We are grieved to announce the sudden repose of HTOS Alumnus (1998) and beloved professor Dmitry Pavlovich Anashkin on Thursday Dec. 27, 2018.  Dmitry Pavlovich died in his home of a sudden stroke in a Pushkino, a suburb of Moscow.  He is survived by his father Pavel, and his wife Irina. Please offer your prayerful support.  Dmitry Pavlovich taught Russian History, Byzantine History, and Church History.  A Facebook group has been established "to preserve memories of the great character and scholar..." https://www.facebook.com/groups/1930965326958973/

The Seminary choir travelled to Lakewood, NJ, during the weekend of December 15-16, with the blessing of Archimandrite Luke, Rector, and at the invitation of Mitred Archpriest Serge Lukianov, Dean of St Alexander Nevsky Diocesan Cathedral. The choir sang the responses for both the Hierarchal All-Night Vigil and Divine Liturgy under the direction of Deacon Nicholas Kotar, Seminary Choir Director and Lecturer in Church Music. Priest Ephraim Willmarth, Director of Admissions and Asst. Dean, and Deacon Michael Pavuk, Director of Development, led the delegation, which was accompanied by Hieromonk Felipe (Balingit), a first-year student in the Seminary’s new Master of Divinity degree program.

We left a dark and snowy Jordanville early in the morning to begin what would appear to the outside observer to be the most unlikeliest of journeys: one to the New York/New Jersey area to gain a greater understanding of the long history of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary invites applications for the position of the Dean of the Seminary, for a three-year term to begin on August 15, 2019, following the retirement of the current Dean, Archpriest Alexander F. C. Webster, Ph.D.

Deacon Photie Erdman became the first student in the new Master of Divinity (M.Div.) program to be ordained to the Holy Priesthood on Sunday, November 4, 2018. A poignant sign of divine providence, Father Photie’s ordination corresponded with the visit to Jordanville of the Wonderworking Myrrh-Streaming Iveron Icon from Hawaii.

This lecture is presented in conjunction with the Russian History Museum’s current exhibition, Last Days of the Last Tsar.

Discover the fascinating story of a long-lost album containing remarkable photographs of Russia’s last imperial family. Coming to light during the filming of “Antiques Roadshow” in Wales, the 66 photographs in the Lintern Archive show Tsar Nicholas II and his family before the revolution and their life in exile in the Siberian city of Tobolsk. Many of the images have never been published and are new to scholars.

Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary welcomes two new faculty members who began teaching for this fall semester of 2018.

Fr John Boddecker is the part time Lecturer in Old Testament.

Miss Elizabeth Purdy has replaced Dr Elena Nelson, who has taken a fellowship position in Moscow, Russia, as the full time Instructor of Russian and Church Slavonic.

The entire community at HTOS welcomes Fr John and Miss Purdy.

The Seminary building has, for many years, been named in honor of the first dean, Nicholas N. Alexandrov. In the coming months, a ceremony will be scheduled to name the main hall as ‘The Protopresbyter Valery Lukianov Hall’.

On September 10, 2018, Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary celebrated its Second Annual Fall Convocation as well as its 71st year of operation. The entire student body and all available faculty gathered together to launch the new school year and meet together for the first time. The sense of collegiality and fellowship resonated among all present.

It is with tremendous gratitude and joy that we announce that on Friday, August 24, Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary successfully reached our most recent fundraising goal of $50,000 to fund 5 scholarships for our new Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree program.

An exhibition commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of the Holy Royal Martyr Tsar Nicholas II and his family opened on July 17, 2018, at the Russian History Museum housed in the Dean Nicholas N. Alexandrov Seminary building, co-located with Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY. 

The three-week Summer Youth Program completed its most successful year at Holy Trinity Monastery on July 15. Twenty high school students from 15 to 18 years of age, the largest group in the camp's history, gathered from across the United States and Canada to experience a unique schedule of daily liturgies, lectures, work alongside the monastics, nightly reflections, and recreational activities in beautiful, rural upstate New York.

Archpriest Alexander F. C. Webster, PhD, Dean and Professor of Moral Theology at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary, offered a multimedia presentation at the inaugural Patriarch Tikhon Russian-American Music Institute (PaTRAM) “Summer Academy” for church choir conductors and singers. The conference sessions were hosted for four days on the campus of the Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ.

On June 3, 2018, the Sunday of All Saints, Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary celebrated the graduation of the Class of 2018.  The graduating class included six seminarians who received the degree of Bachelor of Theology and two recipients of the Certificate of Theological Studies.

