St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary

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St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary is an Orthodox theological seminary under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in America . It is a pan-Orthodox institution for students from all Eastern Orthodox churches, and it is the only Orthodox theological institution in the United States devoted not only to teaching but also to research.

St. Vladimir's Seminary is named after St. Vladimir , the Grand Duke of the Kievan Rus . The seminar is affiliated with the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada .

history

The only seminary of the Russian Orthodox Church in Tenafly , New Jersey , founded in 1905 , had to close in 1923 because the Russian émigré church, cut off from the mother church by the Russian Revolution, could no longer finance it. In 1937, one of the former teachers suggested that the seminary be reopened and enforced that Orthodox priests in America, like their colleagues in other churches, receive college education in liberal arts as the basis of their theological training .

Founded in New York City in 1938, the seminary struggled hard for the first ten years, only helped by a small group of friends. A collaboration was established with Columbia College and the seminary was housed on the premises of the General Theological Seminary .

After the Second World War, the seminar experienced an unexpected boom. Several world- famous Orthodox theologians, including Georgij Petrovic Fedotov from the Institut de Théologie Orthodoxe Saint-Serge , Nicholas Arseniev from the Orthodox theological faculty in Warsaw , Evgeni Spektorsky from the University of Kiev and Nikolaus Lossky from the University of St. Petersburg made it possible to offer full theological training in seminary. The seminar moved to the premises of the Union Theological Seminary and was officially accredited as an "Institution of higher learning" in 1948.

This new beginning coincided with the arrival of Georgi Wassiljewitsch Florowski from the Institut de Theologie Orthodoxe Saint-Serge , who was appointed dean in 1949. Under his direction, the theological curriculum was developed and the seminar was given a clear pan-orthodox orientation. In his inaugural speech, Florowski said: "Today's Orthodox theologian cannot retreat into a narrow cell of any local tradition, because Orthodoxy is basically not a local, but an ecumenical tradition."

The current campus in Yonkers north of New York City was moved into in 1961. The future of the seminary was ensured by the arrival of other young theologians from Saint-Serge, Alexander Schmemann , who was to be dean of the seminary from 1962 to 1983, and his successor John Meyendorff .

Deans of St Vladimir's Seminary

See also

Web links

Coordinates: 40 ° 58 ′ 11 "  N , 73 ° 49 ′ 26"  W.