www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News St. Tikhon's OCA Seminary-Student Enrollment At 90

Is it BCC only, or do candidates for the priesthood from other EC churches go there? I wonder if enrollment at St. Tikhon's might not be greater in part at least because it gets seminarians from multiple jurisdictions.

Are any of the seminarians at SS. Cyril and Methodius married?

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(2.) Our diaconal and priestly candidates ,at this time, can't go there for formation. But, in general, our people will take courses there, from time to time, as I have done. This, in itself, is a thing which can serve toward "building bridges".

I agree, that can be a good thing.

Andrew

I think you are close to correct on that one. I know that Passaic Eparchy has two priestly candidates studying there. Of course, this does not take into account those students who are taking strictly academic courses which are not formational for Holy Orders. Instead of an MDiv, which is formational and which is designed for our priestly candidates, it is possible to enroll for a Master of Arts in Theology, which prepares one for a teaching role. In OCA, St. Tikhon's, traditionally, was meant to be more "formational" for priestly candidates, while St. Vladimir's in Crestwood, N.Y., has more of an "academic" bent (although neither place is exclusively one way or another). Our St. Cyril & Methodius Seminary is on the road toward upgrading in both directions.

Dn. Robert

Is it BCC only, or do candidates for the priesthood from other EC churches go there? I wonder if enrollment at St. Tikhon's might not be greater in part at least because it gets seminarians from multiple jurisdictions.

Historically, it has only been for candidates from Eparchies of the Pittsburgh Metropolia. It is only recently that it has attained the status of being a degree-granting institution. I can foresee it's being used by other E.C. jurisdictions, given the latter development. It is true that St. Tikhon's gets students from other jurisdictions. However, I believe that the majority are OCA subjects.

Are any of the seminarians at SS. Cyril and Methodius married?

Yes. There is one candidate who is married to a woman who is an M.D. in a residency program at a Pittsburgh hospital. They already have, I believe, one child. He is a candidate from the Parma Eparchy. There had been another married candidate from Parma who has since left the seminary. Bishop John of Parma has also been "importing" married priests from Eastern Europe.

In Christ,
Dn. Robert

The seminary has few students but many applicants. The majority are turned away. IMHO even Jesus Himself would not have the ability to be accepted! But of course this is not an issue because they feel it is more important to re-create the Liturgy than address this problem.

Why is seminary acceptance so difficult? Must one tow the party line (support the revised liturgy, etc.) in order to be accepted?

God bless,

Chris

Andrew,

Melkite seminarians do much of their coursework at Holy Cross GO Seminary in Brookline, MA, as we no longer have our own seminary in the US.

Many years,

Neil

What happened to it?

Andrew

Andrew,

For many years, the Basilian Salvatorian Fathers educated our diocesan clergy, as well as their own religious clergy (and clergy of some of the other Churches as well - Bishop John Michael Botean of the Eparchy of Saint George in Canton of the Romanians and Bishop Robert Shaheen of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon in LA had at least portions of their education from the Salvatorians, as I remember) at Saint Basil's Seminary in Methuen, MA. At some point after the Melkite Exarchate was elevated to an Eparchy, the Salvatorians suggested that the Eparchy erect its own seminary. I believe that had to do largely with the aging of the faculty there, and regular requests that they accept parish assignments, with no ready replacements available for them (most faculty were emigres from the Old Country, who came here in the 50s).

Saint Gregory's Seminary was established by the Eparchy in Newton, MA and operated for a number of years. Even in its heyday, as I remember, it took advantage of the Boston Theological Institute - a possibly unmatched consortium of schools of theology in Greater Boston whose combined resources could not be duplicated (the BTI members included: Holy Cross (GOA), Saint John's (Boston Latin Archdiocese), Harvard Divinity School, Weston Jesuit School of Theology, Boston College (Jesuit), Andover Newton Theological School, Boston University School of Theology, Episcopal Divinity School, and Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary).

The costs of an aged physical plant, uneven enrollment, and the drain on limited presbyteral resources to staff it meant, however, that its eventual closure was almost inevitable.

