Our annual Missions Weekend will feature two fascinating speakers this year, especially in light of world events—one from South Korea, and one from Albania. A campus student-interest group, the St. Innocent Society, is sponsoring the presentations. [img_assist|nid=24156|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=300|height=450]SOUTH KOREA

[img_assist|nid=24181|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=300|height=450]Archpriest John H. Erickson, our former Dean and the Peter N. Gramowich Professor of Church History Emeritus, will be “coming home” to our campus on Friday, October 27, to deliver the 2017 Annual Florovsky Lecture. The lecture, which honors another former Dean of our seminary, Archpriest Georges Florovsky, is being sponsored by The Orthodox Theological Society of America (OTSA), which will be meeting on our campus October 26–28.

[img_assist|nid=24516|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=200|height=200]Do you ever read the Epistle, or read the Psalms or other Old Testament readings at Vespers? Or, have you ever chanted the Hours? Or, have you ever wondered why Orthodox Christians chant when they read, instead of using a speaking voice? Then the “Workshop for Readers and Musicians,” sponsored by the Diocese of New York and New Jersey (Orthodox Church in America) and hosted on the campus of St. Vladimir’s Seminary, is for you. Whether or not you are a tonsured reader, if you have ever read during liturgical services or simply want to know more about reading during liturgical services, we welcome you to be a participant in this workshop.

[img_assist|nid=25021|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=299|height=251]As part of the Seminary’s “Revitalizing Parish Music” program, a “Music on the Mount” concert will be given Saturday, October 21 at 7 p.m. at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, in Danbury, CT, where Archpriest Luke Mihaly is the pastor. A select mixed choir led by Robin Freeman, who is the Director of Music at the Seminary, will be performing pieces taken from a forthcoming SVS Press CD titled, “Every Day Will I Bless Thee,” as well as some traditional hymns.

[img_assist|nid=25366|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=300|height=200]We are excited to welcome Khouria Krista West, clergy wife, mother, ecclesiastical tailor, and proprietor of Krista West Vestments to St. Vladimir’s October 14–16. Khouria Krista is the commentator of the podcast series, “The Opinionated Tailor,” produced by Ancient Faith Ministries, and is also the author of the SVS Press title: The Garments of Salvation: Orthodox Christian Liturgical Vesture .

[img_assist|nid=25481|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=200|height=150]The 35 th Annual Father Alexander Schmemann lecture will focus on the centenary anniversary of the enthronement of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow. Dr. Scott Kenworthy, seminary alumnus (M.A. ’96) and associate professor of Comparative Religion at Miami University, Ohio, will be our guest lecturer. The title of his address is: “St. Tikhon of Moscow (1865–1925) and the Orthodox Church in North America and Revolutionary Russia.” The lecture will be part of an Academic Convocation that includes the Commencement Ceremony for graduating Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) students. The graduating students, who comprise the Cohort of 2017, are the first group ever to have been enrolled in the hybrid D.Min.

[img_assist|nid=25501|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=300|height=252] On Sunday, December 3, at 7 p.m., the St. Vladimir’s Seminary Chorale will take listeners on a musical spiritual journey by presenting a concert titled, “Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs.” The event, to be performed in Three Hierarchs Chapel on the seminary campus, will commemorate the 100 th anniversary of the election and enthronement of Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow. The program will include music of the Orthodox Christian Church, selected from the daily and festal liturgical cycles.

Decades ago, masterpieces from the Orthodox musical tradition by composers such as Tchaikovsky and Bortniansky used to be sung regularly by average church choirs in both Russia and America. However, as choir membership in America dwindled in many parishes, the ability to sing challenging repertoire likewise diminished. Works from the past became mere museum pieces, and new works being created by gifted church musicians remained beyond the reach of many parish choirs. Both traditional and fresh compositions are often now heard only either in concert or on recordings.

[img_assist|nid=27091|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=300|height=424]Come, see St. Vladimir’s Seminary We warmly welcome you to our campus Open House, Thursday, March 8, 2018, for an immersion into seminary life:

[img_assist|nid=27106|title=|desc=Russian Orthodox woman prays, gazing at an icon, in an Orthodox parish in St. Petersburg (CNS photo: Robert Duncan)|link=none|align=left|width=300|height=189]One hundred years after the Russian (Bolshevik) Revolution of 1917, a documentary movie recently produced and released by Catholic News Service chronicles both the ruin of the Russian Orthodox Church during that time and the rebirth of the Church following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.