Monday, August 30, 2010

First Post

My name is John, and I am entering my first year as a seminarian at Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, New York. Jordanville is the flagship monastery/seminary for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Before I came here, I tried to find out what seminary life was like, which led me to several articles written by ROCOR clergy. They were helpful, but a little out of date. So, for the sake of my family, friends, and anyone curious about life at an Orthodox seminary, I am going to write about my experiences here. My hope is that anyone curious about going to seminary would find this blog useful.

The seminary life at Jordanville is known for its close integration with the monastic life. Seminarians eat with the monks in the refectory as well as attend services with them. Outsiders might think that this kind of life would be dull. So far, I think that living here is much more interesting than living in the city. For example, all the time spent commuting is basically eliminated. When I was living in San Francisco, it took a half-hour each going there to work/church and back again. Now it takes approximately one minute. And there's always something to do, which will be written about in detail in the posts to come!