The Orthodox Family Seminar 2020
Saturday 28 November 2020 @ 19.30pm (AEST)
The third annual Orthodox Family Seminar is moving Online because of COVID-19 restrictions. Since we live in the age of Virtual technoculture, it is time to open the discussion of proper Spiritual formation and development in the dominant environment.
Webinar will be held on ZOOM and participants must be registered in advance. To register please email: info@stnicholasblacktown.org.
Because of the new format this year we will have only two presenters. And we are proud to say that again we have managed to secure the world-class experts in the area, Very Rev. Archimandrite Sava (Janjic) the abbot of the historical Dechani monastery in Metohija A.K.A. The Cybermonk; and Mr Chris Vlahonasios, an Orthodox media expert from Melbourne.
Fr. SAVA (JANJIC)
Fr. Sava was Born on December 7, 1965 in Dubrovnik Croatia. After completing his elementary and secondary education in Trebinje (Herzegovina) he studied English language and literature at the Belgrade School of Philology. After his studies in 1989 he joined the brotherhood of Crna Reka Monastery and became a novice. He received a monastic tonsure in 1991 and was ordained a deacon in 1992 at Dečani Monastery in which he came together with Fr. Teodosije and became a deputy abbot.
In 1993 he was ordained a priest and in 1997 promoted to the rank of a protosyncellus. Between 1997 and 2002 he worked as a secretary of the Diocesan Bishop, particularly responsible for public relations and media.
From June 1999 he joined the Diocesan Bishop at Gračanica Monastery until 2001 when he returned to Dečani Monastery to resume his regular monastic duties. While in Gračanica he was a member of the Provisional Council of Kosovo established by UN as a first body of the UN provisional administration in Kosovo.
He has represented Serbian Orthodox Church in many international meetings and seminars. Fr. Sava is popularly nicknamed „a cybermonk“ thanks to his web site on Kosovo which appeared as early as in 1996. Currently he is a chief editor of the Diocesan web site http://www.eparhija-prizren.com.
In June 2011 Archmandrite Sava became an abbot of Dečani Monastery.
Father Sava will share some of his rich spiritual experience and the good and bad sides of the use of Internet in our Spiritual life. Since he and the brotherhood in Dechani live under constant military protection and in isolation, lockdowns are not big news to him either.
Mr. CHRIS VLAHONASIOS.
Our second speaker is Mr Chris Vlahonasios, from Melbourne. Chris is an Orthodox media expert and owner of TRANSFIGURE MEDIA. Operating since 2008, TRANSFIGURE has become the world’s biggest creative media network for Orthodox Christian filmmakers and artists. The organisation’s goals are to showcase, promote and distribute the creative works and services of Orthodox talent.
Born in Melbourne, Australia, Chris attended Melbourne Grammar School on scholarship then graduated from Victoria University completing a double-degree Bachelor of Laws (Hons) / Bachelor of Marketing (2008). While at university, Chris made several short-films, worked on the sets of many others, and established the Queen Street Film Festival from 2005-2009. In 2014, Chris founded Byzanfest Orthodox Film Festival which screens online and is hosted in several countries.
Chris is a member of Vatopedi Monastery’s International Association of Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care (DMOPC). Chris regularly speaks at Orthodox events and conferences about Orthodoxy, creativity and media. His most recent speaking engagements include the Melbourne Youth Conference and Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago Youth Workers’ Summit.
His major fields of interest include digital media, intellectual property, cinema and marketing.
transfiguremedia.com
byzanfest.com
Once again, we express our sincere gratitude to His Grace Bishop Siluan for his blessings and support, to Mira Rajkovic and the Creative Sauce for their help and all the nice and hardworking people from the Saint Nicholas Blacktown Serbian Orthodox Church who made it all happen again, in spite of 2020. 🙂
PREVIOUS SEMINARS:
The Orthodox Family Seminar 2019
The second Orthodox Family Seminar of the St Nicholas Serbian Orthodox Church in Blacktown was held on 30 November 2019.
With gratitude to MIS TV we are able to present the recordings of all three lectures.
The Orthodox Family Seminar 2018
The inaugural Orthodox Family Seminar of the St Nicholas Serbian Orthodox Church in Blacktown was held on 24 November 2018.
With gratitude to MIS TV we are able to present the recordings of all three lectures.
More details and photo gallery from 2018 can be seen here.
