October 21, 2015
Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Seminary hosts Academic Symposium on
Patriarch Tikhon’s Life & Times
On
Friday, October 9, Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, NY
commenced its second annual academic symposium, entitled "Saint
Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow (1865-1925): His Life & 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 (Murianka), rector of the seminary, passed on the words and
blessing of Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America & 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, DC), 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 (The Society for Orthodox
Christian History in the Americas) on "American Orthodoxy in the
Vision & Thought of Saint Tikhon," covering the ministry of St.
Tikhon and his vision for a unified multinational American diocese
under the Russian Church.
In his
talk "The Directives of Patriarch Tikhon Concerning 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 St. 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 & North America," in which
he encouraged the students to continue to work for the glorification
of the holy hieromartyr and confessor in the Church and in their
private prayers. The dean of the Pastoral School of the Diocese of
Chicago & 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 & the
Canonical Status of the Orthodox Church in Latvia & Estonia in the
1920s," by Dr. Aleksandr Gavrilin (University of Latvia, Riga) and
"The View of Saint Tikhon Concerning the ‘Ukrainian Question,’" by
Archpriest Igor Kamennyy (Kiev Theological Academy). Both scholars
analyzed St. 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 & the Soviet State,"
dedicated to St. 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 Lesser
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 & 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 St. 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 the University at Albany. Dr. Kenworthy’s talk,
"Before the Patriarchate: The Life & 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 governorate) 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 & Person of Patriarch Tikhon in Soviet Press," in which the
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 (Northern Ireland), 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 diasporan Church.
The
final paper that concluded the conference was given by Metropolitan
Philip of Poltava, who spoke about the significance of the life of
St. 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 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.
www.hts.edu
