His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, presided at the celebration of the Divine Liturgy at Three Hierarchs Chapel at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY marking the 1000th Anniversary of the Repose of Saint Prince Vladimir, the seminary’s namesake, on Sunday November 1, 2015. Concelebrating were His Grace, Bishop Alexander of Toledo and the Bulgarian Diocese and His Grace, Bishop John of Naro-Fominsk, Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, together with seminary and local clergy.
The Liturgy marked the second anniversary of the 2013 enshrinement of Saint Vladimir’s relics in Three Hierarchs Chapel—the seminary’s second “patronal feast day” in addition that celebrated in July. It also brings to a close the year during which the 1000th anniversary of his repose was celebrated around the world.
In his sermon, Metropolitan Tikhon shared two principles of missionary work reflected in the day’s Gospel readings—simplicity (image of Christ as the door through which the sheep go in and find pasture, reflecting the salvation and healing found in the Church) and complexity (the Gadarene swine, in which a simple account of healing turns into a great drama with a legion of demons, swine running into the water, people shouting and running to the city, fear, etc).
“As Orthodox Christians, we often hope that our missionary work can be accomplished simply, by presenting an image of Christ and anticipating that people will just be drawn to Him,” said Metropolitan Tikhon. “But the reality is more messy. It is like raising children. While we would hope that our children would go from innocent babies to stable and balanced young adults in a smooth and easy process, we know that it is more complicated and difficult than that.
“But our missionary task is to both maintain simplicity in our hearts as we navigate the complex and messy world that we live in—like Saint Vladimir, who went through much geopolitical turmoil in his time, yet remains a saint and example of missionary work for us,” he concluded. Read more here.
