St. Tikhon’s Seminary opens academic year with record enrollment

SOUTH CANAAN, PA [OCA Communications] — Ninety students—a record enrollment—were welcomed at the Divine Liturgy marking the opening of the 2006-2007 academic year at Saint Tikhon’s Seminary here on Thursday, August 31.

His Grace, Bishop Tikhon of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, rector of Saint Tikhon’s Seminary here, presided at the Divine Liturgy.

“It is a great joy to welcome all of you—a very large incoming class and returning students who comprise a record enrollment—as we begin another academic year,” Bishop Tikhon said in his homily at the conclusion of the opening Liturgy. “We are grateful to the Lord that He has called so many to pursue the sacred vocation of serving Him and His Holy Church, and I pray that He will guide your theological studies and priestly formation here at our seminary for His glory.”

The incoming class of 30 seminarians gathered for a three-day orientation August 28-30, while the entire student body participated in a three-day opening retreat August 31-September 2. The Priestmonk Matthias [Moriak], an M. Div. graduate of Saint Tikhon’s who serves as rector of Saint Gregory of Nyssa Church, Seaford, NY, served as retreat master.

Classes began on Tuesday, September 5.

On Wednesday, September 13, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, seminary president, joined the faculty and seminarians for the celebration of the Vigil of the Holy Cross. Metropolitan Herman is a graduate of Saint Tikhon’s and teaches on its faculty. Prior to his election as Primate of the Orthodox Church in America in 2002, he served as the seminary’s rector.

The primary purpose of Saint Tikhon’s Seminary is the formation of candidates desiring to serve in the priestly ministry. The school offers programs of study on the undergraduate and Master of Divinity levels. The seminary, firmly grounded in the Church’s patristic tradition, is fully accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada.

The student body, which this year includes a record 36 married students—with 66 children—in residence, comprises seminarians from the OCA (including the Romanian Episcopate and the Albanian Archdiocese), the Antiochian and Greek archdioceses, the Serbian Dioceses and Carpatho-Russian dioceses, the Moscow and Jerusalem patriarchal parishes, and the Malankara Indian Orthodox Syrian Diocese in the US. A number of international students from such diverse places as Brazil, Denmark, Hungary, Palestine, and Uganda are also studying at the seminary.

The seminary faculty includes 10 full-time and 11 part-time members. New to the faculty this year is Prof. James Miller, Ph.D., a graduate of Marquette Univesity. Dr. Miller, whose field of expertise is the Old Testament, will teach a variety of courses, including Israel’s Origins and Psalms and Wisdom.

The seminary provides a balanced academic program, evenly divided into four areas of concentration: Scripture, Theology and Spirituality, Church History and Patristics, and Pastoral Arts and Praxis. In addition, students are required to participate in the spiritual life afforded them at Saint Tikhon’s Monastery Church, where the full cycle of liturgical services is offered daily, and where they have the opportunity to benefit from the guidance of monastics.