Text from the article on the EA Diocese website: On Friday, May 25, the leave-taking of the feast of the Ascension of our Lord, senior-most cleric of the Russian Church Abroad, Protopresbyter Valery Lukianov, reposed in the Lord. Fr. Valery’s clerical service spanned 55 years. In the course of his service to the church, Fr. Valery designed and oversaw the construction of the magnificent St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Howell, NJ where he served as rector for many years.

Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary's 2018 commencement will take place on the Sunday of All Saints, June 3. The day will begin at 9am with the entrance of his Grace, Bishop Jerome followed by Hierarchal Divine Liturgy. After lunch, commencement will begin at 2pm with a procession to the monastery cathedral for a molebien of Thanksgiving, followed by the academic procession to the main hall in the Dean Nicholas N Alexandrov Seminary Building for the commencement exercises themselves, which will be followed by a reception for those in attendance. This year's commencement speaker will be Reverend Fr Patrick Viscuso.

Once again, five seminarians (Milos Bozic, Milan Dragisic, George Luimes, Dragan Vujicic, Christian Watts) represented Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary (HTOS) at the Orthodox Inter-Seminary Movement (OISM) hosted by St. Tikhon's Seminary during the weekend of May 11-13.  Promoting congeniality and fellowship, this event brings together students from all Orthodox jurisdictions to "commune from a single chalice," as fourth-year HTS seminarian George Luimes describes the spirit of his experience.

As the culmination of their first or second year at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary (HTOS), students Ivan Gryaznov, Mykola Ivanchuk, Evan Nalitov, James Racz, and Lazarus Sparandera, accompanied by two professors, Deacon Andrei Psarev and Dr. Vitaly Permiakov, drove four hours to New York City on Friday May 11, for Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary's annual field trip. Always an eagerly anticipated excursion, this trip not only supplements our Seminary's history courses with a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but also extends our spiritual mission through an evening with Bishop Nicholas.

Deacon Michael Pavuk, Director of Development, traveled to the Synodal Cathedral of the Sign on April 26 for a presentation to the Synod of Bishops on the “State of the Seminary” on behalf of the Board of Trustees, Administration, Faculty, and students of Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville.

The HTOS choir traveled to Holy Trinity Cathedral, Toronto, on the weekend of April 21-22, 2018, at the invitation of the Cathedral’s rector, Mitred Archpriest Vladimir Malchenko, cathedral rector and with the blessing of Archimandrite Luke, Rector of Holy Trinity Seminary.

Jorge Luque Martin, our 2nd year seminarian from Spain, is dealing with an aggressive form of cancer. Please consider donating by following this link to his GoFundMe page.

The HTOS choir, with the blessing of Archimandrite Luke, Rector, will travel to Holy Trinity Cathedral, Toronto, on the weekend of April 21-22, 2018. Mitred Archpriest Vladimir Malchenko, cathedral rector, has invited our choir to sing the responses for the All Night Vigil on Saturday evening and at the Divine Liturgy on the 3rd Sunday of Pascha commemorating the Myrrh-bearing Women.  Deacon Nicholas Kotar, Seminary lecturer in church music and director of the Monastery / Seminary Choir, will lead the musical responses.  Accompanying the choir will be Priest Ephraim Willmarth, Assistant Dean and Director of Admissions, and Deacon Michael Pavuk, Director of Development, both of whom will sing with the choir.

... Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary in Jordanville, New York, will, by the grace of God the Holy Trinity and the approval of the New York State Board of Regents, begin a new Master of Divinity degree in Fall 2018...

The Master of Divinity degree (M.Div.) is the standard graduate professional degree for clergy in North America. It entails a rigorous, advanced, comprehensive, full-time three-year course of study in the various theological and pastoral fields for students who already hold a bachelor’s degree. Our M.Div. degree curriculum will also include four 1-credit “field education” practica where seminarians can learn how to apply their theological knowledge and newly acquired pastoral skills in practical ministry settings including parishes, college campus ministry, prison ministry, humanitarian service, evangelism, and public moral witness...

Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary invites applications for the position of an Assistant Professor of Church History for a two-year appointment, beginning January 1, 2019, with a possibility of renewal, depending on the results of an annual review. ...The successful candidate will be expected to teach to teach both the survey and elective courses in the history of the Orthodox Church in the new HTOS Master of Divinity program. The expected teaching load will be 2-3 courses per semester. The appointed professor is expected to possess broad knowledge of early, Byzantine, and Orthodox Church history in the modern era, as well as the history of Orthodoxy in North America and the history of the Western Church before the Schism of 1054 AD, and of the Roman Catholic and Protestant denominations. A completed Ph.D. in the field of his or her teaching is required for consideration. 

An early Pascha and an unusually long winter combined this year to frame a snow-white Paschal celebration.

Beginning with Great and Holy Thursday's foot-washing service conducted by our Rector, Archimandrite Luke, the final days of Lent were filled with liturgical services, including Passion Matins (with the readings of the Twelve Gospels), Royal Hours, Great Friday Vespers (with the procession with the Holy Winding Sheet), Holy Saturday Lamentations at 2:00 a.m., the reading of the entire New Testament book of Acts of the Apostles on Holy Saturday evening followed by Midnight Office. Since heavy snow fell as a backdrop to these services, monks were clearing the snow as priests, other monastics, seminarians, and the faithful were processing around the Church for the 2:00 a.m. Lamentations!

To link the beginning with the end, Holy Saturday 2018 marked the rare correspondence of the Great Feast of the Annunciation with Holy Saturday, a juxtaposition inspiring mystical contemplation of the beginning of the Son of God’s economy of salvation in the womb of the Theotokos and the culmination of His earthly ministry His death on the Cross and Resurrection from the tomb.

The wintry weather made a poignant ending to Great Lent and a delightful Pasha!

After the rigors of Passion Week with its intense but prayerful focus on the sacrifice of Christ, Pascha broke forth into joyful triumph at precisely midnight on April 7. Following the procession around the church, we celebrated the Paschal Matins and Divine Liturgy for the Feast of Feasts, proclaiming “Hristos Voskrese!” and “Christ is risen,” and singing the Paschal troparion repeatedly. The Pascal breakfast that followed around 4:30 a.m. was festively complete with kulich, holodetz, and cheese paskha.

We thank the Risen Christ, and we thank you, our supporters, during this Bright Week!  

Hristos Voskrese!  Christ is Risen!  Christos Anesti!

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the repose of our beloved Met. Laurus (Škurla), clergy from across the United States and Canada joined Bishop Nicholas at Holy Trinity on Friday, March 16, 2018, for a Hierarchal Presanctified Liturgy & Pannikhida.

After the Liturgy, monastics, clergy, seminarians, and guests continued the commemoration with a shellfish feast in the trapeza. That special, festive meal was followed by a two-hour Pannikhida in the cathedral.

A decade ago, Vladyka Laurus reposed on the feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, a symbol of his life-long struggle to preserve the true faith while maintaining harmony within the Church. That difficult and delicate work culminated with his successful efforts to bring ROCOR back into communion with the Moscow Patriarchate through the Act of Canonical Communion, which he and Patriarch Alexei II signed in Moscow.

Vladyka Laurus served as dean of our Seminary, as well as the First Hierarch of ROCOR and the abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery. In fact, he was so beloved by the students that a majority of the clergy who came to Jordanville for the weekend's festivities are Seminary alumni, ranging from the class of 1964 to the class of 2014.

Click here to read reflections on the life of Met. Laurus

Christ is in our midst!
 
I am delighted to announce that Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary in Jordanville, New York, has met our goal of raising a record $91,000 in contributions to our Giving Tuesday campaign! 

The Seminary choir travelled to Washington, DC, during the first weekend in March, with the blessing of Archimandrite Luke, Rector, and at the invitation of Mitred Archpriest Victor Potapov, Rector of St John the Baptist Cathedral in DC. The choir sang the responses during both the English and Church Slavonic Divine Liturgies under the direction of Deacon Nicholas Kotar, Seminary Choir Director and Lecturer in Church Music. Priest Ephraim Willmarth, Asst. Dean and Director of Admissions, and Deacon Michael Pavuk, Director of Development, led the delegation, which was accompanied by Dr. Vitaly Permiakov, Asst. Professor of Dogmatic and Liturgical Theology.

Elena Nelson’s recent book, Tradition and Innovation in Russian Church Slavonic Hymnography, was published by Academica Press in November 2017. The publisher designated it a Featured Book.  

A delegation from Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary (HTOS) traveled to St Basil’s Orthodox Church (OCA) on February 25 to participate in a Pan-Orthodox Vespers to commemorate the Sunday of Orthodoxy. The delegation was led by Archpriest Alexander F. C. Webster, Dean and Professor of Moral Theology.

