St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary - News Releases

News Release
Site of Future Married Student Housing at St Vladimir’s Receives Blessing

Crestwood, NY—The St Vladimir’s Seminary community, including its board of trustees, faculty, staff, and students, witnessed a landmark moment in the life of the seminary on Friday, November 19, 2004. Led by His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman (OCA), the community processed from the chapel, through campus, and up a still unpaved road in order to bless the building site of the Lakeside Married Student Housing Project.

In the past decade, the growing number of married students enrolling at the seminary has routinely exceeded the number of apartments available on campus. As a temporary solution, the seminary has been subsidizing apartments for married students in a nearby apartment complex. An average of ten or more students each year must live off campus in these apartments. This is a financial hardship for both the seminary and students; it also makes participation in community life—particularly in the full liturgical life of the chapel—more difficult for those students who live at a distance. The construction of new housing on campus is indeed a priority.

Thus the community was very grateful on Friday for the opportunity to pray and receive the Metropolitan’s blessing at the site where construction has already begun. At the blessing, Dean John Erickson stated, “The Lakeside Married Student Housing Project represents not just the physical building of a community, but precisely the building up of St Vladimir's Seminary as a community of faith. This will have a great impact on our students as they leave this institution and minister to people of all jurisdictions in this country and abroad.”

The construction of two nine-unit buildings will double the seminary’s capacity to house married students on campus from seventeen to thirty-five. The seminary plans to have apartments available in time for the fall 2005 incoming class.