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.”
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.
The newly ordained Bishop Vasily (center) with members of the Seminary family who traveled to the ordination: (from left) Dr. Alexander Lingas, Fr. Alexander Rentel, Dn. Harrison Basil Russin, Dr. Ionuț-Alexandru Tudorie, and Fr. Bogdan Bucur.
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.”
Bishop Vasily was honored by the Seminary community at a going-away luncheon June 8, following Divine Liturgy for the Feast of Pentecost.
May God grant the newly ordained Bishop Vasily many years!
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.
The Tobler family moving onto campus in August.
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.
Mitchell and Charlie at the Seminary’s Three Hierarchs Chapel.
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.”
The Uhr Family: Michael, Andrea, and Noah
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.
Dr. Tudorie welcomes new students and their families following a Moleben at Three Hierarchs Chapel.
“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:
Fr. Michael Nasser introduces himself to the incoming class.
“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!
St. Vladimir's Seminary Faculty in 1958 at Union Theological Seminary in New York: back row (left to right): Boris Ledkovsky, Fr. Paul Schneirla, Veselin Kesich, Archimandrite Firmilian (Ocokoljić), Nicholas Ozerov; front row: Sophie Koulomzin, Alexander Bogolepov, Fr. Alexander Schmemann, Nicholas Arseniev, Serge Verhovskoy.
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)
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.
Dr. Barnet attending a lecture as a seminarian (front row, far left).
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.
Prof. Barnet as a teaching assistant in the 90s, pictured here with former dean Fr. John Behr (left) before Fr. John’s ordination to the diaconate and priesthood.
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.
The Barnet Family at Pascha, 2009.
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.
Dr. John Barnet, Fr. Thomas Hopko, and Dr. Albert Rossi in 2011.
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!
Prof. Barnet at commencement in 2021 with a then-seminarian and new graduate, now Hieromonk Jacob (Bogdan) Manga (M.Div. ’23) and Fr. Tiberiu Georgian Opris (M.A. ’20; Th.M. ’21).
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.
The Barnet Family: (from left) Jake, Dr. John, Laura, and Zack (and Treble!).
The word “piety” is now seldom used outside the Church. What precisely is piety, let alone biblical piety?
In the new bookBiblical Piety and Prayer from St. Vladimir’s Seminary (SVS) Press, author Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon explores figures from the Old and New Testaments to examine the concepts of piety and prayer from a biblical perspective. He delves deeply into the Scriptures, consulting both the Hebrew and the Septuagint texts, constantly making reference to the readings and interpretations of a wide range of Church Fathers from both East and West.
“Above all, when it comes time for prayer, ‘Pray to your Father in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you,’” Fr. Patrick writes in the book. “Biblical piety begins with the Christian’s conscience under the gaze of his Father who sees. He enters the secrecy of his heart and, closing the door as best he can, begins to pray, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven.’”
“Fr. Reardon effectively applies the Scriptures to our practical, moral, and devotional lives, and he does so with his characteristic erudition (the footnotes alone … constitute a course in biblical and patristic knowledge all by themselves),” writes fellow author Addison Hodges Hart, who reviewed Biblical Piety and Prayer for his blog The Pragmatic Mystic. “Although his knowledge of philosophy is plainly visible (a subject he taught for some years), his primary objective is to provide spiritual guidance.”
Biblical Piety and Prayer is available in paperback (5.5×8.5) and as an eBook at SVSPress.com.
The Very Reverend Patrick Henry Reardon is a senior editor at Touchstone magazine, the author of many books—including Romans: An Orthodox Commentary and Revelation: A Liturgical Prophecy (SVS Press)—and of hundreds of articles and essays, a popular podcaster, and the retired pastor of All Saints Orthodox Church in Chicago.
In his new role as Manager of Operations for St. Vladimir’s Seminary (SVS) Press, Dr. Daniel Stauffer gets to combine his academic expertise in late Byzantine theology with his aptitude for business. He spent the past eight years at the University of Notre Dame, where he completed a master’s degree, obtained a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies, and conducted postdoctoral research. As a native of Ithaca, NY, he now returns home to New York State with his wife and four children. As we welcome Dr. Stauffer to the Seminary, he tells us about the books that sparked his love of theology, what he hopes to bring to his new role at SVS Press, and how snapping turtles stirred up an exciting day on campus for his kids!
Dr. Daniel, tell us a little about your background and your time at Notre Dame.
