Invocation: 

Let us commence with prayer:

O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth:
You are everywhere present, filling all things;
Treasury of blessings and Giver of Life:
come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every impurity,
and save our souls, O Good One!

Your Eminences,
President Katos,
Dear father Mark Leondis,
Beloved Trustees, 

Thank you all for your presence and participation today. We have  much to discuss and much to decide, and with God’s help and illumination,  I am certain that we will make the judgments necessary to move our precious  Σχολή forward in accordance with His Divine Will. 

Beginning my remarks, I want to ask you all to pray for the health and  speedy recovery of our beloved father Jon Magoulias, who is struggling  right now and he needs our support and love and prayer. We pray that our  Panagia grants him back to the Church and to his family again in health. 

I take this opportunity to reflect with you, in the light of my recent  experiences in Constantinople, Nicaea, and Greece. Simply being in the  presence of the profound historical and cultural wellsprings of our Holy  Orthodox Faith, reminds me how grateful we should be for the  accomplishments in the New World of our spiritual ancestors. 

The vision for the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology,  founded in 1937 by the late and ever-memorable Archbishop – later  Ecumenical Patriarch – Athenagoras in Pomfret, Connecticut, is a vision that  still speaks to us today. Ten years later, and just one year before his election  as Patriarch, he raised the necessary funds to purchase the Brookline campus  – the campus we all want to secure into the future.

As you all know, inspired by his spiritual father, the blesséd  Archbishop Iakovos founded Hellenic College as the only Orthodox  Christian liberal arts college in the United States in 1968. The College and  the Graduate School of Theology have lived symbiotically since that time.  

At times, the relationship has been to the advantage of both, and at  times, it has been to the disadvantage of one, the other, or both. And here  we perceive the core issue that leads to what I have called in the past, the  “value proposition” of the School to the Archdiocese. 

We must never forget that our chief and primary mission, as an  educational institution, is the spiritual formation, training, and professional  excellence of the future clergy of our Church in America. This is, if you will,  our prime directive. And this is the main reason that the good and faithful  People of our Archdiocese will support this Institution. 

We also strive to support the mission of Hellenic College and the  importance of a liberal arts education to our future seminarians and pastoral  leaders.  

For years, we have struggled with how to expand or contract the  College, so that it can be maintained. Everyone knows that small liberal arts  colleges are reducing in number throughout the country, because they are  not sustainable today, as they once were. And that is why we are here today.  To find a way to first stabilize Hellenic College in a financially responsible  manner, that then paves the way for future growth. Assuring a strong financial footing for Hellenic College is the best way to endear the  confidence and trust of our donors and benefactors that their investment in  Hellenic College will reap measurable benefits into the future. We must do  so with adherence to deadlines to ensure that we deliver what we promise to  our students, donors and ourselves.  

To that end, should we decide to monetize a portion of the land that  our School resides on through the proposed land conservation transaction,  the proceeds should be added to the endowment and wisely invested to  benefit the future in perpetuity. To do otherwise would be a disservice to  those that came before us and provided the resources to acquire the land we  are now considering conveying into conservation. 

As we contemplate the plan forward today, the basis on which we are  making our decisions needs to be grounded in fact. We must have real and  accurate numbers that form the basis of our financial decisions and have  been vetted by financial experts. We must be prudent in understanding the  fundraising capacity of our community, have done the market research and  assessed the viability of our plan with potential donors. We cannot simply  fill the gap financially by saying that we will fundraise to cover deficits. And  importantly, we must assess the talent that is needed to operationalize the  plan. Without the right people who have the skillsets needed and the passion  for the Church, we will not succeed. This may require us to make difficult  decisions, but we have only one opportunity to get this right. 

The College can serve as a preparatory channel to enhance the quality  and even quantity of our candidates for the priesthood, even as the Seminary  builds its academic strengths and can include laywomen and laymen who  are not entering the ranks of the clergy, but are advancing the theological  goals of Orthodox Christianity in America through various roles. These can  be in the academic universe in general, or in the ministries of the Church.  Both are valuable in and of themselves. 

Therefore, my friends, our goal today is, to the best of our abilities, to  take an accurate reading of the capacities of the School for success. And  when I say success, I speak as much as your Archbishop as I do as Chairman  of this Board, on which you all so honorably and faithfully serve. 

As my fellow Hierarchs understand only too well, the needs of our  parishes are growing, and those needs are for the best and brightest clergy  that we can produce. 

In 2011, when I was elected Metropolitan of Bursa, and later appointed  Abbot of the Holy Patriarchal and Stavropegial Monastery of the Holy  Trinity on the island of Halki, I took on the responsibility of renewing the  famed Theological School. But as you all know, we are still waiting – after  more than fifty years – to return the School to its fundamental purpose:  educating clergy for the Church. While we are hopeful there may be a  breakthrough next year, what we are tasked to do here in Brookline is to  create an optimal experience and container, in which the future clergy of the 

Sacred Archdiocese of America are trained and come to, as Saint Paul says: “the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a complete man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). 

Together with my saintly predecessors, Athenagoras and Iakovos, I am  committed to this goal. How we achieve it, may have a number of options,  but the goal is not optional, nor is it debatable. 

Therefore, let us work together as the Board of Trustees – entrusted  with this sacred responsibility – and work earnestly and sincerely to discover  the right combination of emphases, that will lead to the outcome that the  Faithful of our Archdiocese expect from our School: well-trained, pious,  faithful, clergy who are committed to the mission of the Church and the  salvation of their souls. 

Thank you.