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Hellenic College
Mata Dova is on sabbatical for AY 2016-17, working on her third book, The Poetics of Failure in Ancient Greece (Taylor & Francis Publishing). Good luck, Mata!
Athina-Eleni Mavroudhis had her dissertation prospectus approved. Her topic is “Life Stress, Coping Styles (Psychological and Religious), Health Perceptions (Mental and Physical) and Actual Health Outcomes (Chronic Diseases, such as Obesity, Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, Cancer, Anxiety, and Depression) in Eastern Orthodox Clergy Residing in the United States.” Congratulations!
Alice McIntyre is implementing a year-long mindfulness project with a 5th grade class at the Hennigan School in Jamaica Plain in September. The Mind Your Mind is a mindfulness-based program that provides strategies for young people to focus their attention, familiarize themselves with their thoughts and emotions, develop effective skills for addressing various forms of stress, and connect them with others to improve individual and collective well-being. The content that frames the program integrates mindfulness practices; social and emotional learning, such as self-awareness, social awareness, and responsible decision-making; and participatory-based, site-contextualized activities. Bailie Henry, a student in the Elementary Education program, will participate in the project, as will Christina Randol, who will be engaging in her full-time student teaching with Marcia Knowles, the classroom teacher.
John Poirier will offer the keynote address “How to be an exemplary team member,” at the annual conference of the Institute for Student Services Professionals (ISSP) on October 24, in Knoxville, TN, before an audience of approximately 200 participants. The ISSP is a special interest group of the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO). Congratulations, John!
Iona Popa is now a counselor in the Office of Spiritual Formation and Counseling Services. This summer, she offered two presentations: “Unity in Diversity, Parenting and Our Inner Psychological System” at the Workshop for Orthodox Families, St. Methodios Faith and Heritage Center, Contoocook, NH, July 2016; and “On Science and Faith,” for CrossRoad in June and July 2016. She was also invited to present at the PEACE Christian Therapist Organization conference Foundation of Faith and Spirituality in Therapy. Her presentation “In the Image of God: True Self and the Internal Family Systems Model.” Congratulations!
Kathleen Ryan’s article, “The Multimodal Text in the Language Arts Classroom: Multiculturalism and Comprehension Growth” (co-authored with Becky Kennedy) was published this summer in The New England Reading Association Journal. Congratulations, Kathleen!
We welcome several new instructors to our College: Sébastien Falardeau, PhD (cand.), Mary Murphy, MA, PMP, and Andreas Triantafyllou, PhD.
Holy Cross
Dr. Bruce Beck completed an article, “Reading Scripture in the Orthodox Church,” which was requested by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Center for Family Care for its forthcoming Bible for the Family. He also taught three courses during the summer: “Scripture and the Lectionary in the Orthodox Church” for CrossRoad’s second session; “Scripture in the Orthodox Church” for the Diaconate Program; and “Reading Scripture with the Fathers,” which was one of twelve courses offered during the Pappas Patristic Institute’s tenth annual summer program (July 17-22), which he also directed.
Very Rev. Dr. Joachim Cotsonis, Director of the Archbishop Iakovos Library and Learning Resource Center at HCHC, was invited to spend one month, July 6–August 6, at Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard Center for Byzantine Studies, Washington, DC, as a research consultant in order to contribute to the ongoing work of the Dumbarton Oaks’ online Byzantine lead-seal database. Fr. Joachim is focusing on a large number of religious figural iconographic seals for the project. Dumbarton Oaks possesses the largest collection of Byzantine lead seals in the world: 17,000 examples. The seals are the richest body of evidence for the iconography of saintly figures and their cult in Byzantium, and key documents for the study of both Orthodox piety and the political/social use of religious art. Fr. Joachim is one of two leading scholars in North America specializing in the area of the iconography of Byzantine lead seals. While at Dumbarton Oaks, he had the opportunity to collaborate with Eric McGeer, Consultant for Byzantine Sigillography, Jonathan Shea, Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow in Byzantine History/Sigillography and Numismatics, and John Nesbitt, Emeritus Consultant for Byzantine Sigillography.
