Mr. Bobby Maddex: Welcome to Ancient Faith Presents…. I’m Bobby Maddex, Station Manager of Ancient Faith Radio, and today I will be speaking with Dn. Andrei Psarev. Dn. Andrei is a professor of Russian Church history and canon law, as well as the Director of Undergraduate Studies at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary. He is here today to tell us about a new conference he is organizing in Belgrade, Serbia. Welcome to the program, Dn. Andrei!

Dn. Andrei Psarev: Thanks, Bobby. It’s very good to be with you today, and thank you very much for this opportunity to talk to you and to Ancient Faith listeners.

Mr. Maddex: Very good. So tell me a little bit about yourself and your background, both academically and as an Orthodox Christian.

Dn. Andrei: Right, I am telling that I came from a country that doesn’t exist any more, which is the USSR, former Soviet Union. I came directly to Jordanville to study. Then I was offered to stay. I worked as an editor-in-chief of the Russian-language publication that used to be published 36 times in the year. And then I started to teach in 1995 Russian Church history, and I realized that I need deeper actually level of engagement. I went to St. Vladimir’s to get my M.Th. from there, and then I got involved with the Byzantine history and received my Ph.D. from Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

So this conference I am organizing is unique because we are making sure that all materials will be available for English-speaking audience. Basically, we have translated most of the materials; they are posted on my website, ROCORstudies.org in the section “Serbia” and available for preview in order to facilitate more qualified questions, more pointed questions, to speakers. So this is something I really would like to feature for the Ancient Faith Radio speakers today.

Mr. Maddex: Yeah, so what exactly is this conference? What is it called and what will be its focus?

Dn. Andrei: Right, the conference is called “Links between Times: Conclusions and Perspectives on the Centennial of the Russian Church Abroad.” I think really a feature of this conference is that we are inviting the best scholars in the field of the Russian Church Abroad’s history, who are mostly from the former Soviet Union, and Belgrade is a meeting point where basically East meets West, and we are using traditional history methodology to speak about the past, which also enables us to understand better our present. So that’s basically what are we doing. There are 20-plus papers given in the course of three days, and there are also links to register online to follow them.

Mr. Maddex: So how did the conference come about? What was the inspiration behind it?

Dn. Andrei: Right, I guess the inspiration was my personal engagement with Russian Church Abroad history, because I believe we are living in beautiful time since we’re now out of the polemical stage. If you think about etymology, it comes from the Greek, polemo, to wage war, and basically with people it’s like in court: you’re really not in position to analyze the whole complexity of the situation; you kind of hold your ground. And that’s how it used to be jurisdictionally, sort of Russian Church Abroad would have its light of the truth, and its opponents would point to something that might be valid, and now when you do history you really analyze it in complexity. So this anniversary, because the Serbian Church in 1921 decided to provide canonical grounds to Russian refugee bishops, it kind of inspired me to set up this event in Belgrade.

Mr. Maddex: So what all will happen at the conference? Is it just lectures? I understand that there are maybe opportunities for walking tours. What other things will occur there.

Dn. Andrei: Right, we will start with a memorial service to the founding fathers of the Russian Church Abroad. Then the second day will be hosted by the Serbian partners, by Serbian receiving committee in the cradle of the Russian Church Abroad, in Sremski Karlovci, which is in former Austro-Hungarian part of Serbia. Talks there will be focused on the Serbian-Russian engagement. And on the second day there also will be the reminiscences shared by Archbishop Peter of Chicago, who was a cell attendant to St. John of Shanghai. It will be in a casual way before the dinner on the closing day. And on Friday, Metropolitan Mark will be serving Liturgy for St. John Chrysostom. That’s about it. And also we will have two tours offered on Friday for those who will stay.

Mr. Maddex: Awesome. So can you highlight a few of the speakers for us and the topics that they will be speaking on?

