Alumnus Reverend Deacon Nicholas Denysenko, Ph.D. and Alumna Clio Pavlantos, M.A., C.M.A., M.Div. and B.C.C. will both be participating in a Pan-Orthodox Conference entitled, “Renewing the Male and Female Diaconate in the Orthodox Church,” October 6–October 7, 2017, at St. Paul Greek Orthodox Church, 4949 Alton Parkway, Irvine, CA.
Deacon Nicholas is Director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California, where he also holds the position of Associate Professor of Theological Studies, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts. He is the author of "A Liturgical Theology of Primacy" in the volume Primacy in the Church: The Office of Primate and the Authority of Councils. Deacon Nicholas received his doctoral degree from The Catholic University of America and has taught at The Catholic University of America, George Washington University, and at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.
Ms. Pavlantos is currently Staff Chaplain serving the outpatient Breast and Imaging Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City; she is the first chaplain there posted to outpatient care. She received her M.Div. from St. Vladimir's Seminary and holds a chaplain endorsement from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese.
In four sessions, participants at the conference will hear a variety of presentations on: (1) the present state of the diaconate; (2) ways men and women are engaged in diaconal ministry today; (3) opportunities to engage with both clergy and faithful on the rejuvenation of the male and female diaconate; and (4) current challenges and future possibilities of the diaconate for the building up of the body of Christ.
Among the other presenters at the conference are two seminary faculty members, Archpriest Alexander Rentel, S.E.O.D. and Priest Anthony Gregg Roeber, and one seminary trustee, Reverend Protodeacon Peter Danilchick. For more information or to download a flier, visit the St. Phoebe Center website.
When most people think of preparation for ministry in the context of the Orthodox Church, they think of attending seminary: learning how to sing all eight tones of the Octoechos, how to preach sermons, how to swing a censer, how to minister to young and old in a parish.
How about learning how to put out fires in a burning building, or saving a ship hit by a torpedo from sinking, or getting up at 0430 every morning to run and work your muscles well before dawn, or ministering to believers and non–believers in a combat unit?
I had already completed the requirements in the first paragraph—my M.Div. at St. Vladimir’s—but that sufficed for being an Orthodox priest. I needed the second set of skills in order to embark on another path I have been blessed to tread: that of a chaplain in the United States Navy. The first part of the training by which such skills are acquired is called Officer Development School (ODS), a five–week course in military basics, officer leadership, fitness training, and disaster preparedness. Along with 60 other officers assigned to Class 12110, Uniform Company, I attended ODS at the Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island, from September 9 to October 12, 2012.
Having grown up in the military (both my parents were Marines) and having spent several years in a monastery, I was accustomed to a life marked by routine and by orders; the same was not the case for many of my shipmates when we first started our course. A large part of the ODS experience is militarization, especially important because the officers attending this school are “directly commissioned,” that is, they receive a commission not based on any prior military education or experience, but on the basis of the professional knowledge and experience they bring to the military. All of us in Class 12110 fell into this camp: chaplains, clinical psychologists, nurses, dentists, surgeons, and scientists of all sorts. The Navy needed our skills and talents, but before we could serve our nation’s sailors and Marines, we needed the Navy to show us what it means to be an officer and sailor.
Our days were long and tiring: waking up at 0430 (that’s 4:30 a.m. for civilians), having an hour of PT (physical training) every morning, getting used to all the military acronyms too! Three meals a day, fifteen minutes only allotted for mealtime, no talking, lest we incur the wrath of the Marine drill instructors and Navy RDCs (recruit division commanders) watching our every bite. Wearing our uniforms and preparing them for inspection: this badge must be one quarter inch above the pocket and centered, no more, no less; your bed sheets folded just so; your shower shoes and laundry bag hung on the hook thus. All this attention to detail is important—it helps make one aware of the details in all of our lives as Naval officers, of the small things that can make or break a ship, or save or kill a life in battle or in a hospital. But to me, as a hieromonk in the Orthodox Christian tradition, the attention to detail was very welcome, a sign pointing to the present in the midst of our trials and tribulations throughout the five weeks. “Don’t worry about the inspection tomorrow,” I’d say to myself, “just worry about marching in step right now,” or: “Just focus on your thousand–yard stare right now.” Past and future fled away to reveal simply the present, and simultaneously, simply the presence of God guiding me and my shipmates in our training.
