A Brief Spiritual Biography

A spiritual biography of my life most resembles Saint Brendan who voyaged in seas whose currents led him off the edge of the map. With no compass, no oars, the saint trusted that God Himself steered his vessel. 

After almost 25 years in education as a teacher, administrator, and consultant, some barnacles of experience have accumulated on my vessel that I hope to offer back to Christ and His Church. Perhaps my experience teaching, building communities, and running a small business can assist any work I do in the Church; while at the same time, I acknowledge that a humble and receptive vessel can accomplish much more than the most charismatic and educated.  

One thing is certain, however, that the order of the cosmos is revealed in the Church, and there I am most content. When serving behind the iconostasis, opening and closing the Deacon doors, I find my heart echoing the song of the Psalmist who said, “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” This became more obvious when I reached the end of education. In a sense, all my work in education has been about my desire to bring people as close to Christ as humanly possible. However, like Bellerophon ascending on the wings of Pegasus to Olympus (he never made it), education can only take a person so far. Olympus cannot be reached by these human means.  

As early as 1999 in Denton, as a student at The University of North Texas, I availed myself to a ministry role as a Bible study group leader in Campus Crusade for Christ. Serving in this capacity in college confirmed both my desire to serve the church in a ministry role and simultaneously helped me understand that I had so much more to learn. 

After marrying my high school sweetheart, and while beginning my career as a school teacher, I enrolled in Fuller Seminary and completed a correspondence course on Early Church History. My study of church history helped me cross the threshold of the Orthodox Christian Church. My family was subsequently baptized at Saint Maximus Orthodox Church in Denton, TX in 2008. However, the paradigm for ministry in the Orthodox church shifted from that of my Protestant upbringing, so I shelved my desire to be a pastor for a time. First, I had to learn to be Orthodox and learn to pray. 

Then in 2018 I founded a Christian school in Denton. Saint George School was not Orthodox, but I offered a weekly chapel with a simple plan: the recitation of the Lord’s prayer, the singing of a hymn, the reading of Scripture, and the delivery of a little instructive or inspirational talk. This was my favorite part of the week when I explicitly set about the work of the transformation of hearts. In the leading of these chapel services, my desire to be a pastor was reawakened. I knew that education alone could not take anyone close enough to God. Even the chapel services could only take them to the threshold. However, I increasingly longed to bring my teachers, students, and their parents to the  Eucharist, the medicine of immortality. In this, my desire to be an Orthodox priest was born. 

Since 2020 when I was tonsured a Subdeacon, I have served faithfully behind the altar every Sunday and currently teach the high school Church school class at Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Mission in Weatherford, TX.

I am thankful for the prayers of the saints that have helped shape and guide me to this place on my voyage off the map. Saint Silouan revealed to me that great cloud of witnesses who pray for me and care about my salvation. Saint George the Trophy-bearer showed me to be courageous when undertaking challenges, killing pride. Saint Columba showed me how God can use failure to place me exactly where He wants me. Saint Brendan the Voyager taught me to trust God when journeying into the unknown. Saint Porphyrios showed me that God is Love and all desire for salvation is driven by Love. Saint Nektarios modeled for me love and forgiveness in the face of calumny. And Saint John of San Francisco showed me how to love God’s people. All have been my guides at various stages of my voyage. Learning from them and trying to join my prayers with theirs is one way that I have sought to become Orthodox.  

Now I knock on the doors of Saint Vladimir’s Seminary hoping to continue in formation. Through prayer at frequent services and joining the community of friends assembled for the same purpose, I expect Saint Vladimir’s Seminary to help prepare me for my next voyage. When writing my thesis for The Antiochian House of Studies, I learned that the library at Saint Vladimir’s is the best resource for research in Orthodoxy in the United States, and I am interested in continuing my exploration of the following question: how do we catechize converts who come from non-religious backgrounds? There is great need to solve this problem, to learn how to make Orthodox Christians from the materials the spiritually vacuous West is giving us. This new wave of converts is hungry for the medicine of immortality. I would be blessed indeed to be ordained to bear the chalice to quench thirsty souls. Through the prayers of the saints and the education at St. Vladimir’s, I trust God will continue to guide me on my voyage.

The American Orthodox Priest Shortage Crisis

When the subject of seminary comes up, many people understandably assume that the Church provides financial assistance for priestly formation. In reality, however, the Orthodox Church in America currently requires candidates for the priesthood to complete a Master of Divinity degree, while offering no funding for that education. This comes at a time when the Church faces a profound and growing shortage of clergy — a deficit of roughly 85 priests per year, or more than 400 over the next five years. There is honestly no worldly reason for me to pursue a third Master’s degree except for my deep desire to serve Christ and His Church as an Orthodox priest. The seriousness of the current need is well summarized in a research paper published by the Orthodox Studies Institute: “The Priest Shortage”

Will you help me?

By the grace of God, I have worked with seminary in mind for the last three years to build a small educational consulting business (LivingClassical.org) and to design curriculum (ScriptoriumWriting.com). While this work is seasonal and sporadic please pray that it will bear fruit enough to sustain my family's basic needs for the next three years while I am a full-time student. In preparation for the move, my wife has given up her Texas-based job and will devote herself to homeschooling our children in NY.

Below are some expenses for which I am humbly seeking your assistance:

$4680 in tuition

$5000 moving expenses

$1000 cassock, liturgical garments, books

*NOTE: If you would like your gift to be tax-deductible and matched, please give directly to our home parish, Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church in Weatherford, TX. You can do this by visiting archangelgabriel.church. Click on "Donate" then select "Seminarian Fund" from the drop-down options to ensure the funds are properly applied.

Above all, thank you for keeping me and my family in your prayers as I prepare for seminary and seek to serve Christ and His Church. Through the prayers of Saint Brendan, help us to journey beyond the familiar and into the unknown.

In Christ,

Subdeacon Callum

Benjamin Lyda