Seminary Student Ordained A Presbyter

AXIOS! September 18, 2023 (Old Style), marked an historic day for Saint Photios Orthodox Theological Seminary and for the Diocese of Stockholm of the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece. In the presence of many local parishioners and of nuns visiting from the United States, from Greece, and from the nearby Convent of Saint Philothei of Athens, His Eminence, Metropolitan Kyprianos II of Oropos and Phyle, Locum Tenens of the Diocese of Stockholm, Ordained the Reverend Deacon Father Alexander Hahr a Presbyter.

The Ordination took place in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Saints Constantine and Helen Orthodox Church, which is also where Father Alexander was Ordained a Deacon just four days earlier.

At the festal meal after the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy, Schemanun Kypriane Hagielisavetissa, the Director of Student Services and an Instructor at the Seminary, read aloud congratulatory remarks written by His Eminence, the Most Reverend Bishop Auxentios of Etna and Portland, the Rector of the Seminary. Mother Kypriane, a member of the Convent of Saint Elizabeth the Grand Duchess in Etna, California, is herself a native Swede.

Before his Ordination to the Priesthood, Father Alexander was made a Reader and then a Subdeacon last year by Metropolitan Kyprianos. A convert in his adult life to the Orthodox Faith and a third-year student at the Seminary, Father Alexander will fill an enormous need for more Priests in his home country of Sweden. He will be serving the Diocese of Stockholm alongside the Reverend Presbyter Father Anders Åkerström and the Reverend Presbyter Father Stefanos Jaerpenberg. The Seminary itself seeks to help produce more educated clergymen and servants of the Church for the current and future generations.

With the Seminary Expansion Campaign underway, we hope to house more students who come from all around the world. Until recently, international students like Father Alexander have only been allowed to participate in classes at the Seminary remotely because of federal government restrictions. However, with the Seminary now certified to have international students attend classes in person, Father Alexander Hahr hopes to come to Etna as a student next term.

May God richly bless and grant guidance to Presbyter Alexander, Presbytera Nina, and their three children as they enter this new stage in their lives!