As a chaplain in the U.S. Navy, I enjoy certain privileges, but also must bear certain crosses no other officer must. As a chaplain, I can bypass the chain of command—I have direct access to the commanding officer (CO) (whether he/she be a commander, captain, admiral, depending on the type of command), and the COs confer with chaplains often about the climate of their command, and how their sailors and officers are doing. But as a chaplain, I also am the only officer who has complete confidentiality: if a sailor or Marine comes to me in confidence, I cannot tell anyone else what he or she has said. This is much like confession in the Orthodox Church, but can be a great burden at times, both in the military as well as in the parish. I am called to enter into both the joys and sufferings of others.
This took place even during my training time. One night, after a long day involving me as a chaplain, after keeping my chin up and my military bearing spot on, I retired to my hatch (=my room) after chow (=dinner), shut the door, and just started to cry, and offer up the pain and sorrows that had been given to me in confidence to the one Person I can always talk to, Jesus Christ. One of my shipmates, a nuclear instructor, heard my sobs and knocked on the door, to see if I was all right. I said I would be, but that this was one of the hard parts of the chaplaincy, one of the sacrifices I and other chaplains make for our nation and those whom we serve: to bear their pain in silence and confidence, opening it only to the Lord. My shipmate had not realized until that point the real sacrifice of the Chaplain Corps, and that moment brought us together in greater understanding of how we both were serving our fellow sailors, albeit in different but equally important ways.
Chaplains in the Navy serve our country’s sailors, Marines, and Coast Guard on the spiritual front; but like any other officer or sailor, we too are full Naval officers, and must be ready to help in any way, in any emergency. Part of our training involved passing the 3rd Class Swim Test, which involves: jumping off a 10-foot tower and swimming to safety; being submerged in full khaki uniform, and inflating your trousers and blouse to be life vests; and swimming 50 meters nonstop to safety. We learned how to fight fires onboard ships, and consequently suited up completely in firefighting gear, complete with oxygen tanks and real flames, to put out fires in a simulated ship space. We also learned about water damage control on board the “SS Buttercup,” a ship simulator rigged to give us the experience of a torpedo striking the hull. We started to list about 30 degrees to starboard (=to the right), taking on water, and had to put our book knowledge into practice: bracing breached hatches, turning off valves to burst pipes, deploying hoses to drain flooded compartments. We saved the ship, we grew closer together as a team and company, and we emerged ready to serve our nation’s finest.
On October 12, 2012, we had our graduation ceremony in front of many family and friends. I was very blessed to have my diocesan bishop, The Right Rev. Bishop Michael, and my uncle and aunt, Lt. Col. David Searle, USAF, and Mrs. Jodie Searle, attend the celebrations. The commanding officer of Officer Training Command Newport, Captain Vernon Kemper, beamed at all of us, 61 officers from all parts of the United States, who had come to Newport as individuals, but were leaving as brothers and sisters in the US Navy, and welcomed our guest speaker, Rear Admiral Rebecca McCormick-Boyle, the Chief of Staff, Bureau of Medicine. RDML McCormick-Boyle, a nurse who had trodden the same path as us at ODS some 30 years prior, inspired us to hold on to that spirit of camaraderie and dedication as we embarked on our Navy careers, and our families and friends applauded as we renewed our Oaths of Office.
For me, a bit of a pause had come. Unlike the other 59 officers, I and the other chaplains have one more year of Reserve and parish service before taking up active duty service. Yet the experience of attending ODS confirmed for me the sense of vocation to this rare calling: to be an Orthodox monk, and priest, and Navy chaplain. I don’t know of many others who’ve had this particular combination – in fact, right now, I’m the only such chaplain the U.S. Navy. But by God’s grace, I hope to spend many years being a presence of love, comfort, consolation, and confidence to all who serve our nation and put their lives in harm’s way so that ours might not be exposed to such dangers.
Anchors aweigh! Hope to see you in the Fleet!
