For the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, (MASI), July saw the return of its renowned Study Days program after a four-year hiatus, as well the arrival of two top Patristics scholars to lead a week-long seminar for doctoral students that drew participants from Canada, the United States and Europe. Rounding out this summer’s offerings at MASI was an intensive course in Byzantine Eucharistic Liturgies. Through these various offerings, each addressed to a unique audience, the Institute continues to address the needs of the church, the academy, and those who simply want to learn more about their faith. 

Leading the Patristics seminar were MASI’s two keynote speakers for their summer offerings, Fr. John Behr, PhD, who is the Regius Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen, and Dr. Lewis Ayres, who is Professor of Catholic and Historical Theology at Durham University. Fr. Behr’s speech was entitled Reason Persuading Necessity: Gregory of Nyssa on the Human Being, while Dr. Ayres’ was entitled Justinian’s Vision of Christ: Necessary for Orthodoxy Today?” 

Fr. John Behr addresses students at Study Days 2022
Fr. John Behr at Study Days 2022

The ongoing interest in, and engagement with, the Church Fathers is a good sign for the church, says Fr. Behr, who notes that only by understanding the origins and development of church thought can we begin to understand today’s challenges and respond effectively.  

Dr. Ayres agrees, noting that beyond the subject-specific insights into church history and thought gained through reading great minds of the early church, there is also a broader appeal across the humanities, and that comes from delving into how arguments are developed and presenting. Exposure to great thought benefits all readers, he says. 

But for students, one of the greatest benefits of attending the Patristics Seminar was the opportunity to watch two long-time colleagues engage in a discussion, often – but not always – agreeing, and modeling for the doctoral students respectful, productive academic discourse.  

“Prof. Fr.  Behr and Prof. Ayres certainly modelled rigorous conversation. What touched me most is that this conversation clearly flowed, for each instructor, from years of dedicated scholarship pursued in faith,” says seminar participant Emily Barnum, a doctoral student from the University of Chicago, where she is studying New Testament and Early Christian Literature. “Nothing animates our study of these great texts more than approaching them from within a life of prayer. It was a great gift to study together during the day and pray together in the evening.” 

The decision to offer a seminar led by two academics is one of the ways MASI serves the community, Fr. Behr and Dr. Ayres agree. 

Dr. Lewis Ayer is Professor of Catholic and Historical Theology at Durham University
Dr. Lewis Ayres

“Thirty years ago, when I was starting out, Toronto was one of the great places to study theology,” says Dr. Ayres, noting the city remains a strong draw for theological studies. Having two academics teaching together presented a unique chance to view issues in a variety of ways. 

Fr. Behr also offered praise for MASI for inviting both academics to lead the workshop, noting that it gave participants a chance to see how questions – and answers – are formulated. Overall, he adds, the week gave students both firm information in a key subject area as well as the opportunity to ponder academic approaches to the classroom, a vital consideration for those who will become professors. 

MASI was born out of an intensive summer program from its early days at Chicago Theological Union, when founder Fr. Andriy Chirovsky began a program of study at California’s Mt. Tabor Monastery.  

Co-sponsored by St. Augustine Seminary, MASI’s Study Days program provides “an immersive experience in Eastern Christianity, both in its rhythm of prayer and in patterns of thought,” says the Institute’s Fr. Andrew Summerson, PhD, who helped organize this year’s classes. “Through Study Days, we bring the best of our tradition to the wider church. After a four-year hiatus, re-starting study days returns us to our original charism and is a good sign that post-COVID we are beginning to operate at full capacity in our service to the church and to the academy.” 

The Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies is a centre of higher learning, research, ecumenical understanding, and prayer. It operates as an autonomous academic unit in the Faculty of Theology at the University of St. Michael’s College (USMC) in the University of Toronto. Based in Windle House at the heart of the USMC campus, the Institute specializes in the theology, spirituality, liturgy, history, and ecclesial polity of the Eastern Christian Churches, both Orthodox and Catholic. 

The summer offerings at MASI were conducted in partnership with Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, the Centre for Medieval Studies, the Orthodox School of Theology at Trinity College, and the Lumen Christi Institute at the University of Chicago. 

Fr. Alexander Laschuk, PhD is a priest of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto. He is currently the Executive Director of the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute in the Faculty of Theology, in addition to his responsibility as Judicial Vicar of the Toronto Regional Tribunal. He lives in Trinity-Bellwoods with his wife and daughter.


