experience the beauty of the Liturgy. They [young people] are so estranged from reality. The intuitive sense that God exists is not the norm. They need their roadblocks cleared. Orthodoxy’s strength is that it recognizes that answering those questions is but the gateway to entering the Church’s ascetic and liturgical life. That’s always the end goal. Danielle and I share that vision because we both came to Christianity from outside of it, so perhaps we have a sense of what it takes to get inside of it.

Meet a Seminarian: Fr. Giorgi Tskitishvili

Meet a Seminarian: Fr. Giorgi Tskitishvili

Father Giorgi Tskitishvili is a 34-year-old priest of the Orthodox Church of Georgia and a Master of Theology (Th.M.) degree candidate at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS). Before becoming a priest, Fr. Giorgi was a successful pharmaceutical salesman who often traveled between Georgia and Turkey. When he became a priest in 2014, he was assigned to Guria in western Georgia near the Black Sea. There he built a church dedicated to the Transfiguration. His family includes his wife, Nino, and his children, Anastasia, 8, and John, 7. In this interview Fr. Giorgi talks about life in post-Soviet Georgia and what led him to study theology at SVOTS.

Q: Tell us about your parish in Georgia.

FG: I am from western Georgia, from an area called Guria near the Black Sea. We built a church there physically with our own hands and dedicated it to the Transfiguration. During the Soviet regime, many churches in Georgia were destroyed and there is a great movement to rebuild churches. There are fifty to sixty people in the parish. I was a priest there for four years.

 Q: Why did you decide to become a priest?

FG: I wanted to serve Christ by serving other people. I was serving as a sacristan and as a reader in the Church for eight years beforehand, and during this process then I just decided that I wanted to change my life. But it was a slow process to decide that I wanted to be a priest.

Q: What made you decide to come to SVOTS for your education?

FG: In 2014, when I became a priest and serving mainly the teenagers, I thought that the way we were bringing the Word of God to them is not the right way. There was some gap between the way we were preaching and evangelizing and what their expectations were. So I tried researching the problem I was facing. I discovered two interesting figures: Alexander Schmemann and Thomas Hopko. Some of Schmemann’s books are translated into Georgian. I discovered Hopko through his podcasts. They were united by one thing: St. Vladimir’s Seminary. So I wanted to experience the tradition they were building here for years. 

Q: Did SVOTS meet your expectations?

Fr. Giorgi Tskitishvili wears his beautiful Georgian-style cassock

FG: I came here in 2018 and it totally matched my expectations. The most important part is the parish life, the community life based in the chapel. The communion is centralized; we live as one unity in Christ’s body and blood. It was what was lacking in my community back home. And the professors were amazing.

The Master of Arts here is a kind of introductory to graduate studies. We deal with patristics, Old Testament, New Testament, Liturgics, and many others. It gives us the fundamentals to pursue further education. The Master of Arts and the Master in Theology, in the way that they are offered at St. Vladimir’s, are a great bridge for doctoral studies. 

The Master in Theology gives us an opportunity to get deeper inside, to narrow the focus and get deeper in particular subjects. My hope is to pursue a Ph.D., and hopefully it will give me a better focus in terms of what I want to do in a Ph.D. 

Q: What do you plan to do with your degrees?

FG: I want to go back to Georgia and help with the translations of the fathers into Georgian. The translations are old and hard to read and are not close to the original. So many of the texts during the Soviet era were destroyed. I also want to give lectures at universities. For sure I want to experience parish life as a parish priest. This is the most important thing for me. I also want to establish a community school which can provide the basic theological education. 

Ministry to the poor and suffering: Fr. Theophan Whitfield speaks to Ancient Faith Radio

Fr Theophan Whitfield

Fr. Theophan Whitfield

Is your parish committed to ministry to the poor and suffering?

That question is at the heart of Priest Theophan Whitfield’s Servant Parish Project, a research study Fr. Theophan has been completing as part of his Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) work at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. On October 26, 2019, Father Theophan spoke to Ancient Faith Radio about the project.