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Hieromonk Kilian (Sprecher), a seminarian in the Master of Theology program at St. Vladimir’s, is a chaplain in the U.S. Navy Reserves. Father Kilian was the first monk to be tonsured to the monastic rank of “Lesser Schema” in the seminary’s Three Hierarchs Chapel in 2010 and was the first monk on campus to be inducted into the U.S. Naval Reserves as a chaplain. Father is also serving as the Acting Rector of St. Gregory of Palamas Church in Glen Gardner, NJ.
Alumnus Father John Parker is rector of Holy Ascension Orthodox Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Father John earned his Master of Divinity degree at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. After serving for a brief period as curate at Holy Cross Episcopal Church on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, he and his wife, Matushka Jeanette, along with their two sons, embraced the Orthodox faith in 2002. Father John went on to earn his Master of Theology degree at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in 2004. In October 2011, he was appointed Chair of the Department of Evangelization of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA).
Father John is a regular contributor to the “Lord Send Me” podcast series on Ancient Faith Ministries. In his latest podcast, “Remembering Fr. Thomas Hopko,” he recalls “Father Tom’s” enormous influence on him and his family during his days as a seminarian at St. Vladimir’s.
Alumnus Archpriest Dimitrie Vincent will interview seminary President Archpriest Chad Hatfield on Detroit's Own Orthodox Radio, commonly known as DOOR, on Sunday afternoon, 4 p.m., March 26, 2017. During the interview, Fr. Chad will touch upon aspects of the liturgical services celebrated during the Saturdays of Great Lent, including Memorial Saturdays, Lazarus Saturday, and Holy Saturday. Father Chad has written two booklets related to the points he made on the radio broadcast: Holy Saturday: Baptism and the Great Commission and Lazarus Saturday: Resurrection and the Faith of Children.
As a mission priest for the last three years, Priest Andre Paez, Rector of Saint John the Evangelist Mission here, states that his greatest joy has been helping people “come into Christ’s Church and participate in the mystery of His divine resurrected life.
“As a ‘fisher of men,’ I am always looking for ways to accomplish this and help our mission grow,” said Father Andre, who enthusiastically shared some of the latest and most effective digital tools he employs in reaching out into the wider community.
“One of the first administrative tasks I accomplished at Saint John’s was to get set up Google Apps,” said Father Andre. “Google Apps offers users access to Google’s robust suite of cloud based tools, like Gmail, Google calendar, Google docs, YouTube, and more. It is very important for the priest’s church e-mail address to match the church web site domain, which helps to ‘brand’ the church and build awareness in the local community.”
Father Andre adds that maintaining an up-to-date parish web site is also important.
“In 2015, we updated our mission’s web site by purchasing the #1 WordPress template called ‘X Theme’ from Themco,” Father Andre continued. “The template was very easy to customize and included a one-time $64.00 charge. Saint John’s new WordPress site is hosted by Go daddy, which is also the company we used to purchase our domain name. For those who are less tech-savvy, professional freelancers to help with web site and other projects can be found on Fiverr.com and Upwork.com.”
Father Andre explained that Saint John’s uses a cloud based Church Management System from ACS Technologies called “Realm.”
“Realm is a very effective tool for monitoring church attendance and other metrics, creating a private on-line community and collecting tithe contributions on-line,” Father Andre noted. “Most of our parishioners give to our church in this way and set up automatic giving on a schedule of their choosing. Of all the church management systems I’ve researched, Realm offers the greatest features at the most cost effective price.”
To help manage Saint John’s plethora of projects, Father Andre uses Asana.com, which is free for up to 15 people.
.“Asana enables effective communication for project team members in monitoring the accomplishment of project tasks and goals,” Father Andre said. “For mass communication, we use MailChimp as the primary tool for our digital newsletter and mission-wide communications. One can send 12,000 e-mails each month to a list of up to 2,000 subscribers at no cost with MailChimp’s ‘Forever Free’ plan. This has served us well as we send a weekly newsletter, which highlights the upcoming liturgical schedule, showcases ministries, and promotes upcoming events, and a newsletter on our Facebook page. People always enjoy seeing pictures of our church feasts, men’s and women’s group activities, our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Church School program, and more.”
