On Sunday, September 21, 2014, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, joined by His Grace, Bishop Michael, presided at the celebration of the Divine Liturgy marking the 50th Anniversary of Holy Transfiguration Chapel, Princeton, NJ and the oldest Orthodox Christian Fellowship [OCF] chapter in the US.
Concelebrating were Archpriest Daniel Skvir, rector; Archpriests Sergius Kuharsky and Paul Shafran; and Protodeacons Joseph Matusiak and Michael Sochka.
Many Princeton and OCF alumni were present as Metropolitan Tikhon presented Father Daniel and the community with a Gramota.
At the festive luncheon that followed, Metropolitan Tikhon and Bishop Michael addressed attendees, as did the Rev. Dr. Alison L. Boden, Princeton Dean of Religious Life.
It was in the early 1960s that a group of five Princeton undergraduates formed the Orthodox Christian Fellowship of Saint Photios on the university campus. This initial group met informally and traveled to local parishes on Sunday mornings. An occasional service would be held on the campus by visiting clergy.
September 1964 marked the celebration of the first Divine Liturgy to be held on a regular basis on the campus, with a room in Murray Dodge Hall serving as the Orthodox Chapel of the Transfiguration. Archpriest Constantine Buketoff, who had recently retired from his parish in Brooklyn, NY, served as the chapel’s first pastor, but illness curtailed his service before the academic year ended.
In August 1965, Prof. John Turkevich, Higgins Professor of Chemistry at Princeton, was ordained and appointed Orthodox Chaplain. He served in that post for 24 years until January 1989. During this period, the chapel and the OCF welcomed a host of Orthodox prelates, dignitaries, and faithful from around the globe. On several occasions, the OCF sponsored services which filled the University Chapel to its capacity of 2,000. For more than a decade, Father Georges Florovsky, the eminent Orthodox theologian, participated in OCF chapel services. Biblical scholar Georges Barrois also counted the chapel as his Spiritual home. OCF-sponsored lectures and guests have included Nicholas Zernov, Fathers John Meyendorff and Thomas Hopko, His Grace, Bishop Kallistos (Timothy Ware), and His Grace, Bishop Irineu of Cluj, Romania.
Transfiguration Chapel serves not only the Princeton OCF undergratuate and graduate students, but also the local Orthodox faculty and townsfolk. The congregation includes members from various ethnic Orthodox groups—Greek, Russian, Ukrainian, Albanian, Romanian, and Antiochian. The Sunday Divine Liturgy, celebrated each week at 10:00 a.m. during the academic year, is served almost entirely in English, with responses sung by a four-part choir. The present Orthodox Chaplain, Archpriest Daniel Skvir—one of the OCF’s original founders—has served since January 1989. (Other founders of the Princeton Orthodox Fellowship who have entered the priesthood include Archpriest Arthur Liolin of the Albanian Orthodox Church and Priest Anatole Lyovin).
Aside from Sunday Liturgy, services are held during the Christmas holy days, Epiphany eve, Great Lent, and Holy Week. All services are open to Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike; visitors and new members are welcome to join the Princeton Orthodox community.
