The Society for Orthodox Christian History in the Americas
A Reminder of the Difficulties in Starting Orthodox Seminaries
In my last two posts this year (2011), I have highlighted something from Orthodoxy’s engagement with higher education here in America. In one case I mentioned SVS obtaining some new facilities and I mentioned the beginning of the Byzantine collection at the University of Buffalo. Here I thought I’d offer a nice little piece on one of the meetings that helped conceive of the development of seminary education in the Metropolia.
This was necessary because St. Platon’s seminary had been closed finally and officially in 1924 (after having been moved to New York from its original location in Tenafly, NJ in 1922). The financial problems following the Russian Revolution and Civil War had been extreme and the Russian Mission suffered significantly. This would affect the mission as it later became the Metropolia. By the 1930s, though, the need for a seminary was significant. In 1937, real headway was made on this front.
The spokesman in the Times article, Rev. Vladimir Prislopsky, was my grandfather. From 1933 to 1970 (his death), he was rector of St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Church in Cleveland, OH (now in Broadview Heights), once the largest parish in the Metropolia/OCA. In 1927 he and some friends established the Federated Russian Orthodox Clubs (FROC) in Pittsburgh; he became the first president and was also the first editor of its publication, the Russian Orthodox Journal. The FROC is now known as the Fellowship of Orthodox Christians in America (FOCA) and I’m editor of its Orthodox Christian Journal — http://www.orthodoxfellowship.org. In November 2010, St. Michael’s parish remembered Father Vladimir on the 40th anniversary of his repose at its annual St. Michael’s Day dinner which included a Powerpoint presentation, program booklet and speeches. For a parish to remember its priest 40 years after his death is a wonderful thing and demonstrates the high esteem in which his parishioners (and now their children & grandchildren) continue to hold him.