INSTITUTE FOR STUDIES IN EASTERN CHRISTIANITY

AT UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK

ENGAGING ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

WITH TODAY'S WORLD

An open letter to the community of the Institute for studies in eastern Christianities and the community of Saint Gregory the theologian Church

As we contemplate our recent Easter season and we rejoice in the risen, Lord
Christo Anesti!!


Death and resurrection is in every day experience for us within the Christian church. We, each day must die to the old person, the old man and put on the new man in our spirit of endless resurrection.

The word repentance is very badly mistranslated into a feeling of regret and apology for our past mistakes, but in the Greek the word is Metanoia Metanoia is to change our minds or to be after our old minds and we in our community both as a religious community and an academic one are called to change our minds every day to be able to have our endless search for our new selves, we are ever becoming reborn. We are forever, putting off the old person and old thoughts, and we greet you in this open letter with a spirit of endless renewal, endless joy, endless ecstasy, in the hope of the rise of the Lord, being in our lives in our hearts every day we express our gratitude for the unseen rain or the grace of God that comes to us from the gospel from our studies and from the presence of

Each other

We look forward to our new endeavors in this coming year of our striving, our endless effort to be renewed and to rise with the risen Christ in the spirit of the Lord, our God we send you our greetings our hopes at our joy and our gratitude for your companionship, your fellowship, and your endless hunger for knowledge just as the wings of the soul of the horses that fly in Plato, we are fed endlessly with beauty, goodness and truth, and each time you expose yourself to goodness, beauty and truth, your soul is renewed

Conrad Fischer

Chair of Board, Institute for Studies in Eastern Christianities

Professor of Medicine
Program Director and Vice
Chair of Medicine, Brookdale Hospital and Medical Center