I grew up in Ithaca, NY, so just a couple hours away—in the nice part of New York State [laughs]. But I met my wife Deandra at Notre Dame. She’s originally from Texas. At the time we met, she had just finished her master’s in theology and I had just started my master’s degree, also in theology. But I would say that in her heart her true interest is in literature.
Ah, so with a background in theology and literature, she must have been excited when you told her about the possibility of working for SVS Press! How did that possibility come about while you were at Notre Dame?
Yes, she was definitely excited about that!
Well, at Notre Dame I was there for a really long time, studying with, in particular, Protopresbyter Dr. Alexis Torrance, who is an Orthodox theologian on the faculty there. And Fr. Alexis was great. Even though my Ph.D. was in medieval studies, within that I focused almost exclusively on Byzantine theology. My dissertation was on the Christologies of the hesychast controversy, which was really fun. That’s being reviewed for publication now. Hopefully one day it’ll see the light of day [laughs]. So I spent the last eight years studying theology, and then teaching a bit at Notre Dame as well.
Following those studies, I decided that academia was perhaps not the route I wanted to take in my life. It was very fortuitous that Fr. Alexis knew [Seminary Dean] Dr. Tudorie. I guess Dr. Tudorie reached out to Fr. Alexis and said, “We’re looking for someone for the Press. Do you know anyone who would be a good fit?” Then Fr. Alexis passed that along to me. It’s a beautiful thing to get a job that way, that absolutely falls into your lap [laughs]. So that’s how I got this job. My advisor recommended me to Dr. Tudorie. He interviewed me and liked that I have an academic background and eventually offered me the position.
I thought working for SVS Press would be pretty cool. As I said, I didn’t want a life in academia, but I still really enjoyed theology, and this was a way to keep in contact with that in some sense. Also, I would be involved with the business aspects of the Press. Though that’s not something I spent time doing at Notre Dame the past several years, that mode of thought comes very naturally to me. I was, amongst other things, an economics major in my undergraduate studies. So I’m getting back in touch with some different ways of thinking from my past, you might say. I’m enjoying that aspect of working with the Press a lot. There’s a theological dimension, but then there’s this other dimension—the more mathematical, business side—that I think comes naturally to me too. I’d like to think that I offer something a little different that maybe will bear some fruit for the Press in the future.
Dr. Daniel and Deandra at Notre Dame graduation with their children: Abraham (5), twins Anastasia and Margaret (3), and Mary (1).
What sparked your desire to study theology?
The summer after my freshman year of college, for reasons that are unclear to me, I picked up Jaroslav Pelikan’s five-volume series The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. I read all five volumes, and it just opened my mind to a whole world of Christian theology that I’d had very little contact with up to that point. I was raised as a non-denominational Protestant, so I read the Bible and knew it reasonably well. But reading Pelikan opened my eyes to a lot of questions and things I didn’t know existed, and so that’s really what got me into theology. Ever since I read those books, I’ve been very interested in theology, especially in a historical key. The way I approach theology is very historical, as that way comes most naturally to me, although that is certainly not the only way to approach theology, of course.
Was that experience with Pelikan’s books what led you to the Orthodox Church?
Yeah, I mean it definitely led me, not directly, but it set me on the path, you might say, to becoming Orthodox. It wasn’t immediate. But I was baptized in 2015 at Holy Apostles, which is an OCA parish, in Lansing, NY. So that was my parish in college, because I went to college in my hometown. It’s been very nice that I get to go back there occasionally when I go home to visit my parents and maintain a bit of the relationships with the people I knew at Holy Apostles during those years. Normally, after you graduate college and leave the parish you had gone to, you might never see those people again. One of the great things about being here, at St. Vladimir’s, is that it’s significantly closer to my family.
How has the move to campus been for you and your family?
I think the transition to living at St. Vladimir's has gone pretty well. We really like the apartment we’re in, and the Seminary, the campus, is really lovely. I remember the second or third day, my family was in the apartment. My kids all ran up to the balcony because there were two snapping turtles having a fight in Crestwood Lake! We just watched from our balcony. That was pretty cool, right? Every morning my son is excited to look out from the balcony and listen for different bird calls that he tries to recognize. So it has been a good transition. We’re of course sad to leave our home and our friends in South Bend, IN, but we’ve enjoyed it here.
Do you have any hobbies you enjoy at the moment?
Initially my hobby was theology, and then I turned that into my profession for a long time as a grad student. I mean, at this point, I don't know. I don't have a lot of time for hobbies between the children and the academic work I was doing for a long time. And now, I've been pretty busy with the Press up to this point. Yeah, that's a lame answer. There were hobbies once [laughs].
