The Student Body

There is great variety among the student body. In total there are about 60 to 70 students at the seminary and they come from a variety of nations and ethnicity. There are Canadians, Mexicans, English, Ukrainians, Russians, and Kuwaites. There are those of Jewish ancestry, Palestinian, Lebanese, European, Greek, Romanian, and Indian ancestry. Those from India are from a region in the sub-continent known as Kerala. Kerala was evangelized by Saint Thomas in the 1^st Century. Therefore they are sometimes known as St. Thomas Christians.

Most of the students attending were not born into the Orthodox Church. Rather the majority have entered the Church from other Christian traditions. They are as follows: Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Anglican, Roman Catholic, and all varieties of Protestants.

About half of the students are married and the other half are single. Of those married nearly all have children. It makes for very full, and lively services on Sunday. Imagine it. 60 seminarian students, their wives, about 40 kids, plus the faculty and staff of the seminary, and lastly the monks from the monastery. And I can't forget the regular presence of pilgrims who are visiting the monastery.

The student body is of all ages too. There are some that are fresh out of college and some who are in their 40's and have teenagers. But most are in their late 20's to early 30's. It is only men. Except, the one nun who is attending from a nearby woman's monastery.

No less diverse are the educational backgrounds. Some students already have a master's in something else such as engineering and one student has his doctorate in English. But most just have their Bachelors. There are students with geology degrees, mathematics, engineering, English, music, and philosophy degrees. In short a broad selection from the humanities and the sciences.

Almost everyone attending has abandoned their previous careers; some with very lucrative jobs in corporate America. It has been more than a few times that I have heard the story from fellow seminarians that they heard the Gospel reading on Sunday which says, “What does it prophet a man if he gains the whole earth, but looses his soul.” One seminarian described his soul as shriveling up in his comfortable corporate finance job and decided leave it all for the priesthood.