Following Russian tradition, monastics, faculty, seminarians, and staff began their Lenten purgation with an intensive week saturated with between 9 and 10 hours of church services each day, including Midnight Office, Matins, a Panikhida for all the names submitted to the Monastery for memorials, the four Canonical Hours, Vespers, Typica, and Great Compline with the Canon of St. Andrew, spiritual readings and councils.

The HTOS choir, with the blessing of Archmandrite Luke, Rector, will travel to St John the Baptist Cathedral, Washington, DC, on the weekend of March 3-4, 2018. Mitred Archpriest Victor Patapov, cathedral rector, has invited our choir to join the cathedral’s choir at the bi-lingual All Night Vigil on Saturday evening and invited our seminary choir to sing the responses at the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil on the second Sunday of the Great Fast commemorating our Father among the Saints, Gregory of Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica.  Deacon Nicholas Kotar, seminary choir director and lecturer in Church Music, will lead the Seminary Choir at both the English and Church Slavonic Divine Liturgies. Accompanying the choir will be Deacon Michael Pavuk, Director of Development, who will assist the cathedral clergy at the services and speak to the faithful on behalf of the Seminary.

With the blessing of His Grace, Bishop Basil (Essey), Deacon Michael Pavuk, the Seminary’s Director of Development traveled to Wichita Kansas in mid-February to address the attendees at the clergy retreat of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid America of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese.

With God's grace, the help of our generous benefactors, and the diligence of our faculty and staff, Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary was once again blessed to celebrate our patronal feast day of the Three Hierarchs: St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, and St. John Chrysostom. On February 11 and 12, His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion, the monastic community, the seminarians, faculty, staff, and friends gathered to praise God the Holy Trinity, honor those great saints of the fourth century, and extol the virtues of the Seminary.

On February 26, 2018, Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary will host a presentation titled, “The Many Hats of Alyona Kojevnikova: Reflections on Russian Orthodox Life Around the World”. The presentation was arranged and will be moderated by Rev Deacon Andrei Psarev, Assistant Professor of Canon Law and Russian Church History at HTOS and editor of the ROCOR Studies website.  Ms Kojevnikova’s biography may be found at

http://www.rocorstudies.org/ 2014/08/17/invariably-the- russianness-is-going-to- dissipate-with-every- congregation/

This event will be live-streamed on both the HTOS and ROCOR Studies Facebook pages, and a Q & A will follow. Please join us for this unusual presentation.

At 5:00 pm on Sunday, February 25, 2018, the Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary Choir, directed by Deacon Nicholas Kotar, will sing the responses at the Pan-Orthodox "Lenten Mission" Vespers for the Albany, NY, area hosted by St Basil’s Russian Orthodox Church (OCA) in Watervliet, NY.  Archpriest Alexander F.C. Webster, Ph.D., Seminary Dean and Professor of Moral Theology, will lead the HTOS delegation and preach the homily.  Deacon Michael Pavuk, Director of Development, will accompany the delegation. The entire free-will offering will be donated to the Seminary fund. We thank the host rector, Archpriest Peter Olsen, and Priest Matthew Markewich, Rector of Christ the Savior Orthodox Church (OCA), Ballston Lake, NY, for coordinating the even and extending the invitations.

Deacon Michael Pavuk, HTOS Director of Development, brought the Jordanville Pochaev Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, with the blessing of Archimandrite Luke and at the invitation of Archpriest Serge Lukianov, Rector, to the parish of the New Martyrs & Confessors of Russia on 18th Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, for their patronal feast, which occurred this year on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son.

WASHINGTON — Fifty-six Orthodox Christian clergymen and lay leaders, including the heads of two leading Orthodox seminaries in the U.S., have issued a public statement calling on church leaders to defend Orthodox teaching on the creation and calling of man as male and female by opposing the appointment of deaconesses in the Orthodox Church.

On Tuesday, December 27/January 9, 2018, the third day of the Feast of the Nativity of our Savior Jesus Christ and the Feast of the Holy Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen, Bishop Nicholas (Olhovsky) of Manhattan paid an Archpastoral visit to Holy Trinity Monastery & Seminary.

On the weekend of December 16-17, 2017, the Feast Day of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara, a large delegation from Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary, Jordanville, NY, traveled to St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Howell, NJ, to honor Protopresbyter Valery Lukianov on the occasion of his 90th birthday.