Education Day - St. Vladimir's Seminary 2006

On the social and human level, I often refer to Education Day at Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary as "my family reunion." On this day I often see reunited with members of my spiritual family and meet new members. There are many people whom I know through the Internet or by their writings and I also meet them for the first time on Education Day. Thus, this is one of the most important days of the year for me.

Another important aspect of this day is the bookstore. I always try to have some funds for books, and of course, funds for food. This is a fund raiser for the seminary and I have no problem spending what I can afford on food. This is probably where their biggest profit is derived. Selling books is not really profitable, at least not for a parish bookstore. The parish bookstore makes its real profit from things like crosses, icons, and other items.

Ten of us left Baltimore early Saturday morning and drove in two cars. We coordinated our efforts by taking advantage of two cell phones, one of which was mine and the other was Cherese. I wish that I had my old cell phone since I'm more familiar with it, but I did manage well with my new one.

It was pouring down rain when we left Baltimore and I was expecting the worse. By the time we got into New Jersey, the rain had stopped. I was very grateful for that.

Throughout the day I saw people whom I knew and it was great visiting with them. One was Fr. John Hopko who taught me everything that I know about being a sacristan. I also saw Dr. Paul Meyendorff, who taught me everything that I know about liturgical history and Fr. Paul Lazor who taught me about services.

In addition I saw Dr. Mark Bailey who is a regular contributor to the Orthodox Psalms list and Mrs. Helen Erickson, excuse me, Matushka Helen Erickson, the wife of the dean of the seminary, Fr. John Erickson. For years I've always called her "Helen" and his husband "John." Now he is a priest.

While I was at the seminary, we were a family. We were all graduate students and expected to act as adults. Plus it is the tradition in the Orthodox Church to use the first name of the priests instead of the last name. Thus, I would never say "Fr. Lazor" but I would say "Fr. Paul."

We ended the day with Vespers and it was magnificent. The photographs do not capture the beauty. I was shooting without flash for the most part to be as invisible as possible. Plus, the pictures cannot capture the beautiful music and it was Tone Eight, my favorite tone. If you really want to see a priest serve with love and piety, you must see Fr. Paul Lazor. Watching him and Protodeacon Kirill serving Vespers along with the beautiful music was a real treat.

Right after Vespers a woman took a picture of Christina and me together. I just wanted a picture of her and she asked, "Do you want us together?" and I could not turn down such an opportunity to have my photograph taken with such a beautiful woman. But it is much deeper than that.

The last time I remember Christina she was four years old. Perhaps I have seen her when she was eight, but I do not remember. I do remember her at the seminary as a cute, four-year old girl and I remember one time her brother Nicholas just did some really cute and I said to her, "Christina, can I steal Nicholas?" and she said, "No!" I asked, "Why not?" and her cute answer was "He's my brother."

Christina is the oldest child of Fr. John Cassar. Fr. John and I were classmates at the seminary. He was one year behind me, but we had some classes together and one was a Liturgical Theology class with Dr. Paul Meyendorff. During that semester Fr. John and I served as subdeacons at the consecration of St. Andrew Church in Dix Hills NY. Two weeks later the class topic was church consecrtion and we were able to share our experience with the rest of the class since it was still very fresh in our minds.

I cannot begin to tell you how helpful Fr. John was to me when I was a student at St. Vladimir's Seminary. There have been several occasions when he bailed out out of situations which I could not control.

The children grow up so fast. Before you know it, that four-year-old is an adult. At my church Vera is now 14 and I remember when I first met her when she was only four. The difference is that here I have the opportunity to watch her grow up and I did not have this opportuity with Christina.

Frankly, I was disappointed at the low attendance but I expected it. We need to support our seminaries. What would happen if St. Vladimir's Seminary was forced to close its doors? That is really a scarey thought and I hope that we will never have to consider this as a possibility.

Please enjoy the photographs.

	The three women on our trip
A view of the highway		Indian food booth
	Fr John taught me everything I know about being a sacristan	Fr. Samuel and I met at my cathedral when the Ecumenical Patriarch visited it in 1990
We were joking about New Jersey all morning	Barbara Drillock and one of her grandchildren	Helen Erickson and Nick Kobb
Part of the Kobb family	Dn Kirill, Dr John Barnett, another deacon, and Fr. John Behr	The "center" of the seminary
New set of bells	The bell used to call us to prayer for years
		Anthony is Fr John Cassar's father-in-law
	Dr Mark Bailey directing the people	Protodeacn Kirrill Sorokov
Dn Kiril and Fr Paul Lazor
Christina and I

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