“So often, it’s easiest to allow your parish ministry to those on the outside to slip and slide a little bit—not because it’s devalued, but it’s just the easiest thing to sort of neglect,” he explained on the podcast The Second Liturgy. “And so, from a practical point of view, I’ve always wondered about how we can approach ministry to the poor and suffering that sort of elevates its urgency in a way that makes sense with our tradition and with our wider mandate to preach to the nations.”

“The Doctor of Ministry program at St. Vladimir’s allowed me to just explore a lot of options: Biblical resources, theological resources, to do some field work, and to begin to bring into focus with greater clarity something we can begin to do with parishes to meet that need.”

Research results and analyses from The Servant Parish Project are published on Fr. Theophan’s project page, at ServantParish.org.

Father Theophan is also an alumnus of St. Vladimir’s Seminary, having graduated with a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree in 2010, and he currently serves as priest at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Salem, MA.

Khouria Krista West: Author, Tailor, Podcaster

women's fellowship

Is beauty within the Church optional or essential? What are the origins of Orthodox Christian liturgical vestments, and what is their significance? Khouria Krista West explores the fascinating and colorful world of liturgical vesture in the first comprehensive book on this topic in the English language,  the SVS Press book The Garments of Salvation. In the Fall of 2014, Khouria visited St. Vladimir's for several days, where she spoke to the St. Juliana Society.

Remarked seminarian spouse Jillian Rettig, "When Khouria Krista West spoke to St. Juliana's Society, she illumined our understanding of vestments and the role of beauty within the Church. Interestingly, she spoke about Orthodox vestments running on a color scheme from bright to dark, matte to brilliant, and noted that we have open to us more options as far as color than we currently use.

"She laid out for us tips for vestment care to prolong the life of the garments," continued Jillian, "and shared with us about her business and personal skills. In general, we were enlightened theologically as well as practically, while being entranced be her wit and amiable personality."

Khouria Krista's designs may be found in Orthodox churches of every major jurisdiction in North America as well as numerous countries throughout the world. An avid scholar of the history and construction techniques of Eastern Orthodox ecclesiastical vesture, she writes and lectures on the topic in her Ancient Faith Radio podcast, The Opinionated Tailor. She is the wife of Fr. Alban West, rector of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Portland, OR, and the mother of three daughters.

How to Succeed at Seminary

The Rev. Herman Fields

Fr. Herman Fields

The Rev. Herman Fields graduated as the valedictorian of St. Vladimir’s Seminary’s Class of 2019. On his blog page, which he set up as a student to facilitate information sharing between other seminarians and community members, Fr. Herman recently imparted how he succeeded during his studies at St. Vladimir’s.

Father Herman, his wife, Khouria Anna, and their two children are moving to Canada following graduation to serve a parish in Saskatchewan.


As my time at St. Vlad’s is coming to a close, I was asked by a student who is arriving next year how you become valedictorian at St. Vlad’s.  I replied, “Tip #1 is that you should have a BA in Theology and do the St. Stephen’s course before you get here!”

I said that because, while I did work very hard, I don’t really feel that the playing field was level. Some students come here never having studied theology, and they manage to graduate with distinction. I had a bit advantage having already studied so much. So while I was honored to be valedictorian, there might be plenty of people who worked harder than I did. But here are Fr. Herman Fields’ tips for doing well in seminary:

When I was an undergrad, my grades improved immensely when I got married. I was doing my school work on a 9-5 schedule and didn’t fool myself into thinking that I could do quality work starting at 10 p.m.

If you take advantage of every minute of non-class time during the day, avoiding as much as possible the time-wasting but oh-so-fun opportunities to just sit and talk to people about nothing in particular, you will get more done than if you’re up ‘till 3 a.m. Even if you only have an hour (say your class gets out early and you have extra time before your next activity) take an hour and read one article, or write that one little tiny assignment you’ve been putting off. The best work I ever did was when I knew that I only had 45 minutes or an hour to work. There’s a saying in Swedish, “many small streams become a river.” It applies here! No matter what your family situation is, if you use your time consistently with discipline you will get more done in less time.

