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St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary [STOTS] welcomed the Class of 2022 last week, with thirteen new students. Ten students represent many of the OCA Dioceses; one student comes from the ROCOR, one from the Antiochian Archdiocese, and one from the Malankara Church.
Incoming students and their families arrive with a variety of life experience and backgrounds, a blended mixture of those raised in the Orthodox Faith, and those who were received as adults; some straight from the University, others from years of work in the world; some single students, and many married with children. Returning in the second and third year classes are 30 others, from equally varied backgrounds, but who share the same goal: to offer themselves, as a living sacrifice to Jesus Christ.
Orientation week culminated with the Annual St. Tikhon’s Alumni cookout and retreat. This year’s talks were delivered by Seminarian Fr. Samuel Davis (Diocese of New York and New Jersey), on the life of Fr. Raphael Morgan, the first Black Orthodox Priest ordained in the USA (in the early 1900s), whose spiritual quest and journey took him across and around the world to find Orthodoxy, including in the court of St. Tsar Nicholas II himself.
Following the annual Labor Day Picnic, headlined by Dogmatics Professor Dr. Harry Boosalis’ Faculty-Student band, “Harry and the Dogmatics”, classes began Tuesday.
“As I enter my second academic year as Dean of St. Tikhon’s, I continue to be humbled by the self-offering of these students and their families,” said Archpriest John Parker, Dean of the seminary. “In a world desperate for sanity and salvation that can only be found in and through Jesus Christ, I am renewed in my hope for strong parishes served by these servants of the Lord.”
St. Tikhon’s Seminary, founded in 1938, has as its singular vision the theological training and pastoral formation of the next generation of clergy and lay leaders for the Orthodox Churches, both here and abroad. Her vibrant partnership with America’s first Monastery, St. Tikhon’s Monastery, makes possible the interconnected pedagogy and formation, linking monastery and parish.
His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, is scheduled to visit STOTS and address the students September 13-14, 2019, for the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross.
If you are considering attending Saint Tikhon’s Seminary please email info@stots.edu. If you are able to support the education of our future pastors, educators and leaders, please click here.
