The Rector, the Board of Trustees, and the Faculty of Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary are glad to announce that the Commencement Exercises for the HTOS Class of 2017 will take place on Sunday, May 28, 2017. The celebrations will begin with the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at 9 a.m., presided by His Grace Bishop Irenei.

The Commencement Exercises will begin with a Moleben at Holy Trinity Cathedral at 2 p.m., followed by procession to the Seminary Hall for the graduation ceremony (begins approximately at 2:30 p.m.). This year, the Commencement address will be given by His Grace, the Most Reverend Irinei (Steenberg), Bishop of Sacramento, Vicar Bishop of the Western American Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.

THE 2017 COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER

Bishop Irenei (in the world – Matthew Steenberg) was born in 1978. He graduated from Oxford University (UK) with the doctorate (D.Phil.) in Patristic Studies and Church History. He was a fellow in Patristics at Oxford, and Chair in Theology at Leeds Trinity University (UK). In 2007 he was ordained a deacon in the Sourozh Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, and in 2010 he was tonsured and ordained a hieromonk by Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and the West (ROCOR). He was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite in 2011. On July 1, 2016, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church Abroad elected Fr Irenei to be the Bishop of Sacramento, Vicar of the Western American Diocese. He was consecrated at the Cathedral of Joy of All Who Sorrow in San Francisco on November 6, 2016. Vladyka Irenei is an established scholar of patristics, Orthodox anthropology, and church history, having authored numerous books, articles, essays, and talks. From 2012 he is the founder and Director of Sts Cyril and Athanasius Institute for Orthodox Studies in San Francisco, and from 2015 serves as the abbot of the newly founded Monastery of St Silouan in Sonora, CA.