Here, but not yet

Nativity mural Biserica noua “Pogorarea Sf. Duh”, Parohia Sfantul Nicolae - Campina The new church “Pentecost”, Saint Nicholas’ Parish from Campina structure finished in 2000 architect Livia Caltia murals by painter Grigore Popescu-Muscel
Nativity mural Biserica noua “Pogorarea Sf. Duh”, Parohia Sfantul Nicolae – Campina The new church “Pentecost”, murals by painter Grigore Popescu-Muscel. Licensed under Creative Commons Attributioon 2.0 Generic.

It’s Christmas time in the city. The lights are shining, and the markets are re-opening after a long COVID absence. Already last week my daughter and I went for a walk through the financial district to admire all the decorated Christmas trees. However, I look on the calendar and see we have a long way to go yet.

This is life on the Julian Calendar. You may or may not know, but in 1582 Pope Gregory XIII changed the Christian calendar so that Thursday October 4, 1582 was followed by Friday October 15, 1582. This changed happened because the solar year on our planet is not 365.25 days but 365.2425 days. This change led to what we today call the Gregorian Calendar. Countries adopted these changes at different times: most of Catholic Europe in 1582, the British Empire in 1752, Russia in 1918, and Greece in 1923. That means in 1917, when you crossed the border from Austria-Hungary to the Russian Empire, you not only changed your watch, but your calendar! Still today many Eastern Christians continue to follow the calendar of Julius Caesar, just like the early Christians did in the Roman Empire.

Today the Julian calendar is 13 days apart from the Gregorian Calendar—which means that while I am writing this in early December in Toronto ecclesiastically I’m still in the month of November. And my daughter does not understand why she does not get to celebrate Christmas with her “English” friends at school. I’m stricter than my parents were—we’d have the tree up on December 25 at home—and there are no chocolate Advent calendars in this house. After all, the Byzantine pre-Christmas season is a time of fasting. My daughter usually at least gets a Christmas-break vacation out of the deal, but the seemingly ever-present fear of a new COVID variant led to our cancelling a Christmas trip to Italy. “You know, Jesus Christ lived under the Julian Calendar,” I remind her as she rolls her eyes with all the angst common to a seven-going-on-seventeen-year-old.

But in all honesty, I like the Julian Calendar. Not for fundamentalist reasons like some Orthodox Christians but simply because it easily makes sacred time sacred. My sister, a nurse in the E.R., never has a problem getting Christmas Eve off—and makes a pretty penny working overtime on December 25. I get two weeks of peace and quiet to prepare for Christmas once the world has forgotten about it on December 26. And there is certainly no need to worry about “Keeping Christ in Christmas” when you celebrate in January. But to get there, we must get through this early period of bombardment, of realizing that Christmas time is here, but not yet.

In classical Greek we have two words for time—the chronos and the kairos. We can look at Christmas in the sense of the chronos: chronological or sequential time. We’ve arrived at December 25. But for us on the Julian Calendar, I see Christmas as being the kairos:  the right moment, the fitting and opportune time. When things have arrived the way they should, like when we talk about “the harvest” as a time period.

And the kairos is almost here.


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Fr. Andrew Summerson, S.Th.D., is an Assistant Professor of Greek Patristics with the Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies in the Faculty of Theology in the University of St. Michael’s College.


History and Theology as Contemporary Wisdom from the Ancient Desert

Saint Athanasius of Alexandria from the Patriarchs and Bishops fresco (Chora Church). Fresco is all in earth tones and is faded somewhat, but a robed man with a beard and halo with a raised hand is visible.

In Athanasius of Alexandria’s 4th century “best seller,” Life of Anthony, we are told that upon his parents’ death, he begins soul-searching. An interior inquietude overtakes him and he starts to wonder about the writings of the New Testament. He ponders the apostles’ single-hearted mission to leave everything and follow Christ. He also considers the life of the early Church documented in Acts, where the company of believers laid everything at the apostles’ feet and put it in service of others (Acts 4:35). Anthony’s mental ruminations are confirmed one day in church, when he hears the proclamation of the Lord’s words to the rich man in the Gospel: “Sell everything you have and give to the poor” (Mt 19:21). With this, Anthony offloads his inheritance and takes to the desert. He learns from elder ascetics, practices prayer unceasingly, wrestles with the devil, keeps vigil in caves, heals the sick, and confutes philosophers.