Another very powerful tool Father Andre uses is “Facebook live.”
“Using an app called ‘Facebook Page Manager,’ one can easily stream an event live from a mobile phone,” said Father Andre. “We currently stream the Sunday Epistle and Gospel readings and sermon live, which is helpful for parishioners who may be sick or who live in distant areas.”
Father Andre, whose mission is one of five which currently receive Church Planting Grants from the Orthodox Church in America, emphasizes that “having organized local church communities will empower the priest and the faithful to help newcomers get connected and acclimated to church life.
“An active web site and a Facebook presence with videos and images of church life helps people experience the community before they make their initial visit,” Father Andre stated. “Ultimately we pray that what they see will encourage them to discover Jesus Christ in the life of His Orthodox Church.”
Follow the growth of Saint John the Evangelist Mission at www.stjohnaz.org.
[Text and photos used with permission from oca.org]
When I was a child, I enjoyed playing in the basement. There were nooks and crannies to hide in, and decades of accumulated stuff to explore. It was a little spooky down there, and I was convinced that witches lived down there. But as long as the lights were on, I was unafraid. When I had to go back upstairs, I had a problem. The switch for the lights was at the bottom of the stairs, so I had to turn off the lights before I was safely upstairs. When I flipped that switch and the light went off, I was sure that the witches would come grab me if I didn’t get up the stairs in about five seconds. Every time I came up from the basement, I turned off the lights and sprinted up the stairs as fast as I could, just to be safe from the witches. I must have been fast enough, because I’m still alive today!
Like the witches in the basement, sins and temptations can’t grab me if the light of Christ is shining in the basement of my soul. When we confess our sins openly to Christ in the presence of a witness (the priest) the light comes on, and our sins can’t get a hold of us. Our problem comes when we hide our sins out of shame or pride. This is why David prayed, “Cleanse me from my hidden faults.” (Psalm 19/18) When we look honestly at ourselves and confess our shortcomings, we begin to get freedom from the sins and temptations we try to hide from others. As St John Cassian wrote, “The devil, subtle as he is, cannot ruin or destroy [someone] unless he has enticed him either through pride or through shame to conceal his thoughts.”
Confession is not meant to produce guilty feelings. It is a safe place to be open about the secrets that bother us and cause sinful behavior. Honest confession cleanses us from hidden faults.
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The son of a Church of the Brethren pastor, Fr. David Chandler Poling (SVOTS ’12) grew up in rural Pennsylvania. He and his wife, Emilita, married in 2000, and moved to New York City in 2002. A few years later they joined the OCA at the Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection. They have three children: Elias, Mariam, and John. Fr. David is the acting rector of St. Innocent Mission in Oneonta, New York. You can read more of his writing, where this reflection originally appeared, on his blog: Fruits of the Spirit.
Alumnus Father John Edward (M.A. ’15) was recently featured in this article, which appeared in newsitem.com, a local media outlet in Shamokin, PA. Father John, pastor of St. Michael’s Orthodox Church, Mount Carmel, PA, and his wife, Suja, have three children. [photo and story by Julie Hagenbuch; used with permission from newsitem.com]
MOUNT CARMEL — A passion for church history can lead a Christian to wade knee-deep in the River Jordan, stand beneath Juan Diego’s cloak at the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City or take communion at the Vatican in Rome. For Father John Edward, a lifelong commitment to Christian history led him right here, to St. Michael’s Orthodox Church in Mount Carmel.
Born in Malaysia to Indian parents, Edward was exposed to an array of religious traditions and expressions from an early age. The most common faith in his home country, Islam, is practiced peacefully alongside Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity, as well as ancestral Chinese religions.
“Malaysia was a very, very friendly country,” he said during an interview at his home last week.
With such a broad view of the forms faith can take, Edward traveled to India when he came of age to study theological education, completing his studies in 1990. He then moved back to his home country, where he served as an Anglican minister for a decade. It was during these first years of his vocation that he married his wife, Suja, and the two started a family.
