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 Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 7:39 pm Post subject: Article from the National Herald - The School of Theology an |
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The School of Theology and the Future of Orthodoxy - The National Herald
August 9, 2008
By Theodore Kalmoukos
Special to The National Herald
BOSTON, Mass. -- When then Archbishop Athenagoras (Spirou), who
eventually became Ecumenical Patriarch, founded Holy Cross Greek
Orthodox School of Theology in 1937, he knew very well that without such
an institution the future of Orthodoxy and Hellenism in America would be
in doubt.
The community-parish, which is the basic cell of the organizational
structure of the Church and the Greek American community in general,
would not be able to survive without able priests -- well educated
academically and well formulated in Christ, men with ethos and
consciousness of their dual mission: the salvific ministry of the Church
and virtues of our Hellenic cultural and spiritual heritage.
I am talking about Hellenism here, not Helladism; Hellenism as the
historic cultural flesh of Christianity and its pure and most authentic
form, which is Orthodoxy.
It is also historically true that, as far as the Greek American
community is concerned, pioneering Greek Orthodox immigrants from Greece
brought Orthodoxy here. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America was
not established by missionary clergy, bishops, the Church of Greece or
the Ecumenical Patriarchate, but is the sacred work of the hands and
hearts of those pioneering Greek immigrants, who built our churches and
parochial schools, while suffering many sacrifices themselves because of
their limited financial resources and the lack of any organized
structure to receive any type of support.
Many Greek pioneers sold their rings and other golden valuables to buy
materials to build their local church and Greek school, as was the case
of the Holy Trinity community in Lowell. In Worcester, Greek immigrants
used to buy bread from a specific bakery, and the owner of the bakery
would keep one cent from each loaf they sold. At the end of the week, a
committee headed by the priest collected the pennies, and this is how
the church of Saint Spyridon and its school were built.
Dozens of parishes throughout the United States were started as either
Greek schools of Greek cultural associations because the main priority
of those pioneering immigrants was the preservation and continuation of
Hellenism with everything that it embraces, including the Church. When
the laity established parishes, bishops and priests were sent from
Greece and the Patriarchate to minister to Greek Orthodox congregations
in America.
The priest of the parish was also the teacher of the Greek School, where
pupils were taught the holy things of God and the cultural things of
Hellenic heritage. The early graduates of Holy Cross had a very clear
mission: priestly-ecclesiastical and also ethnic-Hellenic. On this
twofold diptych, the foundation of our Greek American community was
built in America -- not without difficulties or obstacles, including
racial discrimination.
I remember vividly a discussion with the late Archbishop Iakovos, who
marched with Martin Luther King in Alabama, placing his very life on the
line, and who was inspired by a sign at the door in a park in the south:
"Entry is Prohibited to Blacks, Greeks and Dogs."
There is no doubt that Holy Cross Seminary has played a very pivotal
role in the sustenance and life of the Church and Greek Orthodox
community in America, and certainly continues to play a crucial role
today. It is true that most things, if not all, in a parish depend on
its priest.
But I believe that the theological school is in dire need of a general
overhaul in its mentality and mission.
Starting from the very basic issue of enrollment numbers, the size of
the student body which, in recent years has become the focal spinning
point of many, including Archbishop Demetrios himself, who claim the
school has experienced a huge increase in numbers.
The facts contradict the spinsters, however. According to the official
booklet which was passed out at the recent Clergy-Laity Congress in
Washington, we see on page 14 that the total number of students at Holy
Cross for the year 2007-08 was 107, out of which 29 were from other
Orthodox jurisdictions with only 78 students from the Greek Orthodox
Archdiocese of America.
The number of Hellenic College students is much more disappointing,
since the total of its student body was only 71, out of which 20 were
from other jurisdictions and 51 from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of
America.
The total number for both Hellenic College and Holy Cross in the past
academic year was only 178 students.
According to the official booklet, we read on page 20 that, "over the
last two years, the incoming Holy Cross class averaged 21 Greek Orthodox
Master's of Divinity students. Sixty-five percent of these students were
married. Half of the married students have children. The median age of
the 25 Greek Orthodox seminarians ordained as priests, per the 2008
Archdiocesan Yearbook, is 35. At today's ordinations rates, it will take
approximately 30 years to replace all of our active priests," many of
who are already at retirement age.
According to a report given out by Archbishop Demetrios during the
plenary session of the recent Clergy-Laity Congress, the Archdiocese has
591 active priests, with 184 retired, for a total of 775.
Many retired priests continue to serve either in small parishes, which
can not afford to pay the salary of a full-time priest, or as
supplementary priests on the weekends.
Not mentioned anywhere is the number of converts from other
denominations who go to Holy Cross for four years, and are ordained and
assigned to the Greek Orthodox parishes as priests. There is yet another
phenomenon in the Archdiocese: the admission of already ordained priests
coming from other jurisdictions of Slavic and mostly Romanian origins.