I used Google Calendar and had all my classes and chapel times blocked out. Sometimes I even put deadlines in the calendar. I don’t think I ever missed a deadline, or at least not by mistake.

And get some sleep! Get a minimum of 7 hours per night. If you’re sleep deprived your work will be much less efficient and you won’t remember what you’re reading.

A Seeing Human Being: Seminarian Sophia Theodoratos on ‘Sensing Christ and Gaining Sight’

Seminarian Sophia Theodoratos on ‘Sensing Christ and Gaining Sight’

Seminarian Sophia Theodoratos was featured at the Seminary’s Monthly Seminar series on Tuesday, May 9.

The Seminary’s Monthly Seminar series is meant to operate as a kind of academic laboratory for scholars, allowing each month’s presenter to share their latest findings to their peers, engage in discussion, and receive feedback.

Sophia’s presentation, “A Seeing Human Being: Sensing Christ and Gaining Sight,” drew from her thesis.

“How and why does John the Theologian use sight and more broadly engage with hearing, touch, smell and taste in his Gospel?” Sophia asks. “Gaining sight is essential to apprehend light from dark and to “see” Christ, who has been revealed as the Light of the World (Jn 8.12).”

Sophia’s study places the event of the human being born blind (Jn 9.1-41) at the center of her review into how sensory perception is used in John’s Gospel. She explains in her thesis’ abstract:

…The beloved disciple engages our senses to enable us to fully perceive Christ through the flesh, beyond empirical boundaries, and to know that God is always forming us, and seeking to lead us back to eternal life in Paradise. In this way John’s engagement with the senses aligns with the reason he gives for writing his Gospel, which is “so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name” (Jn 20.30-31).

Sophia’s thesis and the theses of other graduating students are made available after completion each year in the Seminary’s Father Georges Florovsky Library.

Sophia Theodoratos hails from Brisbane, Australia. She graduated from SVOTS Master of Arts (M.A.) program in the spring of 2018 and returned to SVOTS for the 2018 fall semester to pursue a Master of Theology (Th.M.) degree.

The Wounded Healer interviews Seminarian Dan Bein

The Wounded Healer interviews Seminarian Dan Bein

The latest episode of the podcast The Wounded Healer, on Ancient Faith Radio, features SVOTS Seminarian Dan Bein in a conversation about his experience in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE).

The podcast is produced by Seminary Professor Fr. Adrian Budica and Chaplain Sarah Byrne-Martelli, a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) student at SVOTS.  In this episode, “The Power of Holy Listening,” Bein tells Byrne-Martelli that what he encountered through the Seminary’s CPE program was not what he expected.

“CPE was actually part of why I specifically chose St. Vlad’s….” he said. “I was really hoping that I would have this kind of ‘romantic’ experience in the hospital [unit of CPE], and everything would be all roses and sunshine, and I would come into every single room and know just what to say at just the right moment….”

“Obviously, it was a lot tougher than I imagined…” he continued, “tougher in a good way and a really beautiful way.”

Dan Bein is a second-year seminarian in SVOTS’ Master of Divinity (M.Div.) program. He calls Pittsburgh home and is a member of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia and all its territories, under His Grace Bishop Karas. At SVOTS, Dan serves as president of the Student Council.

To come to seminary is special

Charles Youngblood

Charles Youngblood

This reflection is written from the perspective of a first-year seminarian. I am writing to those who are considering coming to seminary, those who are here, and those who have come and gone. Without being too presumptuous or ambitious, I would like to give some impressions and reflections on the first few weeks at St. Vladimir’s Seminary.

