Bucknell Orthodox Christians at Saint John Mission

^{Lewisburg’s newest priest, Father Paul Siewers, Associate Professor of Literature at Bucknell, will assist the Parish Rector, Father George Sharonoff, as one of many converts to Orthodox Christianity in the parish community, which also serves the Bucknell campus.}

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St. John Russian Orthodox Parish is building a Church temple in Winfield, with groundbreaking celebrated this coming week of Oct. 8. Excavating and laying the foundation are scheduled to be done by Thanksgiving, with the building to be up and enclosed by early 2024 and occupancy by summer, according to Church officers.

Groundbreaking is being celebrated with a group photo featuring members and supporters at the Winfield site, off of Felmey Road near the Union Township offices.

St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco Russian Orthodox Mission Church is the only Orthodox parish established in the central Susquehanna region, founded in 2015 by converts to Orthodox Christianity and associated with the Orthodox Christian community at Bucknell University.

The community has had a steady stream of new converts since, with five local people from Protestant and unaffiliated backgrounds currently in training to be baptized as Orthodox Christians. Families who are members include former Protestants, Catholics, and atheists who found inspiration in the ancient but living faith of Orthodox Christianity, which traces back to the apostolic Church through Byzantine culture that missionized Russia in the Middle Ages.

Since then, its denomination, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, was founded in 1920 by exiles from Communism during the Russian Civil War. The denomination is based in New York City and is autonomous in governance from the current Church in Russia, although they renewed mutual communion and symbolic connections in 2007. The parish welcomes worshippers of all backgrounds, including those from different parts of the worldwide Orthodox family of churches, whether Greek, Ukrainian, African, American, or other. It serves believers and inquirers from Bucknell, including from other countries.

The local mission currently meets in rented worship space at the Lewisburg Club, and recently had a second priest ordained to help with the growing community, a longtime professor at Bucknell University, Paul “Alf” Siewers of Lewisburg, who had been serving as a Deacon previously.

Currently the mission parish conducts weekly services in Lewisburg, and a weekly community Bible Study at the Bucknell Bookstore, which draws participants from other faith backgrounds as well.

“People are hungry for the beauty and depth of traditional Christianity found in Orthodox tradition,” said the Rector of the mission, Father George Sharonoff, of Drums, PA, who himself was born in the faith and descends from White Russian exiles from Communism.

“We say that we are evangelical, but not Protestant; Orthodox but not Jewish; Catholic but not Roman; not non-denominational, but pre-denominational,” Sharonoff noted. “As the Scripture says, ‘come and see.’”

The area around the Susquehanna Confluence previously has not been served by an Orthodox parish, lying somewhat outside the anthracite coal region that historically defined areas of Slavic immigration to northeastern and east-central Pennsylvania. Nearest Orthodox parishes are in Berwick, Mount Carmel, and Williamsport; there is also an outpost chapel of the Orthodox parish in State College, located in Beavertown in west Snyder County.

Father Claude Vinyard, 95, of Danville, was founding priest of the Lewisburg-Winfield mission in 2015. He was former priest of historic “coal town” parishes in places such as Mount Carmel and Centralia.

“I was approached by converts to Orthodoxy in the Lewisburg area who were hoping to start up a parish there because there was none nearby,” Vinyard recalled. He in turn went to the local Russian Orthodox bishop, then based at the historic Orthodox cathedral in Mayfield, PA, also in the coal region, and received a blessing to proceed.

Siewers, the Bucknell professor and Orthodox priest, also a former Chicago newspaper reporter, noted: “As the Orthodox Christian writer Dostoevsky said, ‘beauty will save the world.’ Even in our small mission, newcomers will find the beauty of the iconography, the music, and of aspects of worship such as incense, that mark traditional Christianity, to which we seek to remain true in apostolic succession both in worship and in life practice.”

A former Unitarian and Christian Scientist by family background, whose study of early Irish Christianity and Russian literature helped lead him to the Orthodox faith more than two decades ago, Siewers said: “Russian Orthodoxy is a spiritual tradition that endured Communism and extreme persecution in the last century, and has been kept alive and flowered abroad. But you don’t need to be Russian to be Russian Orthodox any more than you need to be Roman to be Catholic, and we include both early Irish Christian missionaries and saints of North America such as our mission’s namesake St. John of San Francisco in our living heritage. It is part of an ancient and worldwide tradition of the early Church that continues today.”

