Speakers

Conference Speakers

Fr. Seraphim Aldea

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Fr. Seraphim Aldea was tonsured as a monk in 2005 at Rasca monastery in Bucovine, North Moldavia. He has a Ph.D. in Modern Theology from the University of Durham (UK) for a thesis on Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov's Ecclesiology. He hosts the Ancient Faith podcast Through a Monk’s Eyes, through which he shares stories of the places he visits and the people he meets as he travels the world to found the first Orthodox monastery in the Celtic Isles of Scotland in a thousand years. The Monastery is dedicated to All Celtic Saints, and you may support its founding at mullmonastery.com.

Dr. Peter Bouteneff

BREAKOUT SPEAKER

Breakout: "The Lightness and Joy of the Repentant Sinner" - This session will explore the paradoxes of the Church’s penitential language. While we might expect it to bring us down and make us miserable, my identity as “a sinner” before a loving God can help me become a whole and integrated person, full of compassion for others.

Peter Bouteneff teaches courses in ancient and modern theology and spirituality at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary, where he is Professor of Systematic Theology. After taking a degree in music in 1983 he lived and worked in Japan, and traveled widely in Asia and Greece. He has an M.Div. from St Vladimir’s Seminary and a doctorate from Oxford University, where he studied under Bishop Kallistos Ware. He has broad interests in theology ancient and modern, and is committed to exploring the connections between theology and culture. He conceived of and edits the "Foundations" series for SVS Press, to which he has contributed a volume called Sweeter than Honey: Orthodox Thinking on Dogma and Truth. In 2008 he authored a study of how early Christians read the Genesis creation accounts, called Beginnings: Ancient Christian Readings of the Biblical Creation Narratives. Most recently he wrote How to Be a Sinner: Finding Yourself in the Language of Repentance,which is a series of compassionate reflections on the “sinner identity” in the Church.

Professor Bouteneff is director of the Arvo Pärt Project at St. Vladimir's Seminary, an in-depth endeavor involving concerts, lectures, and publications. His book Arvo Pärt: Out of Silence has been hailed as "a triumph," and "a must-read for any listener or performer of Pärt's music." As of 2016 he directs the seminary’s Sacred Arts Initiative.

Dr. Patricia Bouteneff

BREAKOUT SPEAKER

Breakout: "Happy Paradoxes Within Orthodox Lay Leadership: In the Parish and Beyond" - Sometimes it seems that if you want to be a leader—or at least have a significant chance of making a difference with the Orthodox church—you have to be ordained. Nothing could be further from the truth either within your parish, your diocese, or your jurisdiction. In this workshop, we’ll look at what paths a wide variety of people have forged and how you can follow in their footsteps.

Patricia Fann Bouteneff, D.Phil.Oxon., is a former academic and corporate chief of staff, and now works on projects as a strategic communications consultant and an independent scholar specializing in folklore and Pontic Greek studies. Her current focus is directing Axia, a network for Orthodox women in the US. She was baptized as an adult in Thessaloniki at a metochi of Simonopetra Monastery and currently serves as parish council president at Holy Trinity Church in Yonkers, NY. She has been active in church communities in Greece, England, Switzerland, and the US.

Fr. Andrew Damick

BREAKOUT SPEAKER

Breakout: "Faithful Hearts, Froward Tongues: Portraits from the Tolkien Legendarium" - In the works of master story-teller J. R. R. Tolkien, a persistent theme of judging not by appearance but by the heart is frequently revisited. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick explores some examples from these works and will lead a discussion in how this dynamic may be attended to in our personal relationships and spiritual lives.

The Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick is an archpriest of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, pastor of St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church of Emmaus, Pennsylvania, a husband and a father of four children. He is also author of three books from Ancient Faith Publishing (Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy, An Introduction to God, and Bearing God) a blogger and the host of four Ancient Faith Radio Podcasts: Amon Sûl, The Areopagus, Roads from Emmaus, and Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy.

Fr. Andrew was raised as the son of Evangelical Protestant missionaries and became an Orthodox Christian while in college in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is a 2007 summa cum laude graduate of St. Tikhon's Seminary and has been a priest since 2006, being raised to the dignity of archpriest in 2016. Besides his love for the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, he has a keen love for evangelism and education and is an extremely amateur keeper of trees. He loves language, especially the English language, and nurtures a geek-level enthusiasm for both Star Trek and Star Wars.

Fr. Gregory Georgiou

BREAKOUT SPEAKER

Fr. Gregory Georgiou is a priest in the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Atlanta and the Co-Chairman of the Metropolis’ Family Life Ministry. He is a Ph.D. candidate in Counselor Education and Supervision at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, as well as Licensed Professional Counselor.