OTSA meets each year. Usually, the location alternates between Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, Brookline, Massachusetts and St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, Crestwood, New York. On occasion, the annual meeting of OTSA has been held in Chicago as well. The sessions of the annual meeting are generally open to the public, unless the meeting planners decide to close a particular session. The business meeting of the society is for members only.
The 2026 OTSA Conference on the theme of “The Council of Crete (2016) after Ten Years,” will be held June 11-13, 2026 at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary.
After decades of preparation and preliminary meetings, a large panorthodox council was convened by the Ecumenical Patriarch and was held in 2016 on the island of Crete. The participants deemed it a “great and holy council” marking a major move to return to the worldwide Orthodox Church’s synodal mode of functioning. Although involved in the preconciliar discussions, some Orthodox churches—Antioch, Georgia, Moscow, Bulgaria—chose for various reasons not to participate. However one chooses to consider the Council in Crete, it is obvious that both the event itself and its ongoing reception are significant and warrant serious discussion.
For its 2026 meeting the Orthodox Theological Society of America (OTSA) invites papers and panels that would offer different perspectives on the Council in Crete and its ongoing reception. While OTSA encourages paper topics around the reception of the Council in Crete, papers that explore other theological, historical, ecclesiological, or ethical topics will also be considered.
Please submit proposals by April 30, 2026, to secretary@otsamerica.org.
Note that presenters will receive complimentary lodging.
Lodging will be available in the St. Vladimir’s dormitories. Additionally, there are a number of hotel and Airbnb accommodations in the vicinity for those who prefer.
Travel Grants
Travel Grants (ten for up to $500 each, to cover travel expenses and lodging in the dorms) are available for presenters who attend the entire conference and apply for assistance. You may apply for the travel grant as soon as your proposal is accepted, and grants will be reviewed and approved on a rolling basis.
2026 Florovsky Lecture
His Grace Bishop Maxim (Vasiljević) of Los Angeles and Western America earned his doctorate in dogmatics and patristics from the University of Athens in 1999. He completed post-doctoral work in Byzantine History and Theology at the Sorbonne in Paris and enrolled in painting classes at the French Academy of Fine Arts. He teaches at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston. He is also an accomplished painter with exhibitions and iconography classes worldwide. His notable works include History, Truth, Holiness (2011), Theology as a Surprise (2018), Wonder as the Beginning of Faith (2022), Saved by Beauty: Dostoevsky and America (2022), Illumination and Surprise (2024), Nicaea 325: A Council for History and Eternity—Conciliarity from Nicaea to the Modern Church (2025), etc.
Very Rev Dr Nicolas Kazarian serves as the Ecumenical Officer and Director of the Department of Inter-Orthodox, Ecumenical, and Interfaith Relations for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. He also teaches Ecumenical Relations at Hellenic College-Holy Cross. He is a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches, as well as co-moderator of Religions for Peace USA and serves as the parish priest of Saint Eleftherios Greek Orthodox Church in Manhattan.
Dr Elizabeth H. Prodromou is Professor of the Practice in the International Studies Program at Boston College and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. A current member of the Global Academic Council of the International Religious Freedom Secretariat, she served on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and as a member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Religion & Foreign Policy Working Group. Her academic and policy research concentrates on the intersection of geopolitics, religion, and human rights, with particular focus on the linkages between religious pluralism and democracy. An internationally recognized expert on global Orthodox Christianity and on the geopolitics of the Eastern Mediterranean; she was a delegate consultant of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Holy and Great Council at Crete in 2016.
Very Rev Dr Alexander Rentel is Fr Alexander Schmemann Assistant Professor of Liturgical Theology and Canon Law at St Vladimir's Seminary and rector of the seminary Chapel. He has taught at St. Vladimir's Seminary since 2002. From 2019 until 2025 he also served as Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America. He was an External Correspondent for the Press Team of the Ecumenical Patriarch at the Holy and Great Council in Chania, Crete, June 2016.