2026 Paschal Appeal

Jordanville Seminary Annual Fund

______________________________________________________________________________

“Christ is Risen from the Dead, Trampling Down Death by Death, and Upon Those in the Tombs Bestowing Life” (Paschal Troparion)

______________________________________________________________________________

Your support will help Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary prosper; now and into the future!

April, 2026

Dear Friends and Benefactors, Christ is Risen!

We greet you with great joy, as a dear friend and benefactor of the seminary, during this radiant and bright season of the Feast of Feasts, the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! This Feast of Feasts, which is commemorated throughout the liturgical year on each and every Sunday, is the center and focus of our lives as Orthodox Christians.

Once again, we are reaching out, as we have been doing twice during each calendar year for a number of years now, to share exciting news of the things which have happened, and continue to happen at the Seminary in Jordanville, and to ask for your continuing financial support. For those who have consistently supported the Seminary, please accept our profound thanks!

Before getting into the heart of this letter, we’d like to share two items with you that were included in our recent 2025 Annual Report (which was released on February 1, 2026 and can be read in its entirety on the seminary website under the ‘latest news’ section posted on 2/6/2026).

The first item is the opening message from our Seminary Dean, Dr. Nicolas Schidlovsky:

“Dear Friends and Benefactors!

During recent years Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary has embarked down a remarkable path in pursuit of new accreditation with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). It is with great satisfaction that we can now begin to acknowledge the countless returns of working with this renowned agency. Today we clearly see with new eyes the urgent need for our institution’s mission in so many places around the world, as well as the strength with which it must continue to expand its educational vision and strategic goals. I hope that this is remembered as a truly exciting moment in the history of HTOS. It stands for nothing less than a decisive turning point and critical spark within its steady emergence into very challenging and wide educational waters, bringing it rapidly growing spiritual and cultural recognition by so many more individuals than ever in the past. —May the Good Lord strengthen your heartfelt generosity! There has never been a better time to support this magnificent effort.

With continuing gratitude for everything made possible by your donations,

Nicolas Schidlovsky, Ph.D., Dean and CEO”

The second item from the 2025 Annual Report is the section on Institutional Development and Accreditation:

“Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary was granted Candidate Status by Middle States Commission of Higher Education (MSCHE) on June 26, 2025. Candidate Status grants an institution recognition as an accredited institution. All degrees which are awarded by the Seminary from the date of June 26, 2025 are recognized as accredited degrees by MSCHE. The Seminary applied in fall of 2022, after learning that its former accreditor would not be renewing its status as a USDE-approved accreditor. The award for Candidate status begins a process for a full self-study, which all accredited institutions are required to do periodically. This process will take approximately three years in total, culminating with a decision by the Commission whether to grant permanent accreditation status.”

Looking back at the appeal letters we’ve sent to you – our friends and benefactors - over the course of the last several years, we have shared a significant amount of information with you about the seminary, including about our 75^th anniversary celebration in September, 2023, as well as about our milestone choir trips, the development of our academic departments and our degree programs, about the increasing number of ordinations of both recent alumni and current students to the diaconate and the priesthood, and about the costs associated with funding the annual operational budget of the seminary, particularly in view of the fact that we are 100% reliant on you – our benefactors – for the necessary funds to operate.

That said, we have also shared with you the various ways in which you can financially support the seminary, including giving individual gifts to the seminary, becoming a ‘Holy Trinity Seminary Patron’ (recurring/monthly donor), providing financial aid to seminarians by supporting a specific Scholarship or Bursary Fund, and/or by joining our ‘Joyful Giver’s Legacy’ by setting up a bequest – a planned future gift. All these means of support remain of critical importance for the continued existence, prosperity, and growth of the Seminary.

In this 2026 Paschal appeal, we will demonstrate the broad formation of the seminarians currently studying here, and the varied experiences they have here in Jordanville, as well as the profound reach of the seminary within the life of the Russian Church Abroad, and beyond. For that matter, as an example, we have many alumni already from the Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as several Serbian students studying here presently. This is largely the reason why we have chosen St Mardarije of Libertyville (+1935), the first Serbian Orthodox bishop in America, to place on the enclosed bookmark.