Back to ‘cradle of Christianity’
But Edward’s thirst for knowledge and faith exploration continued to grow and change. In 2001, he was accepted into a post-graduate program at Princeton Seminary focusing on the history of the early church, for which he moved to the United States to become a Master of Theology, then serving the Episcopal Church throughout New Jersey and New York for 10 years.
“My interest has always been church history,” said Edward, “That led me to actually want to go back to the early church — the church that Jesus formed, the church that the apostles were a part of.”
But protestant faiths like Anglicanism that emerged from the reformation came around much later, beginning in the 1500s.
“I just wanted to go back to the roots — the cradle of Christianity,” said Edward.
It took him a few years “to discern, to look, to search” — a time during which he explored a variety of church traditions and Christian denominations. At the end of his search, he found an answer.
“Ultimately my search led me to the Orthodox Church because (it) has come down for the past 2000 years without changing anything,” he said. “The faith has been intact. As one of our saints, Saint Nikolai of Japan, says, ‘We don’t add anything and we don’t remove anything.’”
Big city to small town
And so Edward began the next step in his faith formation: he attended seminary at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary in Yonkers, New York, and was ordained in June 2015 to the priesthood. The archbishop of Eastern Pennsylvania suggested he would be a good fit at St. Michael’s in Mount Carmel, and within a week the Edward family — now numbering five — packed up and moved to Pennsylvania.
“Initially moving from such a big city to a small town needed some adjustment,” he said, “but we have adjusted well. We kind of like the peace and quiet, the calmness of this place. We don’t have to worry about traffic jams or getting to places on time. It’s really nice.”
And the Edward family, which includes Samuel, 20, Sneha, 19, and Sophia, 15, has been welcomed “with open arms” by a congregation that spent two years without a full-time priest.
“They are just wonderful people,” said Edward. “Very loving, very caring people. Their faith is deeply rooted. Most of my congregation — the elderly ones — their fathers were involved in building this church, so they have so much love for (it.)”
Edward says he is grateful to be serving a congregation that, though small in number, is diverse in age; it includes young families, children and teenagers, as well as senior citizens who have been lifelong members.
‘Here to serve you’
And the congregation is grateful to be giving back to the community again, according to church member Sandy Tosca. At a parish picnic last month, St. Michael’s invited representatives from the Lower Anthracite United Way backpack program, God’s Chuckwagon and Manna for the Many, all of which were presented with a donation from the congregation.
“It is a miracle we went from barely getting by as a parish to finally being able to help our community,” said Tosca.
St. Michael’s has services on Sunday mornings, Vespers services on Saturday evenings and feast day celebrations throughout the year. But what Edward most wants people to know is that the church is open and welcoming to the the entire community.
“St. Michael’s is here to serve you,” he said, offering his church up as one small piece of a Christian faith that continues to weave its way through history.
St. Vladimir's Seminary alumnus, His Grace Bishop Alexander (Golitzin), was enthroned as the second ruling Bishop of Dallas and the South during the weekend of June 10-11, 2016, at Saint Seraphim Cathedral in Dallas, TX. The full story is available on Oca.org.
With the blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Nicolae, the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas partnered with the Center for Orthodox Christian Studies at Fordham University and the Sophia Institute to host the ninth edition of the Annual Symposium of Orthodox Spirituality. The Symposium was held on April 16, 2016 on the campus of Fordham School of Law in New York City, and featured the theme, “Youth Religious Education: Wisdom from Christian Tradition for the Contemporary Society.”
Two St. Vladimir's Seminary alumni—Dr. Ann Bezzerides ('00), adjunct assistant professor of Religious Studies at Hellenic College in Brookline, MA, and the Very Reverend Dr. Joseph Purpura ('79), chair of the Department of Youth and Parish Ministries for the Antiochian Archdiocese—were guest speakers, as was the Very Reverend Dr. Chad Hatfield, SVOTS Chancellor/CEO.
Panel discussions were opened by His Eminence Archbishop Nicolae, who emphasized the importance of the Symposium's topic. He noted that youth religious education must be a permanent concern of the Orthodox Church, because our youth represent not only the present, but also the future of the Church. His Eminence also gave thanks to all those who were involved in organizing the meeting.
