The once globally revered St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary has lost all credibility as a serious institution of Orthodox theological learning. The nauseating poster displayed above must have Father Alexander Schmemann of thrice-blessed memory rolling in his grave. It does not bode well for the future of the episcopate, priesthood, diaconate, and lay workers for generations to come in the Orthodox Church in America and beyond.

That one of the greatest embarrassments to Orthodoxy in America should be invited not only to write the foreword to a book of Father Schmemann’s talks, but to deliver the annual lecture named for him at what used to be one of the world’s foremost Orthodox theological schools, is emblematic of the cesspits that the OCA’s two main seminaries—St. Vladimir’s and St. Tikhon’s—have gradually become under Metropolitan Tikhon (Mollard)’s primatial watch.

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The other day I sat down with a book—look, it’s a lockdown, there’s a lot of sitting down with books going on—in this case, Chasten Buttigieg’s I Have Something to Tell You.

I feel like this book provided me with a lot of things, not the least a burning curiosity about Wisconsin.

Mostly I was amazed at how much this book instantly resonated with me, who was once a terribly confused autistic child who had never even heard of autism. I’ve never been able to experience that kind of feedback loop before; it was unexpected. Chasten Buttigieg’s description of his own journey, the feeling of not-belonging, of feeling different, of knowing this being different was considered wrong somehow, immediately clicked with me, however different the reason. This book showed me a kid (I’m past 40 now, I get to call 18-year olds “kids”) struggling to make sense of himself in this world, and the thought of someone seeking to hurt that kid was utterly repulsive.

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PRIEST PAVEL FLORENSKY

January 22, 1882 – December 8, 1937

Father Pavel Florensky, widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s foremost Orthodox theologians, was also an iconologist, philosopher, philologist, polyglot, mathematician, physicist, electrical engineer, inventor, and polymath. He was born to a Russian father and an Armenian mother in Azerbaijan and raised in Georgia. His parents had him baptized as a gesture of social convention but did not bring him up as an Orthodox believer. At the age of 18 in 1900 he established himself in Moscow to begin his studies in mathematics at Moscow University. At age 21 he committed himself to the Orthodox Church as the culmination of the spiritual awakening that had begun when he was 16, and so became part of the movement known as the returning intelligentsia. At 22 he abandoned a promising secular career and enrolled at the Moscow Theological Academy. There he met and fell in love with Sergei Troitsky, a priest’s son a year his senior. They became roommates at the Academy.

For reasons examined elsewhere, their plans to spend the rest of their life together did not materialize. Sergei entered into an unconsummated marriage with Pavel’s sister, Olga. Pavel subsequently married Anna Giatsintova, with whom he went on to have five children. He was ordained to the diaconate and the priesthood in April 1911.

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Grant rest eternal in blessed repose, O Lord,

to the soul of Thy servant who has fallen asleep,

HIS EMINENCE, ARCHBISHOP DAVID

and may his memory be eternal.

Memory eternal. Memory eternal. Memory eternal.

Archbishop David was a friend and supporter of Orthodoxy in Dialogue behind the scenes. See the Open Letter to President Trump which he wrote for us. He also planned to write an article for Orthodoxy in Dialogue on his experiences shepherding a mainly Aleut flock in response to the growing spectre of white supremacism and neo-Nazism in the North American Orthodox Church.

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