Hooray!

We're very excited to tell everyone that I (Jeremy) have been accepted to study at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York City! I'll be in the Master of Theology program, studying early church theology under Fr John Behr. For those of you unfamiliar with Eastern Orthodoxy, here's the link to the seminary's website. From there, anyone interested can get a basic overview of Orthodoxy and what they believe.

Here's the link: http://www.svots.edu/

Just for the sake of experience, here's a picture of the Orthodox liturgy, as celebrated in the chapel at St. Vladimir's...

I enjoy many aspects of Eastern Orthodoxy, and am very excited to study under Fr John. He's Oxford-educated, and one of the best in the field. I have been in contact with him for over 2 years now, and he's already been of immense help and guidance to me, both personally and academically. I am very fortunate to be able to study under him! This truly is my ideal situation for advanced study; I couldn't ask for more. The MTh is a 2 year advanced research degree at St Vladimir's, and hopefully, 2 more years at another school will add up to a PhD in Patristics (a fancy name for the study of the church fathers, or earliest, most important theologians). My field will be Historical Theology, and if all goes as planned, someday I'll be a professor of Church History and/or Historical Theology.

I wish to thank all of my friends and family who have believed in me, supported me, encouraged me, prayed for me, and put up with me over the years. It would be a very lonely life without you all, and I love you very much. And thanks most of all to my wonderful wife Jackie. She's the one who has to put up with me when I'm stressed out, confused, sleepless, excited, etc. And she's a wonderful listener, as I'm always talking to her about abstract and obscure things most people will never even think about, let alone obsess over as I do. I couldn't have asked for a more patient and supportive partner.

In other news, this week we're flying to Seoul, South Korea for some sight-seeing and shopping with our friend Evonne. We'll hopefully have some pictures up soon. And the week after, we'll be taking the bullet-train (shin-kan-sen) to Kyoto, the medieval capital of Japan. We've heard a bunch of great things about the buildings and gardens up there, so we're looking forward to it. Supposedly, we'll be there during prime cherry blossom season. We'll see!

Thanks for reading!