I heard it said best recently: “to come to seminary is special” (I took this to mean unique. I will use this word often in this reflection.). Some people come to seminary after years of planning, others come from directly from their undergraduate studies, while others come quite suddenly, and many leave their careers to matriculate here. I can identify with many of these categories. With that said, I think everyone who comes to seminary is answering (as best they can discern) Christ’s call for service in His Holy Church, and St. Vladimir’s fosters and environment of fertile ground for the seeds of service to take root and bear fruit.  

I am a married seminarian with one child. My family began exploring the possibility of coming to seminary about two years ago when I began theological studies through the Antiochian House of Studies. This experience truly deepened my thirst for knowledge and led to my application to become a seminarian through the Antiochian Archdiocese.  At the time of my application to Saint Vladimir’s I was employed as a police detective in Waco Texas and my family owned some acreage with livestock. Once we were notified that we had been accepted to attend classes for the Fall semester we “kicked into high gear” and put our home on the market. We sold cows, tractors, farm equipment, and even my old pickup truck. Glory to God, the house and land sold! We sold much of our furniture and loaded what remained into a moving truck and set our course in a northeasterly direction. We arrived at St. Vladimir’s the second week of August (before classes) and began to settle in.

We were met at the seminary not by strangers—instead we were welcomed home. We were received by the seminary community with open arms as if we were family members returning home. This was not just a feeling or something that was gleaned after reflection. Our new seminary family showed up in numbers (this is especially impressive since many students/families were still out of town) and helped us unload our moving truck. Everyone seemed so happy to meet us and to help us feel at home. The seminarians, faculty, and staff that initially welcomed us were our first impression and true icons of Christ at our new home. Many of the questions you have when moving are practical ones. Finding out where to get groceries, who has the best produce, school system information, and other local information are at the forefront of your concern. The community was more than happy to impart every bit of information they could to make our transition as smooth as possible.    

I started writing this reflection after moving in. I am now beginning my fifth week of classes. Several thoughts have occurred to me that I would like to leave with the reader. First, I am astounded at how quickly the time passes. We are now past the quarter mark in this semester! Secondly, I thought how desperately I need to cherish every moment of this experience. Living in a true “Orthodox community” is a unique blessing. I do not know if my family and I will ever have an opportunity like this again. Living amongst like-minded Orthodox Christians allows for a way of life that is not found in our society today outside of a monastery. Lastly, I thought, while we are all living together, worshiping together, and attending classes together, how different this experience must be for each individual seminarian and family. Simply put, people are different. In community life, I think it is important to enjoy the differences that each community member brings into the fold. It should also be said that differences can be the cause of anxiety and stress. Humbly, I would say that if we keep Christ as the focal point of all we do, we may begin to see others as Christ sees them and not as we would see them for our own personal gain. In doing so, we see a person for how they glorify Christ in His Kingdom! Living at St. Vladimir’s is giving me the unique opportunity to see others living out their faith. My prayer is that this helps me more and more to see others as Christ does.

Please pray for the clergy, faculty, staff, seminarians, and their families at St. Vladimir’s that we may serve Christ in His Holy Church and go forth from this place to “Engage the World in Orthodox Christianity.”  


Charles Youngblood is beginning his first year in SVOTS’ Master of Divinity (M.Div.) program, and is a seminarian of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America. Before receiving the blessing to attend seminary, he was employed as a police detective with the police department in Waco, Texas. Charles has also served in the United States Navy (both active and reserve) for the past sixteen years. He was commissioned as a Navy Chaplain Candidate Program Officer shortly before arriving at SVOTS.

A Treasury of Blessings in the Pearl of Africa

Amal Punnoose

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

From May 21to June 3 of this year, I, alongside eight of my seminary colleagues, had the amazing opportunity to travel to Uganda as part of a teaching missions trip sponsored by the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC). Thanks to the support of OCMC, St Vladimir’s Seminary, and many others, the nine of us were given the incredible opportunity to serve the communities of the Ugandan Orthodox Church, which would not have been possible on our own. With the blessing of Metropolitan Jonah of Kampala and all Uganda, we were able to travel across the country and serve many communities, especially those in Northern Uganda.