These priests, as was widely observed by clergy at the Clergy-Laity,
come to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese because it is considered a "cash
cow," meaning that Greek Orthodox parishes pay good salaries. The
Metropolis of Atlanta, as well as other Metropolises, has accepted quite
a few Romanians.
The annual operational cost of Hellenic College/Holy Cross is almost $10
million, for a total of 178 students. It seems to me that the expense
and the number of students are greatly incommensurate.
Just to call things as they are, we can not continue with those numbers.
Seventy-one students for Hellenic College and 107 in the School of
Theology, for a total of 178 altogether, is not a number which can be
used in any serious discussion that we have an undergraduate College and
a graduate School of Theology. Also, the complaints about the readiness
of the graduates are many.
There are some golden exceptions, of course, but the vast majority of
Holy Cross graduates can not function adequately as priests in the
parishes. Many don't know their Greek, for example.
Understandably, societal dynamics have changed today, and it is only
natural those changes reflect on the theological school, but the
question is, how seriously have all of us -- the Archbishop,
Metropolitans, priests, parishes and parents -- examined the issue of
the cultivation of priestly callings? How is it possible that a such
large and vibrant community like our own Greek American community is not
able to have 30 young men per year with the right ethos and faith go to
Holy Cross, but instead collects leftovers from Roman Catholicism and
Protestantism, people who often carry a certain amount of baggage?
One more thing, it is unacceptable after four or seven years of study at
HC/HC for graduates not to be able to liturgize or to perform the
Sacraments. Forget Holy Week.
On the one hand, it seems that it all starts from the Ecumenical
Patriarch, the Greek Government and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese
trying, and very justly so, for the reopening of the Theological School
at Halki, but here we have a college and a theological school right in
the academic center of America, and unfortunately, they are in an
insensible condition.
I think all of us should start to care a little bit more about our
theological school in Boston as much as we do about the closed one near
Constantinople. It is evident that the condition of the School, its
numbers and certainly its mentality need to be looked at.
Someone would have hoped that the current Archbishop would do something
historic and essential for the advancement of the School, since he had
taught there for a number of years and knows its matters inside-out. It
is not possible for Hellenic College to continue at its present pace
with just 71 students and with a volunteer retired dean, because no one
takes us seriously. Either Hellenic College should be developed as a
prominent center of Greek Studies in America, or it should close. It is
meaningless to keep a half-dead body on continuous life support in the
intensive care unit without hope for recovery.
The theological school can not continue with its usual rhythms, numbers,
spending and mentality because it does not go anywhere. The options are
either to advance it to its fullness and educate Greek Orthodox priests
in a complete way -- make them able to serve our Greek Orthodox parishes
-- or to close and send 30 or more students to theological schools in
Greece, where they will learn Theology, Homiletics, New Testament
Exegesis, ecclesiastical music, Liturgics and Teleturgics, Patrology,
and certainly the Greek language to enable them to study the Bible, the
writings of the Fathers, the hymnology and decisions of the Holy Synods
in their original forms.
If we do not do something serious immediately, we can not even begin to
speak about the future of Orthodoxy and Hellenism in America. |
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Alexander Arnakis
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 9:14 am Post subject: Re: Article from the National Herald - The School of Theolog |
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On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:39:31 -0400, ++ <friend@spambot.com> wrote:
| Quote: | The School of Theology and the Future of Orthodoxy - The National Herald
August 9, 2008
By Theodore Kalmoukos
Special to The National Herald
snipped for brevity
The total number for both Hellenic College and Holy Cross in the past
academic year was only 178 students.
The annual operational cost of Hellenic College/Holy Cross is almost $10
million, for a total of 178 students. It seems to me that the expense
and the number of students are greatly incommensurate.
Just to call things as they are, we can not continue with those numbers.
Seventy-one students for Hellenic College and 107 in the School of
Theology, for a total of 178 altogether, is not a number which can be
used in any serious discussion that we have an undergraduate College and
a graduate School of Theology. Also, the complaints about the readiness
of the graduates are many.
The theological school can not continue with its usual rhythms, numbers,
spending and mentality because it does not go anywhere. The options are
either to advance it to its fullness and educate Greek Orthodox priests
in a complete way -- make them able to serve our Greek Orthodox parishes
-- or to close and send 30 or more students to theological schools in
Greece, where they will learn Theology, Homiletics, New Testament
Exegesis, ecclesiastical music, Liturgics and Teleturgics, Patrology,
and certainly the Greek language to enable them to study the Bible, the
writings of the Fathers, the hymnology and decisions of the Holy Synods
in their original forms.
The total outlay of nearly $10 million comes to about $56,000 for each |
of the 178 students. It would be more cost-effective for the
Archdiocese to close these institutions, and send all the students to
Greece on full scholarships. This would also result in their better
training for the priesthood. |
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