Dean of St. Vladimir’s Seminary to be ordained to Holy Priesthood

CRESTWOOD, NY [OCA Communications] — His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, will ordain Deacon John Erickson, dean of Saint Vladimir’s Seminary here, to the holy priesthood at the school’s Three Hierarchs Chapel on Sunday, May 7, 2006.

On January 30, 2006, the patronal feastday of the seminary chapel, Metropolitan Herman ordained Dean Erickson to the diaconate.

Deacon John has served the Church as a layman for many years, most notably as seminary dean since 2002 and as a professor of Church history and canon law since 1976. He is the first layperson to serve as dean of the seminary and, as such, the first dean to be ordained to the diaconate and priesthood in the presence of the seminary community. He has had a long-standing relationship with the seminary that began many years ago when, as a student at Harvard University, he met Serge Schmemann, son of the late Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, then dean of the seminary. His subsequent visits to the seminary eventually led to his reception into the Orthodox Church in the seminary’s chapel in 1964.