Our first few days were spent in Nsinze in the Eastern region of Uganda where we had the honor and privilege to participate in the diocesan clergy conference. Over fifty priests from all over the country were present. We spent time both in prayer and fellowship as we focused on the tough realities of ministry. The priests of the Uganda Orthodox Church do not have a salary and must have secular jobs to provide for the needs of their families and their churches. Despite the many sacrifices, it was an inspiration to see how these clergymen found strength in Christ and in each other as they prepared themselves to continue serving their people.

Two truly memorable occasions occurred next. For the conclusion of the clergy conference, we had the blessed opportunity to celebrate the Divine Liturgy alongside these fifty priests who had gathered together. It was a great act of fellowship and comradery as we were able to serve as brothers in His ministry. From there, we traveled to Gulu in Northern Uganda where we had the opportunity to participate in the Feast of Pentecost, celebrated by Metropolitan Jonah and the local clergy. In this moment, alongside the people of Gulu, we were able to transcend barriers of language, culture, and ethnicity, as we became the One Body of Christ during this service, similar to that of the very day of Pentecost two thousand years ago. As we prepared ourselves to receive the Holy Spirit and renew ourselves in our commitment to serve the Church and each other, it was a powerful moment as we all prostrated together before the mighty throne of God.

The next week of our trip flew by quickly as we worked alongside a medical mission team traveling to different schools and communities across Northern Uganda from Gulu to Lira. We spent our days in prayer as we used our time there to preach the Gospel, be with the people, and try to understand their struggles. It was an exhausting effort since we spent many hours every day traveling to reach these communities, but it was definitely worth it. Personally, it was a humbling experience to see the people of Uganda, who have so little, give so much for the Church. I was able to witness first-hand the love that they have for their Church and for each other. These people looked out for each other; they made sure the most ill were taken care of first. They shared their food and took the time to show concern and care for their neighbor. Uganda is the Pearl of Africa—not because of the beauty of the land but because of the treasure that is found in the hearts of its people. Regardless of the wealth they may not have, they are rich in their love for Christ, and it was truly an unforgettable experience to receive so many blessings from their unending treasury. May God strengthen us all to have the same resolve in faith and love that He has given His people in Uganda.

Read more and see more pictures from the trip on the Uganda Orthodox Church website.
Read more seminarian reflections in Seminarians Speak

Amal Punnoose is entering his third year as a seminarian in SVOTS’ Master of Divinity (M.Div.) program. He hails from Atlanta, GA, and is a member of the Diocese of Southwest America of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. He has given lectures and led youth retreats and other events at Malankara Orthodox parishes around the U.S. and Canada. Joining Amal on the OCMC trip to Uganda were members of the graduating class of 2018 Rev. Fr. Christopher Moore (Team Leader), Dn. Simon Menya (a native of Uganda), Dn. Gregory Potter and his wife Faith Potter, Dn. Larry Soper, and Dr. Tracy Gustilo, and current seminarians Dn. Herman Fields and Cornelius Schuster.

From Gulu, Uganda to North America, to Guatemala

Simon Menya

Simon Menya, a 2nd-year seminarian from Gulu, Uganda, recently accompanied four other St. Vladimir’s seminarians on a missionary journey to Guatemala, under the auspices of the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC). Happily, Seminarian Simon has recorded a thorough description of his Team’s travels through the provinces of Huehuetenango and Escuintla, culminating at Lake Amatitlán—his official report to OCMC, his sponsoring agency. His travelogue is full of warmth, sincerity, and captivating descriptions of the Team’s engagement with local residents and their customs, and so we are presenting it in full, in Simon’s own words—with minimal editing—so as to retain the charm and wonder of the sights and sounds through his eyes and ears. Enjoy


 I thank God for His wonderful plans for us all. I thank Him for our recent St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary seminarian trip to Guatemala organized by OCMC. It was a good chance for me to participate in the trip because I tasted and saw (Psalm 34:8): first, that the Lord is good; second, that OCMC have huge tasks in their mission works associated with challenges around the world to bring people to Christ; and, third, many faithful people in Guatemala have found the Orthodox Church recently and have devoted their lives to the Church with enough eagerness to learn more about God.

