Remarks at the Conclusion of Liturgy for the Exaltation of the Precious Cross

Saint Vladimir Orthodox Theological Seminary September 14, 2026 As we behold the lifting up of the Cross of Christ, I greet you all with the deep spiritual joy of this festal day on which the curse of the tree is healed by the Passion of the passionless God. Among the first, I welcome our concelebrating bishops: His Grace Bishop John of Worcester and New England of the Antiochian Archdiocese, an alumnus and good friend of the seminary, a member of the board of trustees, and Assistant Professor for Pastoral Theology here at St. Vladimir’s; and His Grace Bishop Benedict of Hartford and the Diocese of New England of the Orthodox Church in America, likewise an alumnus and friend of the Seminary, who for many years has offered his editorial expertise to SVS Press. It is a joy to have celebrated with Your Graces as well as with the other clergy, especially Archpriest Alessandro Margheritino, the Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America and our homilist for today, Archpriest Alexander Rentel, the Rector of Three Hierarchs Chapel and Assistant Professor of Liturgical Theology and Canon Law, and Archpriest Michael Nasser, our Director of Spiritual Formation. We are further grateful for the diaconal service of Protodeacon Peter Ilchuk and all the seminary deacons and altar servers who assisted at last evening’s solemn vigil and at today’s festal liturgy. Above all, we are grateful for the prayerful and uplifting voices of the choirs. n behalf of the Hoare further grateful for the diaconal service of Protodeacon Peter Ilchuk and all the seminary deacons and altar servers who assisted at last evening’s solemn vigil and at today’s festal liturgy. Above all, we are grateful for the prayerful and uplifting voices of the choirs. On behalf ofly Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America and the Board of Trustees of the seminary, I congratulate our Dean, Dr. Ionuț-Alexandru Tudorie, on the inauguration of the new academic year for Saint Vladimir’s Seminary and I welcome all of you, the new and returning seminarians, together with your spouses and families, as you begin the academic year at this sacred institution. Some of you are being immersed for the first time in the strange and mysterious world of the seminary, but you are joining your returning classmates who are beginning to understand that this community is only strange and mysterious if it is consider it apart from the perspective of the Cross. Last evening at vigil, we were offered the many images and types of the Cross – from the tree of Paradise, to the uplifted arms of Moses, to the crossed hands of the Patriarch Jacob blessing his children. In your classes, your professors will diligently provide you with the connections between the types and their fulfilment, between the prefigurations and their fulfilment. But they will also remind you that we today are types as well, looking back towards the author and finisher of our salvation. Your life here, under the guidance of the experienced faculty and the direction of the administration and the staff, and the immersion of the chapel experience, will provide you with a formation that will stretch you in length and breadth of the Cross. As our Lord did, you must strive, even imperfectly, not to avoid this stretching but rather to voluntarily embrace it so as to receive his grace more abundantly, to give a Cross-wise shape to all your actions and thoughts, even if this is through the simple movement of making the sign of the Cross. May the Cross that we lift up today ever be a source of strength and consolation for each of you, may you wield it as a weapon of peace. and may it ever be a reminder of the victory of life over death and a perpetual reminder of Christ’s sacrificial love for all of mankind.