November, 2025

Jordanville Seminary Annual Fund 2025 Year-End Appeal

Explore the many ways you can support
Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary!

As 2025 winds to a close, we have many wonderful things to share with you about seminary life in Jordanville.

First of all, as the images on the enclosed brochure illustrate, young men who are formed at the seminary are being ordained to serve the Church. This includes some of our recent alumni, as well as several of our current students. Having these new clerics ordained while they are still in seminary and can serve here in the monastery on a regular basis is an ideal opportunity for them to cultivate their ability to properly execute the divine services and therefore prepare for their lives as parish clergy.

This proper clerical preparation, which includes their spiritual, liturgical, and intellectual formation, is the seminary’s primary mission. We can say that with God’s help, as well as with your financial support, the evidence that this mission is being accomplished is speaking for itself.

We are very pleased to also share that this past June, Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary achieved Candidate Status with Middle States Commission on Higher Accreditation (MSCHE), the Seminary’s accrediting body. Although our administration has many requirements to meet in the coming months and years to extend this accreditation, meeting their high standards and achieving this milestone is a tremendous step forward.

In this 2025 Year-End Appeal, we refer to the fact that there are several ways that you can support the Seminary.  These opportunities have been presented in various mailings and electronic postings in recent years.

First and foremost, the Jordanville Seminary Annual Fund (which continues to serve as the utmost source of revenue for the Seminary) is of primary importance. This is where we need your regular financial support. These appeals are sent out twice per year including both during the Paschal season as well towards the end of each calendar year. Remember that you can contribute individual gifts semiannually, or better yet, you can become a Holy Trinity Seminary Patron by making a pledge to donate to the Seminary with on a regular (i.e. monthly) basis.

In addition to the Annual Fund, we need financial support of our Scholarship and Bursary Funds, which provide merit-based and need-based financial aid for our students, and last but certainly not least, please reach out to inquire about our planned-giving initiative, the Joyful Givers Legacy, through which Seminary benefactors can plan their future giving to the Seminary, which by the way can begin during one’s earthly lifetime, and can continue after one’s repose.

We have referenced certain details related to the cost of running the Seminary in recent appeals, but this information bears repeating, and needs to be explained with more specifics here. The annual budget to run the Seminary presently exceeds $1.4M per year. This may sound like a big number to some of our benefactors, but when you consider that we have both an undergraduate and a graduate program, Seven (7) Full-Time Faculty, Fourteen (14) Part-Time, Visiting, Adjunct, and CTS Faculty, and over 30 on-campus students to educate, house, and feed, this dollar amount quickly becomes not only understandable, but even can seem somewhat modest.

Based on the size of our on-campus student body, which has averaged between 30 and 35 students in recent years, the actual cost of educating each student ranges each year from $40,000 to $45,000 per student. Although we raised tuition and room and board charges (albeit a modest 22 %) for the 2025-26 academic year, this total revenue still does not meet the budget. This is why giving the Annual Fund your financial support is crucial.

Although we receive some support from charitable and family foundations, we need most of our support from you, and from our parishioners, parishes and dioceses around the world. Remember that our students and graduates being ordained to the Holy Diaconate and the Holy Priesthood are prepared to serve you and your parish! Some parishes have received recent seminary alumni as assistant rectors or even as their new rectors, and many other parishes will need a new priest to step in as their beloved and devoted parish priest advances in years and becomes unable to properly execute his priestly duties.

In a recent conversation with a generous benefactor, who has become a ‘Joyful Giver’ by setting up a bequest in addition to being an HTS Patron with his generous monthly gifts,  when asked what inspires him to generously support the seminary, his answer was; “If you are Orthodox, and more so if you are of Russian background, the future of Seminary in Jordanville should matter to you!”

For those who care deeply about the future of the Church in this uncertain world, there is no better investment than in the education of future clergy. When you support these young men who are preparing to serve, you are securing the future of the Holy Orthodox Church for generations to come. Thank you for everything you have already done to support us.

For those who care deeply about the future of the Church in this uncertain world, there is no better investment than in the education of future clergy. When you support these young men who are preparing to serve, you are securing the future of the Holy Orthodox Church for generations to come. Thank you for everything you have already done to support us.

Today, we are asking you to remain a co-laborer in building the future of the Church. Every gift—whether large or small—makes a difference. Your support of the Seminary will preserve the clear witness of Holy Orthodoxy.  You will help to preserve it not only for yourself, your children, and grandchildren, but for the entire world. 

May our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ bless your efforts, done for His glory.

Thank you for your support!

In Christ,

Rt. Rev. LUKE

Bishop of Syracuse

Abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery

Rector of Holy Trinity Seminary

Protodeacon Michael Pavuk

Director of Development

Holy Trinity Seminary