Source: Holy Trinity
Seminary
October 15, 2015
On Friday October 9, 2015, Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary
commenced its second annual academic symposium, entitled
“Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow (1865-1925): His
Life and Times.” The Symposium was dedicated to the
Saint’s “double” anniversary this year:
150 years since his birth, and 90 years since his blessed
repose.
With the seminary hall filled to capacity, the
seminarians, professors, speakers, and visitors looked
forward to two days of papers based on the remarkable life
of one of the greatest Russian hierarchs of the
19th and 20th centuries. Following
an opening prayer. Archimandrite Luke, rector of the
seminary, passed on the words and blessing of Metropolitan
Hilarion of Eastern America and New York before delivering
his opening address. In his greeting, the First Hierarch
of the Russian Church Abroad emphasized the significance
of St.
Tikhon for contemporary Orthodox Christians who live
in quite a diverse and sometimes hostile environment.
The first session commenced with a
paper by His Eminence Metropolitan
Jonah (Washington, D.C.) on “The Legacy of
Saint Tikhon as Missionary in America”, in
which he addressed the unique situation of the
Orthodox Church in North America, both in the time of
Saint Tikhon, and today. A short break was followed
by an energetic talk by independent scholar Matthew
Namee (Society for the Orthodox Christian History in
the Americas) on “American Orthodoxy in the
Vision and Thought of Saint Tikhon,” covering
the ministry of Saint Tikhon and his vision for a
unified multinational American diocese under the
Russian Church.
In his talk “The Directives
of Patriarch Tikhon Concerning the ROCOR in the Early
1920s” Dr Andrey Kostryukov of St.
Tikhon’s Orthodox University for the Humanities
(Moscow, Russia) examined the consistently positive
position of Saint Tikhon toward the Russian Church
Abroad, in light of newly-accessible, archival
documents. The first session concluded with a short
address by Reader Nicholas Kotar on the work of the
Patriarch
Tikhon Russian-American Music (PaTRAM) Institute.
The second session opened with
Archpriest Gregory Joyce’s reflections on the
“Veneration of Saint Tikhon in Russia and North
America,” in which he encouraged us to continue
the work for the glorification of the Holy Confessor
by increasing his veneration in the Church and in our
prayer lives. The Dean of the Pastoral School of the
Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America followed his talk
with a short address about the online program offered
by the Chicago School.
His talk was followed by two
related papers: “Patriarch Tikhon and the
Canonical Status of the Orthodox Church in Latvia and
Estonia in the 1920s” by Dr. Aleksandr Gavrilin
(University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia) and “The
View of Saint Tikhon Concerning the ‘Ukrainian
Question’ ” by Archpriest Igor Kamennyy
(Kiev Theological Academy). Both scholars analyzed
Saint Tikhon’s approach in dealing with the
drive for independence in various parts of the
Russian Church, and their effects for today. At the
end of this session Reader Nicholas Chapman, Director
of Holy Trinity Publications, delivered a short
presentation on the recently re-published book,
Chosen For His People: A Biography of Patriarch
Tikhon by Jane Swan, which remains the only
biography of the Patriarch in the English language.
The third session consisted of a
thought-provoking paper by Francesca Silano, a Ph.D.
candidate in history at the University of Toronto on
“Patriarch Tikhon, the American Experience, and
the Soviet State,” dedicated to Saint
Tikhon’s use of the concept of freedom of
conscience when dealing with the Bolshevik
persecution of the Church. The session concluded with
a brief presentation by Dmitry Bogdanov,
Communications Manager for the Velikie Luki Diocese
of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose talk on
“Patriarch Tikhon’s Small Homeland”
included much information on events in the diocese of
Saint Tikhon’s childhood.
The second day of the Symposium
began with Dr. David Ford’s paper entitled
“Saint
Tikhon and the Founding of Saint Tikhon’s
Monastery” in which the Professor of Church
History of St. Tikhon’s Theological Seminary
(South Canaan, PA), detailed the endeavors of Saint
Tikhon and some of his monastic clergy in
establishing the first Orthodox monastery in America.
Dr. Ford was followed by the keynote address by Dr. Scott
Kenworthy, Associate Professor of Miami University
(Oxford, OH), which was open to the public and attracted
many interested persons, including many students from
University at Albany. Dr. Kenworthy’s talk,
“Before the Patriarchate: The Life and Times of
Saint Tikhon Before 1917,” presented a fascinating
account of a less-well-known period of St Tikhon’s
life and ministry, from his birth in a village of Klin
(Pskov region) to his episcopal and missionary service in
Western Ukraine, North America, Russia, and Lithuania. The
attendees of the talk saw some unique documents and
photographs, which Dr. Kenworthy discovered in the course
of his continuing work on the new, scholarly biography of
the saint and confessor.
The next session on Saturday began
with Dr. Sergei Firsov’s analysis of “The
Image and Person of Patriarch Tikhon in Soviet
Press,” in which Professor of St. Petersburg
State University and also of St Petersburg
Theological Academy detailed the slanderous attacks
made against “the enemy of the people”
from the early years of the Bolshevik regime and
until the fall of the Soviet Union and Communist
ideology.
Deacon
Andrei Psarev, HTOS faculty member and PhD
candidate of Queen’s University, Belfast, in
his paper, “They Have Neither Laymen Nor
Money,” made an overview of previously unknown
correspondence by the then-Archbishop Tikhon of
Yaroslavl with the Russian Orthodox priest in London,
Archpriest Evgenii Smirnov. The letters mostly
consisted of conversation about the attempted entry
into Orthodoxy of an English Old Catholic bishop
Arnold Harris Mathew, and the resulting issues. The
last paper of this session was presented by Deacon
Alexander Zanemonets, a scholar from the Holy Land ,
detailing “The Legacy of Patriarch Tikhon in
the Work of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in the
Holy Land,” in which he covered the development
of the émigré community in the Holy
Land, cut off from post-revolutionary Russia, and its
interactions with various figures of the diaspora
Church.
The final paper that concluded the
conference was given by Metropolitan Philip of
Poltava, who spoke about the significance of the life
of Saint Tikhon for the Russian Orthodox Church. He
stated that St Tikhon was the greatest of the new
hieromartyrs of Russia, due to his long- suffering
under persecution by the Bolsheviks who slowly put
him to death through imprisonments, the murder of his
assistant, and psychological torments..
With the symposium complete, Dr. Vitaly Permiakov
expressed thanks to a number of individuals without whose
sponsorship and day-to-day commitment this event would not
have been successful. Archimandrite Luke, Rector of Holy
Trinity Seminary, concluded the proceedings by expressing
thanks to the speakers, and guests who all contributed to
the Seminary’s common effort to honor the memory of
the great hierarch and holy confessor on his anniversary
this year.
16 октября 2015 г.
