Patriarch John X to speak on Christianity in the Middle East at St. Vladimir’s Seminary
His Beatitude, the Most Blessed John X (Yazigi), Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, will deliver a presentation on the current circumstances of Christians in the Middle East at Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary here on Monday, July 27, 2015.
His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon of the Orthodox Church in America, the seminary’s President, will be present.
Patriarch John’s presentation will follow a public academic convocation in the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium of the John G. Rangos Family Building at 6:00 p.m., during which an honorary doctoral degree will be conferred upon him by the seminary Board of Trustees and Faculty Council. A public reception will follow.
“As Executive Chair of the Board of Trustees of Saint Vladimir’s Seminary,” said Alex Machaskee, “I am extremely pleased that we are conferring an honorary doctorate on His Beatitude John X, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East.”
Seminary Dean, Archpriest Dr. John Behr, added, “It is our joy to welcome Patriarch John to our campus, and it is our honor that he is willing to accept a Doctor of Divinity honoris causa from our school.”
The academic convocation will mark the second time within one year that Patriarch John has greeted the Dean and the seminary Chancellor/CEO, Archpriest Dr. Chad Hatfield. In December 2014, the seminary administrators jointly presented a gift of $8,000 to His Beatitude to aid suffering Orthodox Christians in the Middle East. The gift represented a tithe (i.e., one-tenth) of the total $80,000 donated to the seminary during its highly successful #GivingTuesday campaign.
In related news, His Eminence, Archbishop Nikon of Boston, New England and the Albanian Archdiocese, at the invitation of His Eminence, Metropolitan Joseph of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, attended the Archdiocesan Convention in Boston, MA, at which time he offered fraternal greetings from Metropolitan Tikhon to Patriarch John on the weekend of July 25-26, 2015.