The new structure will be a small and simple temple on the outside, Sharonoff noted, but will be decorated over time with traditional iconography inside. The parish is raising funds for an onion dome with a Cross on top to be placed on it when construction is finished, a traditional feature of Russian churches. Space on the Church’s 6-acre parcel of land, which includes the former Chestnut Hill Cemetery (now St. John’s Cemetery), could include room for an additional building in future years, Sharonoff said, although there are no specific plans currently.

For more information on St. John and its services, Bible Study, and new temple, Orthodox Christianity, and how to visit or help, including online materials and contact information to reach clergy, please see stjohnthewonderworker.com.

Looking for a Bible Study that is welcoming, diverse, co-sponsored by Bucknellians and including local community residents, facilitated by a Bucknell faculty member-clergyman, and offering non-Eurocentric Christian traditions? Looking to read a “classic” book that is millennia old and held to be sacred by many faiths? Wanting to understand how multiple readings of the same Scripture (literal, symbolic, moral, spiritual) can deepen your reading? Interested in meditative reading?

Then join us at

The “Exodus: Faith, Freedom, and Prophecy” Bible Study

A weekly Campus-Community Bible Study that resumes Sunday Oct. 1 at 2:30 p.m., with discussion of Exodus 25-28.

Bucknell Barnes & Noble Bookstore Café (4^th and Market Streets)

All are welcome!

We are studying the Book of Exodus in the Bible, in light of commentary by the early Church Fathers of the first millennium, following the Septuagint text but you can bring any Bible (or we will supply you with one ). No homework or advance knowledge needed, come to any discussion or all in sequence.

For more information, contact Father/Prof. Paul Siewers, asiewers@bucknell.edu

Co-sponsored by the Bucknell Orthodox Christian community and St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church

Pictured above: Icon of the Prophet Moses, 15^th c. Mount Sinai

Please join us in this Bible Study co-hosted by the Bucknell University Orthodox Christian community and St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Lewisburg, PA. Our “live” Bible Studies usually convene on Sundays at 2:30 p.m. at the Bucknell University Barnes & Noble Bookstore Cafe (to confirm the schedule and to find links to weekly online video summaries, please see stjohnthewonderworker.com). All are welcome regardless of background and no homework or previous knowledge is needed!

Learn how the Church Fathers provide truths that go far deeply beyond the famous 1956 American film The Ten Commandments (which in many ways represented the high-water mark of what is called American “civil religion”), by drawing on tradition that dates back across cultures and geography and generations to the days of Moses in the 16th century BC, accounts from more than 3,600 years ago, which find their fulfillment in our Lord’s Orthodox Church today. For biblical study we as Orthodox Christians turn to the holy elders, saints, and prophets of the Church, seeing in the Old Testament the prefiguring of the full realization of its accounts in our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ (still the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, “He Who Is”), leading us out from the bondage of sin and death and freeing us from Pharaohs ancient and modern. We read the Bible both literally and symbolically under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Church, while we pray and struggle together to put into practice unworthily but with God’s grace what we learn.

As the Apostle Paul puts it: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (II Timothy 3:16). And the Holy Prophet Solomon: “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar” (Prov. 30:5-6). To which St. John Chrysostom adds: “This is the cause of all evils: the ignorance of the Scriptures. We go into battle without arms, and how ought we to come off safe?”

Here is a video summary of our most recent Bible Study in-person discussion.

See stjohnthewonderworker.com for more updates and links to video archives.

Come experience the beauty of Orthodox Christianity given to the Church by the Holy Spirit on this Pentecost Sunday, locally here in the central Susquehanna Valley: Vigil 4 p.m. Sat. June 3, and Divine Liturgy at 10 a.m. Sunday June 4, in the Lewisburg Club, 131 Market St., back entrance, in downtown Lewisburg PA. Liturgy will be followed by the Kneeling Prayers of Vespers for Pentecost, and then fellowship and a shared meal. All are welcome to this living ancient tradition of Christ’s Church! On the link below you can learn about the Apostolic tradition of Christian Pentecost from the ancient iconography of the Church: https://iconreader.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/pentecost-icon-as-an-icon-of-the-church/

Traditionally Orthodox Churches are adorned with green vestments and covers, and with leafy tree branches, for Pentecost–to commemorate the Holy Spirit’s bringing forth of life in Creation.