In the course of the last two months, particularly during February and March, a number of very unique and important celebrations have taken place in the monastery and seminary in Jordanville, which the current seminary students have had the opportunity to participate in, to learn from, as part of their preparation for future service to the Orthodox faithful and to the Church.

As illustrated in the brochure included in this mailing, during mid-February, Holy Trinity Monastery and Seminary hosted TWO EPISCOPAL CONSECRATIONS WITHIN JUST THREE DAYS!

Several days prior, our seminarians witnessed and actively participated in the monastic tonsure of Fr. Michael Crowley into the angelic (lesser) schema, and the following Sunday, then-Hieromonk Michael’s and Hieromonk Spyridon’s elevations to the rank of Archimandrite.

Several days later, on the Seminary’s patronal Feast of the 3 Hierarchs (Jan 30/Feb 12), Archimandrite Spyridon (Gusakov) was consecrated as the Bishop of Toronto, Vicar of the Canadian Diocese. Incidentally, His Grace Bishop Spyridon is an alumnus of the Holy Trinity Seminary’s CTS program, class of 2018.

Then, just three days later, on the Great Feast of the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple, which coincided this year with the Sunday of the Last Judgement (Feb 2/15), Archimandrite Michael (Crowley) was consecrated as Bishop of Boston, vicar of the Eastern American Diocese.

During the month of March, the monastery and seminary hosted the northern Lenten clergy retreat for the Eastern American Diocese between March 16-18. In addition to a number of seminarians (who will be graduating, God willing, in June, 2026) introducing themselves and speaking at the clergy retreat, many were able to hear a presentation ‘On the Mystical Prayers…’ from another episcopal candidate, Archimandrite Peter (Karakozoff), who was soon thereafter, on March 28, consecrated as the Bishop of Seattle, vicar of the Western American Diocese in the Cathedral of the Joy of All Who Sorrow in San Francisco.

And now, on March 31 (also illustrated on the bottom left of the brochure), our students were blessed not just to witness, but to participate in seven monastic tonsurings in the monastery, including three of their fellow seminarians, who were tonsured into the angelic (lesser) schema!

Monk Patrick (Zubrikov - 3rd from the right), 2nd year B.Th./undergraduate student,
Monk Theophan (Coverdill - third from the left), 1st year M.Div./graduate student,
Monk Hilarion (Charles - second from the right), 1st year M.Div./graduate student

Ultimately, many young men who study in Orthodox seminaries never get to witness, much less to actively participate in episcopal consecrations or monastic tonsures. For that matter, most Orthodox Christians, including those baptized into the Church as infants, go through their entire lives in the Church, and never witness these <very rare> blessings.

Furthermore, we have three teachers/professors in the Seminary who are monastic fathers, and now, three of the current students are full members of the monastic brotherhood in Jordanville. We also want to point out that six of our active bishops in ROCOR are alumni of Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary in Jordanville, notably including our First Hierarch, His Eminence, Metropolitan NICHOLAS (class ’98).

All of this is being highlighted in this appeal to illustrate the many benefits that formation in Jordanville has for our students, and the many ways in which they may serve the Church in the months and years to come; as scholars and academics, monastics, deacons, priests, and possibly future hierarchs.

Another very exciting advancement that is underway is the process of joining the Pastoral School of Chicago and Mid-America to Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary, which will enable all of us to provide a better learning experience for all the students who presently engage in their studies remotely/independently. Stay tuned for additional details in the months ahead!

Realize that the monastery and the seminary provide an incredibly broad spiritual, intellectual, and liturgical formation. Remember, the Seminary could not continue to provide any of this without your generous and consistent support!

Please accept our profound gratitude as co-laborers with us in fulfilling this sacred mission!

In the Risen Christ,

Rt. Rev. LUKE, Bishop of Syracuse

Abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery

Rector of Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary

Rev. Protodeacon Michael Pavuk

Director of Development

Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary

PS: To restate the most important takeaway from the above appeal, our goal is very clear. We are presently raising just over $500,000 annually through the Jordanville Seminary Annual Fund.  We need YOUR HELP, and the help of your Orthodox relatives and friends to significantly increase these annual revenues to $1,000,000.00 - consistently. The monastery simply cannot bridge any of this gap. Attaining permanent accreditation status through Middle States Commission on Higher Education largely depends on you helping us to achieve this goal.