Father Theodor Damian moderated the panel of notable guest speakers, which in addition to the St. Vladimir's contingent, included: the Very Reverend Dr. John Anthony McGuckin, professor of Byzantine Christian Studies at Columbia University in New York City; Dr. Aristotle Papanikolaou, professor of Theology at Fordham University; Dr. Harold Horell, assistant professor of Religion at Fordham University; Dr. Fevronia Soumakis, a fellow at the Sophia Institute, Columbia University; Dr. Lucian Turcescu, professor of Historical Theology at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec; and Dr. Anton Vrame, adjunct associate professor of Religious Education at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. At the end of the scheduled program, attendees gathered for Vespers.
Recently I ran across an article mulling over the reasons young adults leave the Church. It’s no secret that as a group we Orthodox haven’t done a very good job of keeping our children connected to our Faith. Indeed, attrition estimates among college aged adults range as high as 60%. The article offered a few sensible explanations as to why young people walk out the door of the Church when they walk through the gates of the university, but as I was reading another question, almost the opposite question, formed itself in my mind: why should they stay? What justification can we offer for asking someone to forego sleeping in on Sunday, giving up meat and dairy for about 6 months of the year, abstaining from the premarital sex their friends are enjoying, and all the other “no’s” that seem to crop up when you’re talking about being a Christian? Our young friends aren’t likely to find the answer, “to stay out of hell” or, “to go to heaven” very persuasive for the simple reason that heaven and hell seem very abstract, very far away, and the pleasures of life seem intensely close, tangible. If we are honest many of us would admit that those answers don’t motivate us either. So why should we ask them to stay? Perhaps we should ask ourselves the same question. Why do we bother with the trouble of being Orthodox Christians, accepting the effort and sacrifice that it requires, rather than just enjoying whatever makes us happy?
In his work, On The Apostolic Preaching, St. Irenaeus of Lyon, reflecting on the fall of man, describes Adam and Eve as little children, biological and spiritual babies, in Paradise. As Irenaeus sees it, Adam and Eve were created immature but with the dynamic capacity to grow and become more and more like God, sharing increasingly in the brilliance of His holiness. St. Symeon the New Theologian says that the human spirit was created to be filled with God and that grace was meant to overflow into our very bodies, filling our whole being with the power and glory of God. But Adam and Eve were young and this capacity was not yet developed when they were tricked by the serpent and cast out of the garden. As a result their growth was stunted. Adam and Eve grew up biologically but their spirit withered outside of Paradise and they never became what mature humans are, the meeting point of the created world and the uncreated God, all full of glory. This was the fate of every person before Christ but through His death and resurrection Christ overturned our sad, unfulfilled lot and made it possible once again for us to come alive and share in the boundlessness of the Father’s eternal life. By washing away our sins in baptism, sealing us with the Holy Spirit in chrismation, and filling us with Himself in communion, Christ draws us up again into the life we are made to experience. This provides what I think is the most powerful answer to the question, “why bother with the trouble of being Orthodox?” We bother with fasting, confession, long services, and all the rest because we want to know what it’s like to be fully human. We want to experience the communion with our Creator that fills us with life. We want to enjoy the awake-ness, the intensity of being, that belongs to a creature wholly itself, shot through with the glory of God.
Young people, perhaps all people, need a purpose in life that is worthy of their effort, worthy of their sacrifice and this is it. If you want to know what it’s like to be fully awake and alive in this life, be a Christian. If you want to experience the fullness of the glory of God that humans are made to experience, put God first in your life and pursue him hard. Don’t settle for a merely biological life that will not last. Reach out for a share of God’s divine life that will not end. Through the disciplines of the Church, we can be, if we are willing, transfigured by the grace of the Holy Spirit into fully human persons capable of experiencing God’s brightness and sharing it with a darkened world. When we reach for that grace, we become more and more alive, more our true selves, more capable of bringing healing to the world around us. Fasting, confession, communion, and all the rest are the road to awe; they make us fully alive and restore us to our calling as stewards of all creation. That is a goal worthy of our sacrifice, and it is what makes all of the trouble worth it.