All are welcome! For more information please contact Fr. Deacon Paul Siewers, faculty adviser to the Bucknell Orthodox Christian Fellowship, asiewers@bucknell.edu or 570-863-9039, or see stjohnthewonderworker.com

New Weekly Campus and Community Bible Study on Exodus and Isaiah

FREEDOM, FAITH, AND PROPHECIES:

EXODUS AND ISAIAH IN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN TRADITION

A Spiritual Adventure in Biblical Study. Lewisburg PA starting Sunday June 11 2:30, Bucknell Bookstore

Explore two key books of the Bible with the Ancient Church Fathers applied to life today, facilitated by a Bucknell Professor and Orthodox Clergyman who is a specialist in Christian Literature

Begins Sunday June 11, 2:30 p.m., Bucknell University Barnes & Noble Bookstore Café in Lewisburg PA (4^th and Market Streets), co-sponsored by the Bucknell Orthodox Christian Community and St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Lewisburg. 2023-2024 Academic Year Starting with Bucknell’s Summer Session

All are welcome! Bibles will be supplied if needed. If you miss a session, video summaries will be archived.

With Fr. Deacon Paul Siewers, Associate Professor of Literature at Bucknell University, specializing in Christian literature, and former William Simon Fellow in Religion and Public Life at Princeton’s James Madison Program. He is adviser to the Bucknell Orthodox Christian Fellowship.

Video archive of the 2022-2023 Academic Year Study of “Genesis and Job in the Orthodox Christian Tradition”: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9uLyNgwOlUVYbLnPAAIhs2uQs_8612aA

For more information: Contact Deacon Paul at asiewers@bucknell.edu, 570-863-9039, or see https://bucknellorthodoxchristians.com/2023/05/31/new-bible-study-on-exodus-and-isaiah-freedom-faith-and-prophecies-exodus-and-isaiah-in-orthodox-christian-tradition/ and stjohnthewonderworker.com

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1322/7943/files/Akathist_-_Port_Arthur_Icon_rev3.pdf?1336006654847058251

Please join us for our community Bible Study in the 2022-2023 school year on “Genesis and Job in Orthodox Christian Church Tradition,” on 2:30 each Sunday at the Bucknell Barnes & Noble Cafe, 4th and Market Streets in downtown Lewisburg, PA. All are welcome! Our motto is from St. John Chrysostom in the 4th century: “This is the cause of all evils: the ignorance of the Scriptures. We go into battle without arms, and how ought we to come off safe?” Our prayer is to live in our lives what we learn from Holy Scripture under the guidance of the Church Fathers. May the Lord give us unworthily good strength and wisdom in this effort! Glory to God!

For the latest video summaries, please go to this link: https://ecosemiotics.com/2022/08/30/bible-study-on-genesis-and-job-in-orthodox-tradition/

Genesis and Job in Orthodox Christian Tradition: A Year Study with Bucknell’s Orthodox Fellowship and St. John Russian Orthodox Mission

Join us for our yearlong community Bible Study on Genesis and Job in light of Orthodox Christian tradition, co-sponsored by the Bucknell Orthodox Christian Fellowship and St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Lewisburg PA (which serves the Bucknell and local communities), every Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in the Bucknell Barnes & Noble Cafe, 4th and Market Streets in downtown Lewisburg. For more information on Orthodox services in Lewisburg, see also stjohnthewonderworker.com

May the Lord give us good wisdom and strength in our study of His Holy Scripture, that we may not only read but practice His teachings!

Sraznikom! With the Feast!

(For the ongoing series of videos including this introduction, please see https://bucknellorthodoxchristians.com/2022/08/30/genesis-and-job-in-orthodox-tradition-a-yearlong-study-with-the-bucknell-university-orthodox-community-and-st-johns-orthodox-mission/)

Today on “Summer Pascha,” Aug. 15/28 on the Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, we kicked off our new 2022-2023 Bible Study series on “From the Beginning: Genesis and Job and the Apostolic Church Today.”

Below is an intro video for the series, and we also hope to post soon a second video summarizing the actual discussion today on Genesis 1.

We’ll meet each week at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Bucknell Barnes & Noble Cafe, 4th and Market in beautiful downtown Lewisburg. Please join us at any session or for the whole sequence as we cover two books of the Bible from the most ancient times. Glory to God!

No homework is needed and Bibles will be provided, but here is a resource page of some of the Bible texts and commentaries from early Church Fathers in the Orthodox tradition that we will be using, together with some texts mentioned in the introductory video.

Watch also for the second video on our discussion this first week of Genesis 1.