From Seminary to Service in the Diocese of the West
By: Archpriest Barnabas Powell, Diocesan Vocations Director, July 5th, 2024
“Seminary” comes from the Latin word seminarium, which means a plant nursery or a seed plot. This term can be further refined as a plot of soil where plants are raised for transplanting.
The latter definition is particularly apt when it comes to seminary graduates. Unlike a garden, where plants may remain for their entire lives, the seeds that reach a suitable point of maturity in a plant nursery are taken and transplanted elsewhere – to bear fruit or bring a pleasing aroma wherever their cultivator sees fit.
In a similar way, seminary graduates, having reached a sufficient level of maturity, are transplanted to wherever they can best serve the needs of the Church, hopefully doing so to their own and their family’s salvation.
The Diocese of the West is pleased to celebrate the recent graduation of eleven of its seminarians from two of our Church’s plant nurseries. We look forward to witnessing how these mature plants will continue to grow and bear fruit, whether as clergy or monastics, adult or youth educators, missionaries, church musicians, leaders in social and philanthropic ministries, or in whatever capacity the Lord sees fit.
The spring of 2024 crop of seminarians includes four from St. Tikhon’s Seminary and seven from St. Vladimir’s Seminary. Let’s take a brief look at each of them…
From Saint Tikhon’s Seminary, we rejoice in the graduation of four men who have also received the grace of ordination to the holy priesthood. These newly-graduated priests, with their families, will now take up ministry within parishes of our diocese as they move back to the West over this summer.
Priest Seraphim Chang, a native of South Korea, formerly served as a youth and young adult pastor in several Korean Protestant congregations before discovering Orthodoxy. In this ministry he was aided by his wife, Matushka Ruth, a Washington State native. As time went on, the couple began to wonder whether there might be more to Christianity than what they were seeing and doing in their then ministry. A desire for more reverent worship – and in particular, a more reverent approach to the Lord’s Supper – led them to inquire about Holy Orthodoxy and ultimately enter the Church at St. John the Evangelist Mission in Tempe, AZ. God willing, the Chang’s will begin their parish ministry in July at St. Innocent Church, in Pleasanton, CA.
Priest Damian Kulp grew up as an Orthodox Christian largely in the Midwest before eventually moving to Oregon, where he attended Oregon State University. There, he met his wife, Matushka Kew (Lilly), in the ‘romantic setting’ of a college mathematics course. As their relationship began, he introduced his future bride very early on to the Orthodox Church at St. Anne’s in Corvallis, where she came to love the faith as well. Father Damian’s grandfather is also an OCA priest (recently retired). At a time when we’re able to thank God for so many converts to Orthodoxy who are feeling called to seminary and joining the ranks of the clergy, it is also very important that we continue to witness clergy being raised up from among those who were raised in the Orthodox faith from their youth. God willing, Father Damian, Matushka Kew and their two little boys will soon begin their ministry at St. Christina of Tyre Church, in Fremont, CA.
Priest Benjamin Garcia and his wife, Matushka Marina, have known each other since high school, but only became a couple during their college years. At that time, Matushka and her parents had become catechumens at a Greek Orthodox parish in Flagstaff, AZ. She and her family introduced Father Benjamin to the faith, and all were received into Orthodoxy there. After marriage, the Garcia’s moved to Phoenix and became parishioners at Ss. Peter and Paul Church, and were cultivated under the care of then Bishop Daniel. Father Benjamin has a degree in Accounting, and Matushka in Microbiology. They and their two children are now being transplanted to St. Herman of Alaska Church, in Oxnard, CA, to begin their ministry together.
Priest Seraphim Robertson and Matushka Photini (Lena) came to seminary with a small but growing family, and are leaving with a larger one. With their four children, they’re now making their way to Transfiguration of Christ Cathedral in Denver, CO, to begin official duties there with the Feast of Pentecost. Father Seraphim grew up as a missionary kid in Quito, Ecuador, then did his undergraduate degree in English. He managed a landscaping company prior to attending seminary (speaking of seed plots), and Matushka was an ultrasound technician.
