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The National Herald - October 27, 2006

Why Can't the Greek Orthodox Support Even One School?

By Dr. Candace Hetzner

National Herald Correspondent Theodore Kalmoukos should receive an award, a kind of anti-Pulitzer, for his in-depth account (nearly 36 column inches in the October 21 edition) of the towing of a car belonging to a professor at Hellenic College/Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology who had failed to comply with campus parking regulations.

It's time for the National Herald, which otherwise provides valuable news coverage, to work with the entire Greek Orthodox community to promote its school.

As a convert to Greek Orthodoxy, I ask myself almost daily why Roman Catholics can support 238 institutions of higher learning, and the Greek Orthodox can not support even one? Catholics swell with pride about places like Notre Dame, Georgetown, Boston College and Holy Cross (Worcester, Massachusetts). Jewish people do likewise with Brandeis and Yeshiva.

Where is the Greek Orthodox Georgetown or Brandeis?

The Greek Orthodox arguably have the richest and deepest intellectual inheritance in the world. First, Hellenism provided an understanding of such things as logic, ethics, science, mathematics and aesthetics. Then Saint Paul introduced a new understanding of truth, Christian truth, embracing both this world and the world to come. Greek civilization has been uniquely historically privileged to have been situated at the geographical, linguistic and conceptual center of Hellenism and Christianity, at the nexus of the commingling of ancient nous (eye of the mind) and sophia (wisdom) with Christian Logos. The Greek Orthodox in America are indeed the progeny of this sacred intellectual and spiritual tradition, but sadly not its progenitors.

The American Greek Orthodox community bears a responsibility to pass on its rich heritage to future generations for the welfare of its children and the health of the Church. I suspect that most who read this would agree that the world has become an increasingly difficult place for us to negotiate, let alone for our children. We are surrounded by the increasing presence of evil, whether devastation of our world through war, terrorism, environmental degradation, pedophilia, pornography, governmental corruption or corporate misconduct.

We need to provide a safe harbor for the education of our college-age students, a place where it is possible to find congruence between reason and faith - congruence rooted in the Greek Orthodox tradition. Greek Orthodox parents should not have to choose between secular institutions or religious institutions of other faiths.

HC/HC is capable of providing an excellent education and a safe harbor. But it has been steadily hobbled by Mr. Kalmoukos' reporting and the internecine squabbling of our clergy and hierarchy. We need for our metropolitans, bishops and priests to act as responsible shepherds in helping to provide Greek Orthodox students with a high quality college of which we can all be proud.

Last year, it was my privilege to work with the faculty of Hellenic College to revise the core curriculum to provide a solid liberal arts education in the context of Hellenism and Christian Orthodoxy. I got to know the faculty and experienced their dedication and fine minds. As a result of that work, students can now, for example, take a core requirement in Environmental Science which honors the perspective of the Church in this area, as well as the recent efforts of Ecumenical Patriarchs Demetrios and Bartholomew. Students can also fulfill a core art requirement through a course examining the interconnections among Byzantine art, architecture and music. In addition, they can also study such things as economics, political science, philosophy, history, literature and foreign languages.

Students can then proceed from the core to specialized study in the liberal arts, or in professional programs. For example, Hellenic College now offers a new management and leadership program which makes certain that future business leaders acquire all the most up-to-date knowledge about business, but also acquire a moral and spiritual compass to guide them in their work, communities, families and parishes.

Hellenic College enables students to be the recipients of their great tradition without majoring in classics or religion, though both are available in the curriculum. No matter their major, however, Hellenic College graduates will not leave the college without knowing something about how they, and the history of the modern world, have been shaped by Hellenism and Christian Orthodoxy. Moreover, they will appreciate this inheritance as something living and breathing which can inform the contemporary world. Herein lies the health and wellbeing of our children and the future of the Church.

A final word with respect to those students who come to Hellenic College on paths to the priesthood would seem appropriate. These pre-seminarians desperately need a quality liberal arts education.

They need to know science and psychology and philosophy, and how to write and how to speak - and even how to amortize a mortgage. In short, they need to be educated for the parishes of the 21st Century. Hellenic College is now providing such an education.

Hence, students can come to Hellenic College to prepare for a variety of career paths, and can do so in Boston with its many educational and cultural amenities, as well as sports events and recreational opportunities. Moreover, HC/HC has an extremely attractive campus with the Maliotis Cultural Center, state-of-the-art athletic facilities and a beautiful Byzantine chapel.

How can we support Hellenic College?

* Quit listening to misinformation and idle talk.
* Ask the National Herald to help lead this effort.
* Visit the campus and decide for yourself.
* Invite the faculty to your parishes and tap their extraordinary abilities.
* Beseech our Church hierarchy and clergy to help build a first-rate Orthodox institution of higher learning.
* Be generous stewards so that the school can purchase the labs, hire the faculty, and provide the necessary information technology and library resources necessary for being a renowned institution of higher learning.
* Send your children there if it makes sense for your child.
* Pray - prayers of thanksgiving for being the recipients of this magnificent heritage and prayers of supplication for support in working to share this magnificent heritage with others.

[ Orthodox Truth | www.orthodox-truth.bugs3.com/art_2006_hetzner.html  -  October 27, 2006 ]