Rev. Dr. Thomas FitzGerald, Professor of Church History and Historical Theology, and Dr. Kyriaki FitzGerald were honored for their extensive contributions to ecumenical dialogue on May 13, 2016, at the meeting of “Orthodox and Catholics Together of Orange County” at St. Kerollos Coptic Orthodox Church in Westminster, California. Fr. FitzGerald participated in a special ecumenical prayer service which highlighted the importance of Christian reconciliation and the unity of the churches. He offered the homily at the service and addressed the theme of “Prayer, Wisdom, and Witness.” He spoke about the importance of dialogue and the need for greater unity between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. On behalf of Metropolitan Methodios of Boston, Fr. FitzGerald served as coordinator for the meeting of the Committee of Orthodox and Catholic Bishops held at the St. Methodios Faith and Heritage Center in Contoocook, NH, from May 22-24, 2016. Fr. FitzGerald also participated in the meeting of the North American Consultation of Orthodox and Catholic Theologians, held at the St. Methodios Faith and Heritage Center from May 31-June 2, 2016. In addition to serving as the Consultation’s Orthodox Executive Secretary, he delivered a paper on “The Ecumenism of the Orthodox Laity.” He participated in the annual meeting of the Center for Evangelical and Catholic Theology at Loyola University in Baltimore on June 7- 9, 2016. This year’s conference addressed the topic “The Emerging Christian Minority.” Fr. FitzGerald was invited to participate in the ceremonies and services marking the fiftieth anniversary of New Skete Monasteries in Cambridge, New York, on August 5-6, 2006. He contributed an essay titled “A Blessed Pilgrimage” for the volume commemorating the anniversary. As editor of the Greek Orthodox Theological Review, Fr. FitzGerald prepared edition 60:3-4 for publication. Fr. FitzGerald is co-editor of “The Journey Towards Unity,” a collection of all documents from the Orthodox-Catholic theological dialogues. The book will be published by Orientale Lumen Publications in the fall of 2016.
During the summer, besides wrapping up the end of the spring semester courses and teaching the summer section in Liturgical Greek, Dr. Evie Holmberg worked on her presentation at the South West University Neofit Rilski within the Research Center for Ancient European and Eastern Mediterranean Cultures in Bulgaria. The conference is the Second International Symposium on Megalithic Monuments and Cult Practices and is connected to her research on ancient Greek and Christian mystery traditions. The title of her presentation is: “The Dionysian Cult and Initiation into Altered States of Consciousness.” The conference will be held October12-16.
Dr. Timothy Patitsas organized the 2016 St. Helen’s Pilgrimage, which is generously sponsored by the Carlos family. This year the students toured sites in the greater London, England area related to Roman-era Britain, early Christianity in England, or that highlighted Byzantine influence on the English church (such as Canterbury). From there, Dr. Patitsas accompanied the student-pilgrims to sites of significance for Byzantium and early Christianity in Venice, Ravenna, and Rome. Lastly, he took the students to Thessaloniki, where he handed over the group to Dr. Mamalakis, who led the St. Helen’s Pilgrimage for the final seven weeks. Four of this year’s pilgrims served at the Great and Holy Council on Crete, once the main cultural tours had ended. Dr. Patitsas spent the rest of the summer working on the introduction to Orthodox Christian Ethics which he started writing during his sabbatical semester in the fall of 2014 and anticipates finishing this term.
Rev. Dr. Eugen J. Pentiuc, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at HCHC, has just completed his research work at École Biblique et Archéologique Française (EBAF) in Jerusalem. For four summers (2010, ’13, ’15, ’16), Fr. Pentiuc has been working assiduously on his contribution (Book of Hosea) to the first digital Study Bible. Launched in 2008, “La Bible en ses traditions” (B.E.S.T.)/“The Bible in Its Traditions” continues a long tradition of EBAF, the creator of the first Study Bible, La Bible de Jerusalem (1956), known also as The New Jerusalem Bible. The B.E.S.T. offers the modern reader a new Scripture translation based on Greek (Septuagint), Hebrew (Masoretic Text), Syriac (Peshitta), and Latin (Vulgate) texts, accompanied by a wide array of study notes divided into three sections (text, context, and reception) and covering various interpretive aspects, from textual, lexical, and literary notes to Jewish and Christian (patristic and liturgical) commentaries and theological treatises, reaching as far as modern and secular forms of scriptural usage (e.g., literature, visual arts, music, dance, cinema, etc.). By the end of 2016, Fr. Pentiuc’s’s work will be embedded into a pre-designed template on the official B.E.S.T website (www.bibest.org).
Rev. Dr. Philip Zymaris has been finishing the book that he is editing, which is a compilation of the papers given at the International Conference on Liturgical Renewal that he organized in March 2013. This should result in a special volume published by Holy Cross Orthodox Press and an issue of The Greek Orthodox Theological Review devoted solely to this major conference. He also was able to visit the Byzantine town of Monemvasia in July and photographed the thirteenth-century church of Hagia Sophia to enrich the slide-show that he presents to students in the Liturgics core course offered in the spring.
