Dean Fr. Pentiuc’s Brief Summer Report

Below are a few spotlights of summer activity of Fr. Eugen J. Pentiuc, Dean of Holy Cross.

(1) Rev. Dr. Eugen J. Pentiuc, the newly appointed Academic Dean of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology spent this summer abroad. 

For the first two weeks, he accompanied Fr. Bartholomew Mercado, Chaplain and Director of St. Helen’s Pilgrimage to Constantinople and Rome. He took this trip to analyze and, along with Fr. Mercado, to produce a report for the HCHC president and the Pilgrimage’s major donor Ms. Helen Carlos. The report will focus on how St. Helen’s Pilgrimage can better allocate its economic resources and continue to improve and develop the pedagogical content of the pilgrimage.

In Constantinople, more precisely at the Phanar, Fr. Pentiuc had the great honor to be received in a private audience by His All Holiness Ecumenical Bartholomew I of Constantinople. The gist of their conversation focused on the MDiv degree program at Holy Cross. Fr. Eugen informed His All-Holiness that the school is about to embark on a lengthy and elaborate process of curriculum and program review, focusing primarily on revamping the MDiv program and Greek (biblical, patristic, and modern) language seminarian requirements as well as aligning the teleturgics to the Patriarchal taxis. After his meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch, Fr. Pentiuc noted: “With the long and painful closure of Halki, Holy Cross has the great honor and responsibility to be the schole for the epicenter of Orthodoxy which is our Ecumenical Patriarchate. Our faculty and students need to do as much as we can to strengthen the backbone of our graduate programs, that is, the MDiv program. This Fall semester, the School of Theology will embark on a process of rethinking the MDiv program in order to improve all aspects of the curriculum including both the Greek and teleturgics sectors of our education.” 

(2) At Halki, Fr. Pentiuc spoke with His Grace Bishop Kassianos of Aravissos, Abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery (Halki Theological School), about digital cooperation between the two schools, and more specifically, the participation of Halki in the soon-to-be-launched The Scriptorium Initiative (link to the top story on HC website), thus exposing better this beacon of Orthodoxy.

(3) This summer Fr. Pentiuc spent his research and writing time in Jerusalem as a “scholar-in-residence” at the invitation of the famous École biblique, the oldest biblical and archeological school in the Holy Land, where he worked on his new book, Old Testament Theology: Reading the Hebrew Bible from a Christian Orthodox Angle, under contract with Oxford University Press.

(4) While at École biblique, the dean had a fruitful meeting with Fr. Oliver Poquillon, OP, the new Director of École biblique. The focus of this meeting was how Holy Cross could collaborate with École biblique. Fr. Pentiuc envisions the next St. Helen’s Pilgrimage as having a solid educational and spiritual segment in addition to the two segments (Constantinople and Greece/Mt. Athos) already well rooted in the tradition of this wonderful pilgrimage for Holy Cross seminarians. Fr. Pentiuc is preparing a full seven-day segment in the Holy Land for the 2025 Summer, including Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Mar Saba Monastery, Herodium, Masada, Qumran, Jericho, Galilee, Mount Carmel, etc. Students will be accommodated at École biblique et archéologique française and will have the benefit of first-class expertise in field tours organized and led by École biblique professors of biblical studies and archeology.

(5) Fr. Pentiuc also had an audience with His Beatitude Theophilus III, Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem in which they discussed the Holy Land segment of 2025 St. Helen’s Pilgrimage.

(6) During his stay at École biblique, Fr. Pentiuc spoke, via Zoom, with Very Rev. Archimandrite Dr. Teofil Tia, Dean of the Orthodox School of Theology of Babeş-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) and Dr. Chrysostomos Stamoulis, Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The theme of the discussions was cooperation between Holy Cross and their respective schools of theology. Fr. Pentiuc plans to launch a course series titled “Great Modern Orthodox Theologians at Their Homes” (featuring Dumitru Staniloae, John Zizioulas, Justin Popovici), beginning in the summer of 2025 where Holy Cross and BTI students will be able to enroll in a hybrid class (i.e., asynchronous pre-recorded lectures followed by two weeks in-person learning experience in that respective Orthodox country). 

Next summer the course will be on the work of Romanian theologian Dumitru Staniloae. There will be a team of four professors, two from Holy Cross and two from Cluj-Napoca (Romania) school of theology, which already extended its hospitality in terms of room and board for two weeks in Transylvania and Carpathian Mountains, in the footsteps of Dumitru Staniloae (who will be canonized next year by the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate). In the successive years, classes will be organized in Greece and Serbia, covering the other two great Orthodox theologians, John Zizioulas and St. Justin Popović. 

(7) Dr. James C. Skedros and Fr. Eugen J. Pentiuc, Co-Executive Directors of The Scriptorium Initiative (TSI) met on a kick-off Zoom meeting (July, 23, 2024), with key representatives of GroupM7, a pioneer firm in the digital media market. GroupM7 has been contracted to develop a professional website platform for TSI. More information about the website, TSI organization diagram, and the piloting of Online Continuing Education for clergy and faithful at Holy Cross, will be available in a video announcement the TSI executive directors are currently preparing. Please stay tuned to rgix.madsoluciones.com as well its social media outlets for this exciting new offering from Holy Cross.