Dn. Andrei: Right, I definitely would like to highlight my former colleague from Jordanville and now professor at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, newly ordained Dn. Vitaly Permiakov, who will be reflecting on the liturgical tradition of the Russian Church Abroad. I really have no idea what he’s going to say, but I know that it’s going to be interesting, so that’s going to be a highlight. And then also Dr. Andrei Kostriukov from St. Tikhon’s University for the Humanities in Moscow will be speaking about lay movements within certain—a bumpy history of lay movements within the Russian Church Abroad, bumpy with regard to hierarchy, and it’s also very interesting. So, yeah, those two come to my mind first.

Mr. Maddex: Who is invited to attend the conference? Is it open to all?

Dn. Andrei: Right, it’s open to all, of course, online, as long as people register and they follow guidelines. And it’s also open in real time in Serbia, because first of all it’s an academic event. As a person at the church there, things like the memorial service and hierarchs there, and we will pay all honors to them, but across the wall I really would like to make sure that this is an event of academic integrity. So, yes, I mean, everyone who would follow guidelines are welcome to join.

Mr. Maddex: All right, so you mentioned that there’s an opportunity here for listeners not just to attend in person but to do so virtually. How do they go about doing that?

Dn. Andrei: I hope there will be links posted next to this podcast which you will be able easily to follow and to fill in your information. There is no registration fee, but the nations are welcome, and that’s about it. So you will be guided from there, once you enter your information, your email. An assistant of mine will contact you with more information.

Mr. Maddex: Okay, let’s talk specifics a little bit. Is there a cost associated with the conference? What is the duration of the conference? And on what day and time will it begin?

Dn. Andrei: The conference begins on Tuesday, November 23, at 10 o’clock, Belgrade time, but there is still some little tweaks with the programs, so those who are interested will be informed if there are any slight changes to this time, and it will last until Thursday, November 25, so there are 20 talks, 20-minute talks, and there are also Q&A questions, with questions mostly received from online audience and so on. And the cost, it’s really—we have no registration fees, but we expect people would donate if they are in position to do so, to support ROCOR studies, which is [the] website which organizes this: ROCOR studies’ mission and work.

Mr. Maddex: Excellent! So what is this website? Where can listeners go to get more information about the conference?

Dn. Andrei: The URL is rocorstudies.org, and there is section “Serbia.” Right in the upper menu, readers will see this topic: “Serbia 2021,” and there will be also abstracts of the talks that I mentioned, and program, and a lot of information also on Facebook. There is Facebook associated with the conference. Let me just see how this is called. There also people can get conveniently— Academic Conference on ROCOR History. Serbia. November 2021. That’s the name of the Facebook group. There is plenty of information to start with, to begin with.

Mr. Maddex: All right. So give me your elevator pitch. Briefly, why should listeners consider participating in your conference?

Dn. Andrei: Because it’s a crash course on the history of the Russian Church Abroad, offered by the world-renowned experts. Almost all of them would have a monograph of the history of the Russian Church Abroad. All talks are organized in chronological order, and it also helps to understand the complexity of Orthodoxy in the 20th century, even like, I mean, if you never cared for the Russian Church Abroad, but you will be surprised how it would help you to understand your own church traditions through this lens of the Russian Church Abroad history.

Mr. Maddex: Very good. Well, is there anything else that you would like to add before I let you go today?

Dn. Andrei: Of course, I am honored to be on this program. Thank you very much for interviewing me. And if you can spread word about this and at least if I can ask you for a few minutes of your spare time to check those links, that’s all I can be for. Thank you very much.

Mr. Maddex: Thank you so much for joining me today, Dn. Andrei.

Dn. Andrei: Thank you for having me, Bobby. It was so good. Thank you so much. I’ll look forward to further collaboration with Ancient Faith Radio.

Mr. Maddex: Excellent. Once again, I have been speaking with Dn. Andrei Psarev, a professor of Russian Church history and canon law, as well as the Director of Undergraduate Studies at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary. I’m Bobby Maddex, and this has been a listener-supported presentation of Ancient Faith Radio.