This is seen in engagement with them when they ask questions and share their experiences before and after their conversion into Orthodox Church. It was so good to see the work of the OCMC missionaries on the ground, like Fr. Juvenal, Jesse Brandow, and Jennifer Rice, working so hard with the rest of the priests there, like Fr. Evangelios Pata, Fr. Mihail Castellanos, Fr. Daniel Muxtay, and others, who are so active with efforts to defend the faith by teaching them after they converted to the Orthodox Church to live the Gospel. That way, Christ is kept alive among them.

They teach and explain, encourage, and print out monthly liturgical calendars in Spanish for people to read. This is helping in creating awareness about the Orthodox liturgical life and the Orthodox form of worship, to match the humility of the Guatemalans. The missionaries and priests there do travel long distances to visit different scattered Orthodox communities and teach.

I will never ever forget that a foreign mission is an important part of the Church’s work, to imitate Jesus Christ, who left the glory of heaven to come to [perform a] mission on this earth. And by this He made heaven close enough to the Church to share with everyone, reaching them and bringing them out of darkness to the participation into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9) in order that they too could become missionaries to His body, the Church.

Our short trip made me feel at home because I experienced a similar poverty level of the people and standard of life as in Uganda; for instance, I saw a young boy in Aguacate chew a corn stem because it is sweet like a cane sugar stem. This I did when I was a young boy too, because I was illiterate and there was no one to teach me. That proved to me the need for more education of the people in Guatemala to improve their general health status and standard of living.

It was surprising for me to see that the same tree species, like bamboo and others, that we have in Uganda, also grow in Guatemala.

Also waking up in that new environment: looking at volcanoes that I used to teach the children in high school in Uganda about, using my text book knowledge, on this visit was a reality! I saw a real volcanoes—even a steaming one!—making this visit a real learning avenue that will inform my ministry in a special way.

In different villages, hearing the sounds of the birds of nature in the night and day, the cork crows in the early mornings telling people it’s a new day. Villagers then getting up and putting their hand-held hoes onto their backs, and walking to their gardens for farming. Cows roam on the streets, village dogs bark when a car drives past their compound. Huge farmlands with corn growing for food, cane sugar planted alongside village paths grows untouched by the hands of passers-by. Drivers waving to greet each other, many pedestrians on a shared road, children going to school, and people walking to Church—all of this was such a “home feeling” for me.

The quiet nature with mountains and the love of the people, mended my broken soul, healed my disappointed self, by pouring healing balm right onto my heart as I said my unworthy prayers travelling between mountains. The young boys who gather at the football pitch next to the big Church in Aguacate to play soccer every evening till it’s dark, made me feel at home when they asked me to join them to play.

Many people who are not reached and [have not yet been] taught the Gospel are always ready and want to learn more about God. During a two-day retreat that we led, many catechists attended and were so willing to learn.

This shows the unbroken belief established by Christ Himself in the world which is being carried on by the Orthodox Church. I learnt here a reason why some people in the world resist the Gospel;  it’s simply because they are not reached and taught the Gospel and the words of Christ, which they need to hear and to get comfort from, by God’s words (Mathew 9:35–38).

By seeing the need to know more about Christ among the people of Guatemala, I experienced what Fr. Martin Ritsi at OCMC said during our orientation at Florida: that out of the people called to be missionaries only 5% of the them become missionaries around the world!

And so I asked myself: Is it OCMC to be blamed for not sending many missionaries around the world to teach and spread the Gospel? No only 5% out of the people who learnt about the mission do respond. The need for more missionary work around the world is needed to spread the Gospel, which is a move toward God that all of us can bring to people. This can only be possible and can only happen when we allow our hearts to be transformed by mission works: to go outside our town, cities, and countries to other nations and spread the Gospel. The only hardship is making our decision to “Go,” but it’s a blessing to have OCMC, an organization that support missions with its staff ready to share experiences about mission works, and it’s also a blessing to have others who support missions.