Athanasius explains that Anthony, “a man in the flesh,” is assisted in all these efforts by the “Lord who for our sakes became flesh.” This is a rather loaded statement that needs untangling. Athanasius, the writer of the Life of Anthony, is also one of the greatest theological minds of the early Church, who forcefully defended the faith articulated at Nicaea in 325. The council aimed to narrate precisely who is this “Lord who for our sakes became flesh.” This Lord is of one substance (homoousios) with the Father, a detail still recited every Sunday in the Nicene Creed today, or in the Byzantine tradition, to which I belong, it is sung at every Divine Liturgy.

What is at stake for Athanasius in this doctrinal battle is not simply an ethereal philosophical dispute about the nature of God but rather the accurate reception of God’s revelation to us “according to the Scriptures.” Nicaea means the difference between worshiping a false idol or worshiping the living God, who providentially connects the dots between Anthony’s initial interior stirrings and the public proclamation of the Gospel. The Life of Anthony details the process of the ascetic’s transformation from a quiet kid to a heroic saint, “initiated in the mysteries and filled with the spirit of God.”

Nicene theology creates the conditions for more Anthonys to spring forth in this world. Anthony has internalized Nicaea and proclaims it in his own flesh. If Jesus is a human creature, he is no more than a model to imitate. On the other hand, if Jesus is God who takes on a human nature, he offers human nature a new possibility: to bear “all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:19).

Perhaps Athanasius’ greatest contribution as a theologian is his ability to bridge the gap between the heights of doctrinal controversy and grassroots spirituality. As a historical theologian, I specialize in gaps, particularly gaps between the past and the present. My principal sources are figures from the first millennium. I engage them precisely because it is here, in the cauldron of the first millennium, the language for naming God’s activity in Scripture is formulated for ages to come. These writers developed a grammar that Christians are heirs to. Truthfully, one can speak a language without knowing the grammar. Infants surely begin to formulate sentences long before they can diagram the contents of their principal parts. But learning grammar shows us the sheer power of language, exposing the heights and depths of what words can do when used to their full potential. For us, the grammar of the Nicene Creed may just be a common place prayer that is muttered through Mass. For Athanasius, the creed is the very condition that provides a way for saints to emerge in this world, charged with the power that comes from “the Lord who was made flesh.”

We are continually tempted to forget how we learned Christian language. In our own speaking, we lean on clichés, phrases coined by others so often repeated they have lost their meaning. Such repetition excuses us from the burden of thinking. One must not forget that clichés come about in the first place because they are powerful statements that conjure up popular agreement and therefore are worth repeating. Studying the sources of Christian language ensures that the truths of the faith do not become vacuous statements but remain powerful and transformative. When properly interrogated, reading the texts of the ancient dead ensures that we can hear them as clearly as Anthony did the Scriptures. Historical theology aims at the same results. Without access to these sources, we cut the Christian tradition short. We miss the power of its language, capable of cultivating Anthonys, whose life captivated a 4th century crowd and is worth the hard work of making sense of in the 21st.


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Andrew Summerson

Father Andrew Summerson has joined St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology as Assistant Professor of Greek Patristics. Describing his work in Patristics as a vocation, Summerson says that, as a Byzantine Catholic priest and a scholar of the tradition, his goal is “to be a responsible interpreter for its members and for the scholarly and ecumenical community of theologians. As Eastern Catholics, our theological grammar is that of the Fathers. In order to be properly fluent in my own tradition, I went about learning their language.”

Summerson holds an S.Th.D. in Patristic Theology from the Pontifical Patristic Institute “Augustinianum” in Rome. His book, Divine Scripture and Human Emotion in Maximus the Confessor: Exegesis of the Human Heart, was published by Brill earlier this year.

His most recent teaching appointment was at Calumet College of St. Joseph, in Indiana.

“Andrew’s passion for, and dedication to, Patristics will serve our students well. We have pleased to have such a strong addition to the Faculty” says Interim Dean John L. McLaughlin.

 “The University of St. Michael’s College has a proud history in its concern for historical studies while engaging the contemporary world,” says Summerson. I see my own work for St. Michael’s with the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Insititute of Eastern Christian Studies as aligned with St. Michael’s heritage: engaging the touchstones of the Eastern Christian past for the life of the world we live in today.”

In the fall semester, Summerson will teach History of Christianity I and Foundations to Eastern Ethics, while in the winter semester he will teach Contemporary Issues in Eastern Christian Moral Theology and The Three-Personed God: Eastern Christian Perspectives.