Thank God for these four new priests, their wives and their families, who are about to be transplanted from St. Tikhon’s Seminary to service in the Diocese of the West. Turning to this year’s graduating class from Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, it includes a rather diverse array of newly matured plants who will be transplanted to serve the Church in a number of differing ways.
Mother Veronica (Abaskharoun) and Mother Theodosia (Ekladious) are members of a thriving monastic sisterhood in the Diocese of the West, the Monastery of St. Macarius the Great. Under the omophorion of His Eminence Archbishop Benjamin, this community and its sister convent of St. Mary of Egypt, along with a related men’s monastery of St. John the Baptist, have sent many of their brothers and sisters to the seed plot of seminary to be trained for further service to the Lord. Mother Veronica and Mother Theodosia both earned Master of Arts (M.A.) degrees, and also received commendations for their service to the seminary community.
Fellow M.A. graduate Pavlo Kurganov, likewise commended for community service, originally hails from Kyiv, where he previously earned a degree from the Kyiv Theological Academy. He hopes to be married and become a priest in the future, God willing. Meanwhile, as he waits for that path of future service to take clearer shape, he’ll most immediately serve a month-long term as a seminarian intern in our diocese.
Master of Theology (M.Th.) graduate Leo Grabowski, who also received a commendation for community service, was further commended for his groundbreaking thesis on “Nicholas Cabasilas’ Oration on the Passion: A Translation and Study.” Leo grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and entered the Orthodox Church with his parents and siblings in 2004. Prior to seminary, he studied chemical engineering and worked in the biofuels industry. God willing, Leo plans to matriculate to the University of Notre Dame for Ph.D. work in the fall, and hopes to one day nurture the next generation of little plants by teaching at an Orthodox seminary. May his further cultivation through post-graduate work enable him to offer even greater gifts to the Lord.
This year’s Master of Divinities (M.Div.) crop from St. Vladimir’s included Henry Nam (Moses) Hardwick, Andrew Prather and Amber Prather (nee Bennet).
Henry was born in Vietnam and raised as a Protestant by his adoptive, American parents before converting to Orthodoxy as a teenager. He earned a B.A. in Global Communications from the American University of Paris, then enrolled at Holy Cross Seminary after doing departmental work for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. Following a period of prayerful discernment about where he might best be cultivated as a pleasing plant for the Lord, Henry ultimately transferred to St. Vladimir’s Seminary and into the Orthodox Church in America. Having graduated from the seed plot of St. Vladimir’s Seminary, Henry has gone on to Kodiak, AK, for further cultivation through a hospital chaplaincy program jointly administered by Providence Alaska Medical Center and St. Herman’s Seminary. God willing, he hopes to be married and serve among the clergy in time.
Andrew and Amber Prather will each leave the seed plot of seminary with something greater than their MDiv degrees. They’ll leave with each other, which is much more than they came with. The couple met as first year classmates, married the following year, and then began their family together – all while pursuing their seminary formation to its completion. While ordination may or may not be their vocation together, the Prather’s have been given a number of talents to multiply. Andrew’s gift for photography led to him receiving the student work assignment of seminary photographer, and this visual art is something he seems intent on continuing as a service to the Church. Amber likewise hopes to continue the work she began in her seminary thesis, on the healing of victims of sexual violence. Although Amber hails from the Pacific Northwest, for now the couple will head back to Andrew’s home ground of Iowa, with their little girl along as a gift of the seminary experience.
We thank God for this abundant crop of plants, brought to maturity in the seed plot of St. Tikhon’s and St. Vladimir’s seminaries. We anticipate that much fruitfulness and a pleasing fragrance will arise from their continued flourishing in the Diocese of the West. And we pray for more seeds to be planted for growth in the soil of our seminaries.