Institutional Objectives

The primary objective of the Seminary is to offer rigorous training to students in those academic and practical disciplines that are requisite for active service to the traditionalist Orthodox Church, mainly as clergy, but also as cantors, teachers, and iconographers. Students will also be educated in Scripture, theology, languages, philosophy, history, and pastoral psychology, which are necessary elements in forming a modern Christian apologetic that, though employing the language of our day, attests to the immutable truths passed down to us from the early Church, including the Church Calendar (sometimes called the “Old” or “Julian” Calendar) that we follow, in which we have our roots.

In the twenty-first century, Orthodox theological education is facing many special challenges. It must deal with the increasing deviations in the society around us from the religious and moral values of traditional Christian life. At the same time, it is confronted with deviations in the Orthodox world itself from the unified witness of Holy Tradition, the Patristic consensus, and the indispensable Biblical foundations of our doctrines, moral behavior, and Church polity. The Seminary clearly sees its role as an essential one in the defense of our Faith against innovation and the preservation of all that which we have inherited from Christ. Hence, the motto of the Seminary, from the words of the Holy Apostle Paul in his Second Epistle to the Greek Christians of Thessalonica: “Stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught” (II Thessalonians 2:15).