South Canaan, PA, June 2, 2026
Photo: St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary
Archbishop Makarios of Kenya and Exarch of Eastern Africa of the Patriarchate of Alexandria delivered the address for the 84th annual commencement exercises of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary on Friday, May 22.
The Archbishop was unable to participate in person but addressed the graduating class in a pre-recorded video. He described St. Tikhon’s as holy ground from which “men have gone forth not merely to represent an institution, but to serve the Living God and His people,” and welcomed the graduates as the newest ambassadors of Orthodoxy.
He framed the graduates’ entry into ministry against a backdrop of global instability. “We are living in an age of deep uncertainty,” he said, citing political turmoil, faltering economies, and the particular financial pressures facing Kenya as examples of a world in which people turn to the Church and its clergy for hope.
The Archbishop structured his central exhortation around the three classical stages of Orthodox spiritual life: purification, illumination, and union with the Divine. Purification requires fasting “not only from food, but from pride, from self-justification, from the subtle desire to be admired.” Illumination changes how the priest sees people—“not as problems to solve, but as mysteries to reverence.” Union with the Divine is realized at the holy altar, where “you do not perform. You disappear. You become transparent.”
He urged the graduates to resist defending the faith primarily through argument: “The world does not need priests who win arguments. It needs priests who wash feet.” He called on them to carry the Word of God into hospitals, prisons, and homes “broken by debt and despair.”
On human weakness, he told graduates that “degrees do not eliminate weakness, and ordination does not erase human nature,” urging swift repentance and pointing to King David’s Psalm 50 as a model.
Turning to Orthodox divisions, he called unity “a sacred responsibility” belonging to every ordained servant, warning that “if you do not empty yourselves of ego, you will contribute to division.”
Drawing on his missionary experience in Africa, he closed with a reflection on love: “Love opens every door. Not immediately. Not dramatically. But inevitably. Where arguments fail, love remains. Where power collapses, love endures.”
He concluded with a prayer that those the graduates serve would encounter “not you, but the Living God.”
Read the full address here. Or watch the Archbishop’s video:
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