Remembering the time we set up to the airport, Fr. Chad Hatfield, the president of St. Vladimir’s Seminary, woke up and by 5:00 a.m., he was ready to bless our travel, teaching us for tomorrow to support mission works at any time and to spread the Gospel to other communities both in our local churches and abroad. He also gave us copies of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary Annual reports that we handed to the people in Guatemala.

Our time in Guatemala showed all of us that Christ calls us to meet Him anywhere when we hear the call and to respond in order to share Him with others.

When I was preparing my presentation in Guatemala, I prayed, and I found the strength to talk about the power of the Holy Spirit: how the Holy Spirit performs miracles, convinces and restrains; commands and directs people; can be prayed to and asked to intercede on a person's behalf; and how He gives believers gifts.

I then chose to talk about the life of St. Nektarios, and I used his icon [in my talk]. I described how the saint himself lived in poverty with his parents at an early age and endured just like the Guatemalan people are living and enduring; and how he used prayers as the primary tools or weapons for anything in his life as a Christian. His miracles are understood in relation to the power of Holy Spirit, when we believe. So when we follow his footsteps we become holy icons through the power of the Holy Spirit and that becomes our better way to see heaven.

It was good to see children sit with their parents and listen to our teachings in Church. This reminded me of the teaching of St. George that says, “Teach them when they are young” found in Proverbs 22:6.

Liturgically, it was so joyous to be in the four different Divine Liturgies we attended, listening to the music sung by everyone by heart. And even if we didn’t understand the language, we were still moved by the beautiful liturgies, which were a blessing. I was so moved by seeing a full Church during the weekday liturgies that we attended, showing that people put God first in their lives.

Seeing people line up to offer their little gifts in Church from their meager earnings, answered my question: Who is a poor person? It was good to see that the [people of the] Guatemalan Church make their own vestments with the local materials. Some priests are so gifted, and they paint icons for the local Orthodox churches filled with meanings within the culture.

We visited Orthodox churches and Holy Trinity Monastery, where we also learned projects like bee-keeping, [and keeping] fish, pigs, chicken, rabbit, goats and sheep, which help [to support] the monastery, priests, schools, and other Church growth.

It was also a wonderful endeavor to see Fr. Evangelios nurture the four young seminarians in Guatemala who are exploring Orthodoxy, with a great need to learn more about the faith to serve as ordained ministers in the future, if it’s God’s will. This is a blessing for the already existing priests because a priest told us many young-abled men leave the country, mostly at the productive age of 18 to go and look for Jobs in North America, leaving few to be trained to help the Church. These seminarians were so joyful to be with, especially when we had a session to talk to them and encourage them to help the church.

This is similar to how I came to seminary in America after meeting OCMC mission team in 2008: I became an OCMC mission team translator for 9 years, which led to God working through the members (Sue and Fr. Joseph) whom I continued to meet, and who inspired me to come to study at the Seminary. From the Seminary, my confessor priest, Fr. Chad Hatfield, tries to help me like biological father, together with other professors and my fellow students who are all there for me all the times. This is a real blessing for me. There are always people whom God sends to meet us wherever and whenever we are, and they are actually God’s true messengers, with a message and influence to change our lives forever.

Visiting the Holy Trinity Monastery was a blessing: getting my first blessing from Abbess Nun Mama Ines, hearing all the words of wisdom from Sister Maria who welcomed us, and all the unforgettable joy with the sisters!

The nuns in the Monastery run the first online university in Guatemala, and they enroll and train many young boys and girls, while hiring professors around the world [to teach them]. They are also busy with translations of books into local languages, and running wood workshops that produce Orthodox crosses and pens, and sewing vestments—and many other things.

I thank OCMC and all who supported this trip for us and all who supports OCMC missions. I pray that may God bless all the works of your hands to continue to multiply everyday into productive endings.

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