Early Christian texts aren’t meant to be sipped like wine; they must be chugged like beer,” he says. “I like to read primary sources with my students and treat them not like delicate artifacts, but living voices that speak true statements about God and the Church today.” 

Summerson’s position is a Contractually Limited Term Appointment. The position, which is renewable twice to a maximum of three years, is held in conjunction with the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies.

Image depicts Fr. Alexander Laschuk standing in front of an icon

Fr. Alexander M. Laschuk, PhD has been appointed to a three-year term as Executive Director of the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies (MASI). His appointment follows a yearlong appointment as interim director that saw the institute shift its instruction and lecture offerings into an online context while emphasizing collaboration with other institutions.  

“In the past eight months as Interim Executive Director, Fr. Laschuk has enhanced the position of the Sheptytsky Institute as an autonomous academic unit of the Faculty of Theology,” said Dr. John L. McLaughlin, Interim Dean of the Faculty of Theology at St. Michael’s. “His willingness to continue providing this outstanding leadership at MASI holds great promise for the Sheptytsky Institute’s ongoing development as a centre of academic excellence in Eastern Christian Studies.”  

Fr. Laschuk has civil and ecclesiastical doctorates in canon law from Saint Paul University and the University of Ottawa. His research interests include ecclesiology, penal law, and procedural law and he regularly publishes in these areas in addition to canonical consultancy and advocacy work with dioceses and clients across North America. He has taught regularly with the Sheptytsky Institute since 2010.  

During Fr. Laschuk’s term as interim director over the past academic year, the Sheptytsky Institute has both shifted its instruction to remote delivery to accommodate pandemic restrictions and introduced multiple new lecture series to expand its offerings to the larger community. In addition to monthly series focused on hospital ministry during COVID and on campus ministry, MASI has launched a Friday Lenten lecture series on the Church Fathers. Presented by scholars from a variety of institutions, the Lenten series was specifically designed to support the needs of priests, 75 of whom are registered for the course.  

“We see a need to provide continuing education in an accessible manner to clergy,” Fr. Laschuk says of the initiative, adding that the Ukrainian Eparchy of Toronto has encouraged the institute in this direction.  

The shift to a predominantly online context as a result of the pandemic has also made new kinds of collaboration possible between MASI and other institutions. Seminarians in the past year have joined MASI courses from places as far away as England and Edmonton as a result of these connections.   

Going into the future, Fr. Laschuk sees MASI as having a unique role to play in the life of the University. “St. Mike’s is a top-tier Catholic university, and we want to be comprehensive in our presentation of the Catholic faith, including attention to the Catholic East,” he says. Graduates of the St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology are bound for contexts in which they will encounter and work with Eastern Christians, and he considers it essential for those grads to understand the essentials of their faith and traditions.  

This preparation goes beyond the classroom, as MASI has always emphasized the liturgies and practices that define the life of Eastern Christian communities. “Our chapel is open to anyone who wants to come, and can provide an experience in Eastern Christianity for anyone who attends,” Fr. Laschuk says.  

Fr. Alexander Laschuk, PhD is a priest of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto. He is currently the Interim Executive Director of the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute in the Faculty of Theology, in addition to his responsibility as Judicial Vicar of the Toronto Regional Tribunal. He lives in Trinity-Bellwoods with his wife and daughter.


Finding Stillness in Chaos

A woman and child place a small birthday cake with a candle on top on a desk in front of a computer, where a video call is in progress

I am a Catholic priest. Unlike most you know, I am married and have a six-year-old daughter (with number two on the way). Also unlike most priests you know, I do not spend much of my ministry in a parish. Instead, I live my priestly ministry in the curia, where I work as a canon lawyer. There are seven dioceses in Ontario for which I am responsible. Additionally, I seem to have a specific skill set—I fix problems. Sometimes those problems are in my own Eparchy, which extends from the Ontario border to the Atlantic. At other times my service is to the universal Church, which brings me to dioceses throughout the English-speaking world. My ministry means I am frequently away from home, which can add up to two or even three months in a year.

This all came to a crashing, screeching halt in March. I remember my last day in the office with my staff—we already were encouraging people to work from home. It was the feast of St. Joseph and there were zeppole on my desk. The State of Emergency was declared shortly thereafter, and we all began a brave new adventure.

