NEW YORK: June 7, 2018
Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York sends congratulations to the administration, teachers and students of Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, NY

From the Editors: The text below from the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad was read at graduation ceremonies at Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, NY, held on June 3, 2018.

Dear in the Lord Father Archimandrite Luke, Faculty, Staff and Students,
Esteemed Fathers, Brothers and Sisters:

I cordially greet all of you who are gathered here on the day of the 70th Commencement

Exercises of Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary, in the year of the 70th anniversary of this one and only seminary of the Russian diaspora!

While prayerfully sharing with you the joy of today’s solemnity, I raise these entreaties from the bottom of my soul to Three Holy Hierarchs and to Venerable Job of Pochaev: may the Life-giving Trinity, our God, send down His ever-fortifying help to all those who toil in the field of theology. May He grant courage to all who prepare to begin their ecclesiastical ministry in the uneasy conditions of the modern world.

Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary occupies a special place, for it is situated in the very heart of the Russian Church Abroad – in Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, our “spiritual fortress,” in the words of the Most Blessed Metropolitan Anastassy (Gribanovsky). Here the students have an opportunity to perceive in their lives not only the prayerful intercessions of the above-mentioned saints, but also the prayers of the departed members of the monastic brotherhood who piously laboured in this place.

On this joyous day, I wish, my dears, for you to preserve the spiritual disposition that was shared by those who dwelt in the lavra of our diaspora. May the all-bountiful God strengthen all of you with His grace in the very difficult and very responsible ministry in the field of theological education.

With love in Christ, and asking your prayers,

+HILARION
Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York,
First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad