Metropolitan Leonty Symposium held at St. Tikhon’s Seminary
On Thursday, May 14, 2015, Saint Tikhon’s Seminary here hosted a Symposium on the life, witness, and service of His Eminence, the late Metropolitan Leonty. [See related story.]
The day opened with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy and a Memorial Service at Metropolitan Leonty’s tomb, celebrated by His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon. Archpriest John Jillions, OCA Chancellor, read the original eulogy offered by the late Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann at Metropolitan Leonty’s funeral.
During the course of the day five presentations were given.
- “The Life and Legacy of Metropolitan Leonty” by Alexis Liberovsky, Archivist of the Orthodox Church in America.
- “Metropolitan Leonty and Saint Tikhon of Moscow” by Dr. Scott Kenworthy of the Department of Comparative Religion, Miami University, Oxford, OH.
- “The Diaries of 1917-1918” by Matushka Tamara Turkevich Skvir, Princeton, NJ.
- “Metropolitan Leonty as a Man of Letters” by Dr. Leonid Turkevich, Cincinnati, OH.
- “The Metropolitan Leonty Papers at the Library of Congress: A Brief Introduction” by Harold Leich, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Also addressing the participants was His Eminence, Archbishop Michael of New York.
That evening, after the celebration of Vespers, a reception and time of informal sharing was held in the Monastery Museum. Archpriests Sergei Glagolev, Daniel Hubiak, and John Nehrebecki shared their remembrances of Metropolitan Leonty, together with Dr. Constantine Kallaur and many others. The evening ended with reflections and a prayer that had been written by Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko before his repose, read by Dr. David Ford.
Participants received individually numbered copies of the text of a Homiletics Course taught by Metropolitan Leonty, designed and produced in conjunction with the Symposium. Clergy attendees received continuing education credits for participating.
“On behalf of the entire Saint Tikhon’s Community we would like to thank each one of the presenters for being with us to share their contributions and reflections on this most beloved leader of our Orthodox Church in America,” said Christopher Patton, the seminary’s Office and Community Resource Coordinator. “We would also like to thank each of the participants for traveling to be with us for this ‘Time of Holy Remembering.’”
Also thanked were the members of the event committee—Archpriests Steven Voytovich and Dennis Swencki; Priest Leonid Schmidt; Dr. David Ford, Prof. Sergei Arhipov, Christopher Patton, Teresa Vaux-Michel, and Innocent Neal—for their contributions.
Video recordings of the Symposium will be available in the future. A photo gallery of the event may be viewed here.