In my case, this has meant being physically grounded—a real blessing in some ways as now I am home every day to put my daughter to bed. But it has also been chaos. When the Archdiocese moved to “remote work” except for essential staff it meant that in addition to my own job I suddenly had to keep 26 people busy. We were in the midst of opening a new tribunal office in the suburbs to remove the “physical distance” that, Pope Francis reminds us, prevents people from accessing the tribunal.

In our small Ukrainian Eparchy many parishes needed help applying for government support; I became the go-to guy with all these acronyms that soon became all too familiar: ROE, CERB, CEWS, and CEBA. At our parish in Trinity-Bellwoods, instead of hearing Easter confessions I became a videographer and learned far too much about live-streaming, while at my daughter’s school, the online class sessions every morning and afternoon became the anchor of her (and our) day. I realized how lucky we were when I spoke to other kindergarten parents whose children would only have one (or no) session a week.

My wife, who suffers from difficult pregnancies, was often bed- or couch-ridden and was, as I termed her, a “quarantine professional” who never left the apartment except for medical appointments. The usual downtown comfort of the constant hum of people and traffic turned into silence, and often the only sounds were screams in the night from the growing number of people on the street and in the park with nowhere else to go. As bedtime not so quickly approached for my daughter, there would be the silent prayer to God: just one more hour, Lord. Get us there, peacefully if possible. When she’d finally go down it would be frantic work until I fell asleep to catch up on all those things left behind in the workday.

More than four months have passed. The world is awakening from its pandemic-induced slumber. We have set up a chapel in the parish archives where I celebrate mass with my wife and daughter. For my daughter’s sixth birthday we ran around individual cakes for her party on Zoom. We’re getting really good at making dinner as a family instead of constantly eating out. I’ve started a new job as Interim Executive Director at the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute here at USMC. I can’t go into my office at Windle House and my predecessor can’t move out. I’ve not been on an airplane in six months. Our new home has been delayed nearly a year. The parish has spent thousands on PPE. I overhear my daughter giving her friends Zoom advice. My car dashboard is covered in blue masks. My wife rejoices that we’ve almost run out of hotel shampoo.

This time has left me frequently thinking of Elijah, who we call Elias in the East. When he went to find the Lord God, the Voice was not in the earthquake, nor the fire, but in the light breeze (3 Kings 19). Here, in the unnatural silence of abandoned downtown, the Voice of God blows with the breeze across the abandoned storefronts and the tents in the park. I hope we can all find a moment to stop and hear it, finding stillness in this time of chaos.


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The crest of the University of St. Michael's College

The Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute (MASI) heads into the 2020-2021 academic year with new leadership and a new faculty position in Patristics.

Image depicts Fr. Alexander Laschuk standing in front of an icon
Fr. Alexander M. Laschuk

Fr. Alexander M. Laschuk has been named Interim Executive Director of MASI following the retirement of Fr. Peter Galadza on June 30 of this year. Fr. Laschuk is a priest of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada, and serves in numerous ministries, including as Judicial Vicar of Toronto’s marriage tribunal. Until recently, he was also economos, or finance officer, of the Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada. Fr. Laschuk has civil and ecclesiastical doctorates in canon law from Saint Paul University and the University of Ottawa. His research interests include ecclesiology, penal law, and procedural law and he regularly publishes in these areas in addition to canonical consultancy and advocacy work with dioceses and clients across North America.

Fr. Laschuk has regularly taught with the Sheptytsky Institute since 2010, and continues to teach in the Faculty of Canon Law at Saint Paul University, Ottawa, where he served as Interim Director of the Sheptytsky Institute in 2013-2014.

Dr. Sean Argondizza-Moberg has joined MASI on a one-year Contractually Limited Term Appointment as an Assistant Professor in Greek Patristics. Specializing in Christian asceticism in late antiquity, Dr. Argondizza-Moberg earned his doctorate at Catholic University of America’s Center for the Study of Early Christianity. The position, located within the Sheptytsky Institute, is renewable to a maximum of three years. Dr. Argondizza-Moberg is currently working on a book on monasticism and classical culture.

Image depicts Dr. Sean Argondizza-Moberg standing outdoors on a snowy day in a winter coat
Dr. Sean Argondizza-Moberg

“We are delighted to have both Fr. Laschuk and Dr. Argondizza-Moberg joining us,” says Dr. John L. McLaughlin, Interim Dean of the Faculty of Theology. “Fr. Laschuk is a skilled academic who will offer strong leadership at MASI as it looks toward the future, while Dr. Argondizza-Moberg’s work in Patristics will strengthen our offerings to students in this key field.”

