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While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Serbian House of Studies

Proposal For St Nikolai of Zica and South Canaan and St Iustin of Chelije

SERBIAN HOUSE OF STUDIES

at Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary

The purpose of this document is to lay out the framework of a proposed Serbian House of Students at SVOTS (SHS).

.

Purposes:

  • to promote a sustained presence of the Serbian Orthodox theological traditions in America
  • to promote a sustained dialogue between Orthodoxy in Serbia and America
  • to provide the highest level of education, incorporating Serbian theological traditions (heritage, history, liturgy), for the service of the Serbian Orthodox Church in America
  • to provide an experience of Orthodoxy in the West for theological students from Serbia, and a place for research for faculty from Serbia
  • to be a liason-center for Serbian alumni in the US and throughout the world
  • to run events throughout the year promoting its work

1. Advisory Board

Functioning

The function of the Advisory Board is to promote the aims of as described above, by 

  • fundraising 
  • supervising of the SHS and its activities
  • development of calendar of events at SHS

Composition

Advisory Board of SH appointed by Board of Trustees of SVS with due regard to heritage of the house, comprising of

  • three members of the Board of SVS, including one episcopal member
  • and three invited others,
  • Faculty-in-Residence
  • Serbian Alumnus
  • Dean and Chancellor of SVS

2. Establishment of a Restricted Endowment Fund

This would be part of the SVOTS Endowment, but restricted to use for the support of SHS, providing funding for the House Master (to add to salary from Belgrade), student scholarships, hosting events, newsletter, library acquisitions.

3. The House

SHS will be located on the campus of SVOTS. The aim is to raise funds to build a house which will include a chapel, meeting room(s), and accommodation for the Faculty-in-Residence.
Temporary accommodation will be provided until such times as the funds are raised and a House built.

4. Faculty-in-Residence

The Faculty-in-Residence will be a visiting member from the Theological Faculty of Belgrade, on sabbatical, recommended by the Dean of the Faculty of Belgrade, reviewed by SVOTS Faculty and appointed to a sessional appointment of an appropriate length. The name is to be proposed to SVOTS by Jan 1 of the academic year preceding the residency.

Duties of the Faculty-in-Residence include:

  • Be a member of Advisory Board
  • By invitation, attend Faculty Council
  • Teaching courses on the Serbian contribution to Orthodoxy and their own discipline, reporting to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
  • Fostering peer-community amongst Serbian students (hosting at-home evenings, etc), reporting to the Associate Dean for Student Affairs
  • With Advisory Board, and the Special Events Committee of SVS, plan and run events

5. Students

Full-time Degree-program students

Students supported by the SHS must be fully admitted students of SVS in a degree program.

The SHS Restricted Endowment Fund will provide scholarships to awarded to Serbian, or Serbian-American, men and women who demonstrate need, strong academic performance, and promise of significant service to the Church, admitted to SVS (up to 100% of tuition, books, and room/board of a single student).

Students will live in SVS student accommodation, eat in the refectory, attend SVS chapel, apart from special events.

Exchange Students

M.Div. exchange students, between SVS and the Theological Faculty of Belgrade, will pay tuition and accommodation at their home school.

It is our intention to develop this exchange program into a more fully developed joint-degree program, including having the SVS ThM program count towards one year of doctoral study in Belgrade.

6. SHS Alumni Association

The House will also provide a liason-center for Serbian alumni, keeping them connecting and fostering community amongst priests nationally and internationally.

7. Publications

The publication of a newsletter reporting on events at the SHS, SVOTS and the Theological Faculty of Belgrade.

SA

 

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Bishop Mitrofan (Kodić)

His Grace Bishop Mitrofan
(1987–2016; 2016–)

Bishop Mitrofan Kodić, nee Radovan, was born on 4 August, 1951, in the village Ljuša, Šipovo, Bosnia, Yugoslavia. Radovan completed his elementary studies in 1966. He went to study further at the seminary in the Krka monastery in Croatia, Yugoslavia. At the same time, he entered the brotherhood of the monastery. In 1970, Radovan was tonsured to be a monk, and he was given the name Mitrofan on the eve of the Feast of the Entrance of the Most Holy Mother of God into the Temple (3 December/20 November). He was ordained to the Holy Diaconate by Bishop Stefan (Boca) of Žiča. In 1971, the Hierodeacon Mitrofan (Kodić) graduated from the seminary of the Krka Monastery, while on 6 January, 1974, he was ordained to the holy priesthood in the monastery by Bishop Stefan (Boca).

In 1975, the Hieromonk Mitrofan entered the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest, Romania. He completed his studies, and he graduated in 1977. He then returned to the Krka monastery. There, he was assigned to be a “trainee” (supplent) in the Seminary of the Three Holy Hierarchs in the Krka Monastery. In 1987, the Hieromonk Mitrofan was assigned to serve as the rector of the seminary.

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Publishing

Notes On Ecumenism

St. Abba Justin Popovich - Notes on ecumenism
Written in 1972 by St. Abba Justin Popovich, edited by Bishop Athanasius Yevtich, translated from Serbian by Aleksandra Stojanovich, and proofread by Fr Miroljub Ruzich

Abba Justin’s manuscript legacy (on which Bishop Athanasius have been working for a couple of years preparing an edition of The Complete Works ), also includes a parcel of sheets/small sheets of paper (in the 1/4 A4 size) with the notes on Ecumenism (written in pencil and dating from the period when he was working on his book “The Orthodox Church and Ecumenism”; there are also references to the writings of St. Bishop Nikolai [Velimirovich], short excerpts copied from his Sermons, some of which were quoted in the book).

The editor presents the Notes authentically, as he has found them in the manuscripts (his words inserted in the text, as clarification, are put between the slashes /…/; all the footnotes are ours).—In the appendix are present the facsimiles of the majority of Abba’s Notes which were supposed to be included in his book On Ecumenism (written in haste then, but now significantly supplemented with these Notes. The Notes make evident the full extent of Justin’s profundity as a theologian and ecclesiologist of the authentic Orthodoxy).—The real Justin is present in these Notes: by his original language, style, literature, polemics, philosophy, theology, and above all by his confession of the God-man Christ and His Church. He confesses his faith, tradition, experience and his perspective on man, on the world and on Europe—invariably in the Church and from the Church, in the God-man Christ and from Him, just as he did in all of his writings and in his entire life and theologizing.

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