Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies


The Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies is an autonomous unit of the Faculty of Theology at the University of St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto, Canada. It specializes in Eastern Christian studies in all its breadth. Special emphasis is placed on the tradition of the Church of Kyiv, although courses, seminars, and conferences also deal with aspects of the theology, spirituality, history, and ecclesial polity of all the Eastern Christian Churches — Orthodox, Oriental non-Chalcedonian, Assyrian, and Eastern Catholic Churches.
Through the Faculty of Theology, the Sheptytsky Institute offers seven graduate programs:
Current course offerings include:
In 2017, Cardinal Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, called the Sheptytsky Institute a "great spiritual and intellectual treasure" of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and a "glorious enrichment to St. Michael's College".

History

Named after Metropolitan of Galicia and Archbishop of Halych Andrey Sheptytsky, O.S.B.M., the Sheptytsky Institute was founded in 1986 by Fr. Andriy Chirovsky at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. In September 1990, the Sheptytsky Institute moved to Ottawa, and in May 1992 became an academic unit of the Faculty of Theology at Saint Paul University.
On July 1, 2017, the Sheptytsky Institute moved from Saint Paul University to its new home at the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto.
Current, full-time and seasonal faculty includes the Right Rev. Dr. Andriy Chirovsky, Very Rev. Dr. Peter Galadza, Subdeacon Dr. Brian Butcher, Dr. Danial Galadza and Rev. Dr. Alexander Laschuk.
An endowment from the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute Foundation, operating under the aegis of the Ukrainian Catholic Bishops of Canada, funds the Institute's work.

Scholarly activities

In addition to its university degree programs in Eastern Christian Studies, since 1987, the Sheptytsky Institute has offered month-long summer intensive programs. Past locations included:
In 1996, the Institute began co-sponsoring a summer program at the Univ Lavra, near Lviv, Ukraine, together with the Ukrainian Catholic University. In 2008 the Sheptytsky Institute created the first "Study Days" in Ottawa, later spreading to Edmonton. Guest speakers have included Thomas Hopko, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Robert F. Taft, Timothy Kelleher, Sr. Vassa Larin, Myroslaw Tataryn, Suzette Phillips, Martha Shepherd, and John Behr.
The Institute's Byzantine Rite Chapel of St. Sophia and Her Daughters, Faith, Hope and Love, holds services in English, French, Ukrainian, and other languages such as Greek and Church Slavonic.
September 2017 the Institute launched a series of presentations, "Thursdays at Sheptytsky," and in January 2018 it expanded it to "Tuesdays and Thursdays at Sheptytsky". Seminars, and authors of books that have been launched, include:
The Sheptytsky Institute catalogue includes over 115 scholarly books published in English, Ukrainian, French, German, and Greek. Titles include:
The Institute also publishes which is Canada's only double-blind peer-reviewed journal in the field. LOGOS is a tri-lingual theological review that focuses on Eastern Christian Studies, emphasizing both Orthodox and Catholic Eastern Churches with a special, but not exclusive, interest in the Church of Kyiv.
Other material published by the Sheptytsky Institute include DVDs and CDs for instruction in congregational singing and recordings of plenary sessions from the Study Days. In 1992 Fr. Andriy Chirovsky produced a 6-hour DVD course on how to create Byzantine-style icons using traditional methods.

International Conferences, Media

The Institute organized the conference "The Vatican II Decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches, Orientalium ecclesiarum - Fifty Years Later" featuring presentations by Brian E. Daley, John H. Erickson, Bishop Nicholas Samra, Thomas Bird, Roman Zaviyskyy, Bishop David Motiuk, Jaroslav Skira, Andriy Chirovsky, Peter Galadza and many other speakers. The conference was held at the University of Toronto, 17–18 October 2014.
In November 2014, the Institute organized "Religion in the Ukrainian Public Square: An Analysis of the Euromaidan and Its Aftermath" featuring presentations by Cyril Hovorun, Igor Shchupak, George Weigel, Victor Ostapchuk and others.
Guest lecturers and speakers at the Institute have included the renowned Greek Orthodox Theologian Dr. Kyriaki Karidoyanes Fitzgerald, James Payton, Michael Jackson Bonner, Daniel Galadza, Msgr. A. Robert Nusca, Ephraim Radner, Frank Sysyn, Alexander Roman, Fr Geoffrey Ready, Ronald Graner and Victor Malarek. Subject topics and lectures have included Rome & the Christians of Persia, Liturgy and Byzantinization in Jerusalem, Newly Canonized & Newly Discovered Saints of the Kyivan Church, Church Singing in the Kyivan Churches in the Era of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, Toward an Orthodox Approach to the History of Christian Doctrine, Sasanian Persia, and Liturgical Theology after Schmemann: An Orthodox Reading of Paul Ricoeur.
In October 2018, the Institute organized a panel on the controversial 2018 tomos of autocephaly by the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Church of Kyiv.
Faculty have been interviewed by CNN, the Catholic News Agency, Voskresinnya, and have appeared at the “Ukraine-Russia Conflict: The Religious Dimension” sponsored by the United States Institute of Peace, The Religious Freedom Institute and George Washington University.

Directors