Many years,

Neil

I am happy for the Orthodox Church that St. Tikhon's seminary has record enrollment. I have heard, from an Orthodox priest, that St. Vladimir's and St. Herman's seminaries are also full. This speaks well for the spiritual commitment of many Orthodox men in the U.S.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how this abundant crop of future priests might affect the number of Orthodox people and parishes in the U.S. ?

-- John

John,

Right now it is a game of catch to cover for a period when enrollments were down and the pool for potential candidates was extremely low. If you look at the ages of the clergy that have been ordained and in active service, you find many are getting ready to retire and and many that are just entering priestly service, with few in between. The same applies for Holy Cross in Boston which has had record or near record enrollment for almost the past decade. Once that that need is covered, then looking forward to the effect and growth can be more carefully examined. You also have to understand that even though the enrollment may be at record numbers, not all seminarians pursue ordination upon completion of their studies. Only half of my seminary graduating class was ordained. Some instead serve as cantors or in some other capacity in the church. Some of those that were ordained, did not see that goal of ordination until a decade later because of the desire to be married and start a family.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

To answer a question raised a number of posts ago and never fully answered:

This year, six candidates for holy orders are studying at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary: 2 for Passaic, 2 for Pittsburgh, 1 for Parma and 1 for the Byzantine Catholic Franciscans. Please keep these fine men in prayer.

The Seminary also has 4 candidates for the degree of Master of Arts in Byzantine Catholic Theology who are not candidates for Holy Orders. Applications from interested individuals who have undergraduate degrees from an accredited college or university and can participate in a real-time, in class program of study are always welcome.

Full information about both programs is available on our website www.byzcathsem.org. [byzcathsem.org.]

I'd also like to respond to a stray comment made about the Seminary. "John of the Three-Bar Cross" wrote:

"The seminary has few students but many applicants. The majority are turned away. IMHO even Jesus Himself would not have the ability to be accepted! But of course this is not an issue because they feel it is more important to re-create the Liturgy than address this problem."

In fact, the Seminary has only a secondary role in deciding who is admitted as a candidate for holy orders. Candidates apply to their respective eparchies and all of the formalities--background checks, medical and psychological testing, essays, interviews, etc., are completed on that level, culminating in acceptance by the local hierarch. The Eparchy then proposes accepted candidates to the Seminary. Our Admissions process simply reviews the information already collected and scrutinizes in particular the academic records of the candidate.

In my 11 years of service at the Seminary, only one candidate proposed by an Eparchy has not been accepted by the Seminary's admissions process.

If candidates are lining up at the door, as JOTTBC anonymously affirms, they are not, alas, at THIS door!

To clarify a final point that has popped up in a few forums: the Byzantine Catholic Seminary does indeed welcome candidates sponsored by other jurisdictions. We have trained several candidates for the Romanian Eparchy of St George.

Fr. Jack Custer
Byzantine Catholic Seminary

Originally posted by Fr. Custer...

So then I suppose the real question is how many applicants are turned away by our local hierarchs?

I strongly suspect that this question will not receive a definitive answer, as those numbers are likely not to be shared with mere laity.


~Isaac (who is anticipating the �Many are called but few are chosen.� scripture to be quoted at any moment.)

Isaac,

I for one would prefer a more rigorous selection process rather than a looser one.

At the same time, if the fact is that a qualified man was turned away because he was also a married man, that would be disheartening and a betrayal of our tradition.

Just my two cents...

Congrat's to the OCA and St. Tikhon's on the elevated enrollment!

Gordo

I stand corrected on the above point!

In Christ,
Dn. Robert

Fr. Anthony,

Fascinating. So, if I understand correctly, the Orthodox seminarians today in the U.S. (those who will be ordained) will simply replace the Orthodox clergy in the U.S. who are getting ready to retire. I did not realize that there had been a priest shortage in the Orthodox churches in the U.S. (I had been wondering if there might be the happy situation of an abundance of Orthodox priests and a shortage of Orthodox parishes !) Well, at least the priest shortage in Orthodox Church seems to be abating. Now, if only more people in the U.S. could be enticed to convert to Orthodoxy . . .

-- John