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2011 TIKHONAIRE - ARTICLES
provide an Orthodoxy that will be accessible to American born English speakers. This seemingly endless contention, and the worldview born from it, is the culture this seminary was born into. And the struggle continues. With Communism swept from the earth and the multiplicity of Orthodox jurisdictions ministering to their individual ethnic groups, (and the converts that attach themselves to them), as well as a united Russian Church under the Patriarch of Moscow, the new battle is for the identity of the American Church itself. The recent scandals and problems in the OCA have only heightened the reality that St. Tikhon’s Seminary remains near the center of the struggle - and the center of the solution. You’re probably asking yourself, what does all this have to do with beautifully remodeled bathrooms? The physical changes and additions: remodeled administrative building and the coming new kitchen and refectory and roof, potential married student housing, are part of a greater change. As are some of the policy changes such as the increased attendance at divine services, Byzantine liturgies, absorbing the cost of the meal plan to allow all married students and their families to join single
...policy changes such as the increased attendance at divine services, Byzantine liturgies, and the absorption of the cost of the meal plan to allow all married students and their families to join single students and staff at lunch.
students and staff at lunch. As well as elimination of the head table in the dining-hall, spiritual readings at lunch during Great Lent and a closer canonical adherence to fasting on regular Wednesdays and Fridays. We’ve also seen improved communication among students and staff with the inclusion of school email - not to mention an updated seminary web site. But these are all things and ideas, the product of real change. The real change of course is the people. The dean of a seminary or college is essentially the Chief Executive Officer, in the case of our new dean, Fr. Alexander Atty, he’s also the Chief Financial Officer and the head of Operations. To fully grasp the changes he’s implemented (as well as understand where the future is headed), we have to understand not only the history of the seminary, but also the historic context in which he comes to us as our dean. It was a dramatic context for many of us who began in 2009. I left Oregon with my wife and two daughters that summer to attend seminary in the Fall. By the time we had reached Arizona, a Hieromonk from St. Paisius monastery told me he heard from a reliable source the school was closing. By the time we reached Oklahoma I was able to access the web site and find enormous comfort in the steady words of our Rector, Bishop Tikhon, who reassured all that the seminary was in fine shape. It had the feel of yet another crisis averted in a string of crises that seemed to go back to almost the beginning. And as we all know, the struggles continue. This is the context into which Fr. Atty has come. I had someone ask me about the improvements to the seminary recently, assuming things are better now than they were in the past. While that does seem to be the case, it’s not the perspective I have, that
May Christ Our God Bless Fr. Alexander Atty & St. Tikhon’s Seminary - Very Reverend Fr. Dimitrie Vincent & St. Thomas Albanian Orthodox Church