st raphael

Crestwood, New York – Sept 14, 2015

Your Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, Your Eminences, Your Graces, Father John, Father Chad, reverend fathers, and beloved faculty and students of Saint Vladimir's seminary,

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. 

It is my joy to be present with you as you begin your new academic year, with your classes having already begun, and your studies as students, and burdens as professors, already well underway!

St. Vladmir's Seminary has a long history of educating leaders and theologians, and many of our clergy and hierarchs have come to us with the firm foundation that has been imparted to them through their education at St. Valdimir's Seminary.  This legacy is greatly appreciated by all of us. St. Vladimir's Seminary and the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese have a rich, positive and fruitful history, and I pledge to do all that I can during my tenure as Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of North America to maintain and enhance this relationship.

Allow me to make some points in this short talk, using St. Raphael, Bishop of Brooklyn, as an example to illustrate what is important.

From The Word, October 2015

In honor of this year's One Hundredth Anniversary of the Repose of Saint Raphael of Brooklyn, the Antiochian Heritage Museum recently opened an all-new exhibit about Saint Raphael, which includes an interactive touchscreen presentation. With the support of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America, the museum partnered with Wiant Design Works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to create the updated display. The exhibit was unveiled during the meetings of the Archdiocese Board of Trustees held at the Antiochian Village in May.

Titled "Saint Raphael: Scholar and Shepherd," the museum's new touchscreen exhibit offers highlights from the theological thesis which St. Raphael wrote as a young seminarian, and which was recently translated from its original Greek into English by the Rev. Dr. Patrick Viscuso. In addition to excerpts from the thesis, the touchscreen also explores highlights from the life of St. Raphael – from his youth in Damascus through his ministry as a priest and bishop in the United States.

by Fr. John W. Fenton, The Word, April 2015