Duke University makes effort to reopen Halki Seminary


(ARCHONS) - An anonymous United Methodist donor is offering $75,000 seed money toward the creation of an Orthodox Institute at Duke Divinity School. The offer comes in response to a proposal by the Duke Orthodox Christian Student Association (DOCSA) that a Duke-Halki institutional partnership may accelerate the reopening of the Halki School of Theology (see www.dukehalki.com).

The announcement was made at a recent Duke-UNC hosted Halki symposium that featured a screening of the Hellenic History Foundation’s “Silent School” documentary. Following the documentary screening, the symposium concluded with remarks by Duke Divinity Professor, J. Warren Smith, PhD, Duke University’s Turkish Muslim Chaplain, Abdullah Antepli, DMin, and Orthodox Christian Fellowship’s John Stonestreet, MDiv, PhD(c).

A video of the symposium and donation announcement will be available online for a limited time at http://video.dukehalki.com.

For additional information, please contact:
Duke Orthodox Christian Student Association
dukehalki@gmail.com
Nick Valilis 915.241.5099

Comments

  1. George PatsourakosOctober 13, 2011 at 9:52 PM

    It is good news that Duke University is considering establishing a Duke-Halki institutional partnership that may accelerate the reopening of the Halki School of Theology.

    Turkey closed down the Halki School over 40 years ago. It's about time Turkey reopened the Halki School of Theology, as it has promised to do several times during the past year.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnneOctober 15, 2011 at 8:27 PM

    Rather bleak story about this in The Times (of London). The link requires a subscription. Let me see if I can paste an excerpt:


    A forced population exchange in 1923 devastated the Greek community. It was dealt further blows by riots in 1955 in which thousands of Greek businesses were destroyed. The population has dwindled to only 3,000 in a country that is 99 per cent Muslim.
    Despite their small numbers, Greeks are still perceived in some quarters as a threat to Turkish nationhood and, even today, hostility is focused on the most visible target: the Orthodox Church and its top cleric. Turkey refuses to acknowledge Patriarch Bartholomew as leader of the worldwide Orthodox Church, and insists that his senior clergy come exclusively from the country’s tiny Greek community.
    It is virtually impossible for the Church to train new priests after a 1971 law banned private religious education, forcing the closure of its main seminary on Halki.
    “We are without oxygen. The patriarchate is dying,” Patriarch Bartholomew told the Turkish newspaper Milliyet.
    In another interview, to CBS, the Patriarch sparked outrage by saying that his Church felt “crucified”.
    His comment drew a rebuke from the Government and triggered a nationalist backlash, with one newspaper carrying a picture of Bartholomew nailed to a cross.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sr. Vassa: There's no ontological impediment to priestesses

Image
Is the male-only priesthood a discipline or essential to the nature of being a priest? Sr. Vassa (again unflinchingly taking up a contentious topic by climbing up the ladder to the highest platform and then jumping into the deep end head first) dives right in and says there is no reason beyond personal preference to not have female clergy. You know, when people ask me about women in priesthood, they say, 'Sister, why can't women be priests?' And I say, 'Women CAN be priests. We don't WANT them to be priests.' Because you see, God can do anything, and the Church, by divine authority, uh, can do anything, but, the Church doesn't want to - and that's a legitimate reason. What I don't like is when we TRY to pretend that there are other reasons for this, because it's legitimate not to want something, and there are reasons not to want this - right? - but, we shouldn't pretent that there's some... reason, that, for example, the maleness...
Read more

Big news for the Western Rite, ROCOR, and Bp. Jerome

Image
NEW YORK: July 12, 2013 ( ROCOR ) - An Extraordinary Session of the Synod of Bishops is Held On Wednesday, July 10, 2013, an extraordinary session of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia was held, presided over by its First Hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York. Participating in the meeting were permanent members of the Synod of Bishops: His Eminence Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany; His Eminence Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America; His Eminence Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada, and His Grace Bishop Peter of Cleveland, Administrator of the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America. Deliberating on the matter of Bishop Jerome of Manhattan, the Synod of Bishops made a decision as follows: “During a meeting of the Synod of Bishops on Wednesday, July 10, 2013, presided over by the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, A DECISION WAS MADE: on the activities of Bishop Jerome of Ma...
Read more

OCA takes strong stand for canonical Orthodoxy

( Orthochristian.com ) - The primate of the Orthodox Church in America, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of Washington and All America and Canada, will concelebrate with the primate of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, in western Ukraine later this week. The Ukrainian Orthodox Diocese of Chernivtsi and Bukovina “awaits the visit of the primate of the Orthodox Church in America on June 1–2, 2024. Solemn services will be held in the Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit in Chernivtsi, with the participation of both primates.” The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America formally rejects communion with the schismatics of the “Orthodox Church in Ukraine,” recognizing only the canonical UOC under Met. Onuphry. The Ukrainian primate was the honored guest at the OCA’s 18th All-American Council in July 2015.
Read more