Your All-Holiness,

As it happens we are all coming from institutions in the West and this has shaped our experience and what we have to say. Our group believes that the phrase “listening to the cries of the future, not the cries of the past” best captures and summarizes our discussions.  Before coming to that, however, Your All-Holiness, our group firstly wants to express its gratitude to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for this wonderful gift of koinonia/fellowship which has provided the opportunity for Orthodox theologians from all around the world, teaching in different tertiary institutions, to gather “in one place” (ἐπί τό αὐτό) as St Paul writes, and to reflect together on the work, vocation and service to the church.  Our group believes that this gift of koinonia will need, at the same time, to be further nurtured and for this reason expresses its hope that gatherings of this type might be deemed as useful and may become a regular event.  It is hoped that this will not only visibly manifest our unity but also provide us with the opportunity to hear, first hand, from the Venerable Centre itself on forthcoming significant events and to offer our assistance.  Our group would like to offer two main areas for consideration of Your All-Holiness.

Seminary Is Not What It Once Was

Orthodox seminaries in the West have experienced a radical demographic change in the make-up of their students.  The homogenous student body—once traditionally single, male and raised in families and traditions with deep roots in the faith and culture of Orthodox Christianity—has been replaced by a variegated group of students from different cultural, linguistic, ethnic, and religious backgrounds who attend seminary to learn and be formed in the Orthodox Christian tradition.  Married students with families constitute a large portion of students who are studying for ordination to the holy priesthood.  Men and women established in their professional careers have made major life changes and decisions in order to study theology at one of our centers or schools.  Further, seminaries are no longer simply places where young men attend to be prepared for ordained ministry in the Church.  Women and men who are seeking lay vocations either directly connected to the Church or related in a tangential way, attend our seminaries and institutes for theological education and spiritual formation.  Seminary is no longer a “finishing school” for those who have grown up in and are serving in the Church.

This diverse student body brings with it diverse views and experiences of society.  Seminaries, once “walled off” from society, have been for decades open institutions of spiritual and theological growth and questioning.  Students bring varied questions and attitudes to the study of theology and to the foundational texts (scriptural, patristic, dogmatic, creedal, etc.) of the faith.  Theological and contextual education occur often outside of the grounds of the seminary; students are engaged in learning experiences that integrate local social and economic contexts into their education.  Book learning is still fundamental, but engagement with society constitutes a key element of theological education. The questions and concerns of students reflect those of society at large: social and economic justice, environmental concerns, gender and sexual identities, to name just a few.  With the precipitous changes in societal norms since the founding of Orthodox seminaries in the West more than 75 years ago, social and cultural presuppositions have eroded and traditional conceptions of authority no longer exist among the students whom we are called to educate and form.  However, at the heart of what continues to drive students is their quest of a meaningful Christian life for themselves, the Church, and the world.

We are Preparing Students to Serve the Church Now and to Lead the Church in 30-40 Years

In our roles as theological educators in the service of the Church and society, we realize that the problems and challenges that we (and the Church) think ought to be addressed are often not those that our students are already facing and that we (as a Church) will increasingly be facing.  Among these challenges, two in particular stand out: (1) we are entering a world in which it is increasing abnormal to believe in God; and (2) we are entering a world in which human identity is being questioned in ways it has never been done before.  These two challenges have been and will continue to influence society at a fundamental level and at an increasingly rapid rate.  We must be committed to giving our students the highest level of serious and rigorous theological education, as well as a full spiritual, liturgical, and pastoral grounding in the Church.  The graduates of our schools need to have the best possible education and formation in order to respond to future questions they will face about which we cannot even imagine.  Therefore, the emphasis in our schools and institutes cannot simply be on preserving the faith, but on evangelism, apologetics, encountering, engaging with, and challenging the world—for the salvation of our young people and the world.  It is with a spirit of evangelism, in the apostolic sense of the word, that we can best carry out our responsibility as educators.

Your All Holiness, please know that when the time comes and the Holy Spirit acts, when the Turkish government allows Halki to reopen, we are willing, ready, and eager to do anything we can to assist the Ecumenical Patriarchate in reestablishing its structures and curriculum so that it might achieve the greatness for which it was destined.

With deepest respect,

Group Members:

Fr. John Behr, Dean of St Vladimir’s Seminary (USA)

Dr. Philip Kariatlis, St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College (Australia)

Dr. John Klentos, Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute (USA)

Fr. Alexander Rentel, St Vladimir’s Seminary (USA)

Dr. James Skedros, Dean of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology (USA)