To learn more about St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press and browse its collection, visit SVSPress.com.
On this Feast of Holy Transfiguration, St. Vladimir’s Seminary remembers the eminent Orthodox Church musician and noted Professor Boris Ledkovsky, on the 50th anniversary of his repose in the Lord (+Aug. 6, 1975).
Boris Ledkovsky was born in 1894 in Agrafenovka, Russia. The son of a priest, Boris began directing a church choir from the age of 14. Ledkovsky founded and directed various choirs in Europe (France and Germany) before arriving in America in 1951 with his wife and children. He joined St. Vladimir's Seminary faculty in 1953 and served as its choir director in the early years, when the Seminary was still located on 121st Street in New York City.
Professor Ledkovsky became one of the most influential Orthodox Church musicians of the twentieth century, playing a key role in changing the style of singing in North American Orthodox churches. In his compositions, Ledkovsky attempted to convey what he so often referred to as “tserkovnost” (i.e., churchly), drawing inspiration from the old Russian chants. He emphasized the importance of the text—and that the music should never predominate over it—and composed music in service of the sacred words sung in liturgical settings. One of his students, David Drillock—who would go on serve for many years himself as the Seminary's Professor of Liturgical Music—recalled, “I became very close to Professor Ledkovsky and can remember so vividly how, when I would excitedly show him some piece of music that I had heard and was asking him why we shouldn’t sing it, he would look at me, shake his head, and simply reply, ‘Ny, David, eto ne tserkovno’ (But, David, this is not churchly).”
Under Ledkovsky's direction, the St. Vladimir's Seminary Male Choir achieved such a high level that the choir gave several public concerts in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1961 the first recording by the Seminary choir was produced. Boris Ledkovsky directed and, for the most part, the selections were settings of chant done by Ledkovsky along with a few of his own compositions. Drillock described the transformation that the work of Ledkovsky and others helped set in motion during those years throughout the Church in North America:
Already as a result of the annual Lenten visits to parishes on the east coast and the annual concerts which we gave in New York City, and especially by the lectures given by Fr. Alexander [Schmemann] throughout the entire country in churches and college campuses, an awareness that liturgical worship and church singing were not only vestiges of an “ancient, colorful rite” but something that was relevant and meaningful to contemporary life was beginning to take hold.
Then, in 1964 a recording of the Divine Liturgy in English with Prof. Ledkovsky directing was made. The choir was recognized, as one reviewer for TheNew York Times put it, as “almost a professional chorus,” and among church people it was known not only for its “prayerful” renditions of church music but also as the choir most responsible in America for arousing interest in the ancient liturgical chants of the Russian Orthodox Church.
(Although that 1964 album is no longer in publication, the recording has been posted online. Other recorded compositions and arrangements of Ledkovsky's may be downloaded via Musica Russica.)
Toward the end of his life, Professor Ledkovsky’s work at St. Vladimir’s Seminary was limited to one rehearsal a week, though he also continued to compose music for the choir, which Professor Drillock would adapt to English. Ledkovsky was commissioned by the Seminary to write a Vespers, which in turn was adapted for English and published by St. Vladimir’s Seminary in 1976. Professor Ledkovsky never saw the published work, as he died in 1975 after battling lung cancer.
His beloved wife, Marina Viktorovna Ledkovsky, whom he married in 1943, was a pioneering scholar of Russian women’s studies. She was appointed full professor jointly at Barnard College and Columbia University in 1979 and remained there until her retirement in 1996. She fell asleep in the Lord in 2014. Boris and Marina had four children: Alexander (also a noted church musician), Dimitri, Tatiana, and Michael.
Over the coming academic year, to commemorate 50 years since his falling asleep, the Seminary's liturgical music curriculum and programs, led by The Rev. Dn. Dr. Harrison Russin and Zachariah Mandell, will pay special tribute to Boris Ledkovsky's prolific career and contributions.
May the memory of Professor Boris Ledkovsky be eternal!
St. Vladimir's Seminary Faculty in 1958 at Union Theological Seminary in New York: back row (left to right): Boris Ledkovsky, Fr. Paul Schneirla, Veselin Kesich, Archimandrite Firmilian (Ocokoljić), Nicholas Ozerov; front row: Sophie Koulomzin, Alexander Bogolepov, Fr. Alexander Schmemann, Nicholas Arseniev, Serge Verhovskoy.
More about the work of Ledkovsky, other noted figures, and significant historical events in North American Orthodox liturgical music may be found in Professor Drillock’s “My Life in Church Music.”
