When our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He called out to Simon Peter and his brother, Andrew, saying: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men (Matthew 4:19).  Full of divine grace and power, those simple words inspired the first disciples to set out on a path that would require both humble obedience and sacrificial service. By their willingness to follow Christ, they revealed their obedience, which in turn prepared their hearts to receive the divine grace that would strengthen them to become fishers of men.

     Those who are called to the Holy Priesthood likewise are offered this twofold path of humble obedience and sacrificial service. While all Orthodox Christians are called to follow Christ, those who are called to holy orders take upon themselves the awesome and fearful task of guiding others towards the Heavenly Kingdom. This task cannot be undertaken unless a man has himself learned humility by his own experience and has been formed by the grace of the Holy Spirit to a life of service to God and His Holy Church.

     It is within the seminary that this learning and formation can take place in a most real and inspiring way.  Although the seminary is structured as an academic institution, it stands above all as a reminder that man’s search for knowledge and for truth is not limited to the intellectual pursuit of one particular object of study. Theology is not one discipline among many but rather the path to communion with the living God.  As Saint Silouan writes: “With our minds we cannot know even how the sun was made; and when we beg God to tell us how He made the sun, the answer rings clear in our soul: ‘Humble thyself, and thou shalt know, not only the sun but the Creator of the Sun.’” A seminary, therefore, is not only a school of theology but also a school of repentance, for it is only by sincere repentance that we can approach the living Christ.

     The Orthodox Theological Seminary of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk humbly strives to fulfill her mission to guide Orthodox men towards a life of virtue so that they might become, as God so wills, good shepherds of the Holy Orthodox Church. Our school, recently fully accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, is blessed with an outstanding group of faculty and staff, each of whom, in his own personal way, helps to form the students within the Biblical and Patristic ethos of the Church Tradition.

     We ask for the prayers of all so that these blessings might truly guide us towards the living waters of Christ and towards our eternal salvation in the Heavenly Kingdom.