The Sheptytsky Institute is an autonomous academic unit of the Faculty of Theology of the University of St. Michael’s College (USMC) in the University of Toronto (U of T). It specializes in Eastern Christian Studies, including the theology, spirituality, liturgy, history, and ecclesial polity of the Eastern Christian Churches, both Orthodox and Catholic. MASI students specialize in Eastern Christian studies within the basic-degree and graduate degree programs of St. Michael’s College. All degrees are conjointly conferred by St. Michael’s College and the University of Toronto.

St. Michael’s pulled out all the (virtual) stops on Thursday to honour three key leaders as they move on to new roles and responsibilities. More than 90 people gathered online to celebrate the careers—thus far—of Principal Randy Boyagoda, Theology Dean James Ginther and Fr. Peter Galadza, Director of the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies (MASI). 

Festivities began with a slideshow of each man in action on campus—Fr. Peter with students at Windle House, Dean Ginther presiding at convocation, and Principal Boyagoda in Rome with Gilson Seminar students—all set to the jazzy strains of Natalie and Nat King Cole’s duet of “Unforgettable.”  

Then President David Sylvester kicked things off with a welcome to guests, who ranged from students and Collegium members to colleagues and family. Dr. Sylvester recalled his own welcome party two summers ago, bemoaning the fact that the assembled could not celebrate in person in the sunshine of Scollard Park, as he had been feted. 

Image depicts the Very Rev. Fr. Peter Galadza delivering remarks at a podium
Fr. Peter Galadza

As the program unfolded, however, the inability to gather together did not stand in the way of heartfelt praise for each man. Dr. Ginther offered a tribute to Fr. Galadza, who is retiring from MASI, citing his “dogged commitment to academics,” his “passion for Eastern Christian studies” and his deep faith. 

The Dean recalled that even though the two men were doing doctoral studies at the same time at St. Mike’s, it was only during the negotiations in 2017 to bring MASI from St. Paul’s University in Ottawa to St. Michael’s that they met, and Dr. Ginther expressed great admiration for Fr. Galadza’s dedication to students, MASI and the Church. 

In response, Fr. Galadza offered his thanks, and expressed his delight at finally being able to spend more time with Olenka, his wife of 41 years. 

“God bless all of you,” he said, and guests responded with a flurry of virtual toasts and clapping emojis. 

Image depicts Dr. James Ginther in academic robes.
Dr. James Ginther

Then Dr. Sylvester offered thanks to Dean Ginther for his service to the Faculty of Theology, noting that, as both men are mediaevalists, the former knew the latter’s academic reputation long before the two met, given Dr. Ginther’s profile as a scholar of Robert Grosseteste and his work in digital humanities. 

Calling him a champion of the Faculty, the President cited the Dean’s “tireless work” in renewing the graduate division of St. Michael’s, citing three new hires as an exciting indication of things to come. 

Dr. Ginther responded with thanks to faculty staff and his colleagues, and told those assembled how much he is looking forward to returning to the classroom after his year-long research leave. 

“It’s been 12 years” since he’s had a leave, he noted. 

This prompted another flurry of toasts and clapping icons. 

Image depicts Dr. Randy Boyagoda standing in front of gardens on the St. Michael's campus
Dr. Randy Boyagoda

Then it was Dr. Boyagoda’s turn to be honoured. With some gentle teasing, the President noted that if he left anything out in his introduction “Randy would fill it in.”  

Dr. Sylvester thanked the outgoing Principal for his vision for St. Michael’s, noting that he was at the forefront of the renewal of the university’s programming and repetition, helping to restore St. Mike’s to its place as the leader in Catholic education. 

In his response, Dr. Boyagoda, who has been named Vice Dean, Undergraduate in the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto, offered thanks to many people, and then concluded his remarks with an anecdote. 

He had just been the basement of Elmsley Hall with a young colleague to seek out furniture for the office he will maintain at St. Mike’s, as he will teaching the Gilson Seminar next year. The new employee who greeted him thought he was a student. 

“I’m leaving here feeling young!” he proclaimed, and everyone offered a virtual toast. 

Then came a round of comments from such notables as Collegium Chair Fr. Don McLeod, CSB, and Dr. Christopher Brittain, Dean of Divinity at Trinity College. 

It was not the in-person party that anyone had imagined, but it was a heartfelt send-off, and the community wishes all three godspeed as they head off in new directions.