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Hi guys!
I’m new here. Hard as it is to believe, I’d never been to AV before July 27, my first day as one of the Session 4 priests this summer, and I thought it would be nice to introduce myself.
My name is Fr. Seraphim Solof, and like Fr. Chris, I’m a Yinzer (I’m from Pittsburgh — Renegade!!!). I grew up in Mt. Lebanon, graduated from Mt. Lebanon High School in the (get this!) 1970s, and then headed off to college at MIT in Boston. From there, I went to seminary at St. Vladimir’s in New York, and afterwards moved back to Massachusetts, where I’ve lived ever since. I was married at St. Vladimir’s and ordained deacon there in 1984. I served as a deacon for just shy of 33 years, and was ordained to the priesthood in 2017.
For my first five years as a deacon, I served in the OCA at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Boston. Since 1990, I’ve been in the Antiochian Archdiocese, serving at St. George Cathedral in Worcester.
Two slightly unusual things about my background: I grew up Jewish, and was baptized (as a Protestant) during my sophomore year of college. I wanted to be Orthodox, but it took me a couple of years to figure out that I didn’t need to be Greek or Russian or from the Middle East to fit in. Once I did, in my senior year, I became a catechumen for about three days, and was chrismated on Holy Saturday in 1981. I entered seminary just over a year later. I am not recommending this kind of “crash course” to others — but it’s how God worked things out for me.
And while I’ve been ordained for 41 years this month, I always had a secular career alongside my church service. I worked at MIT for about ten years, at Apple for three, at Sun Microsystems (another computer company) for nine more, and then spent about eighteen years at Bank of America before retiring in 2024. A few months later, Fr. Chris called to ask whether I might like to be a session priest — which turned out to be a life-changing call for me.
I’d been hearing about AV for years (obvy!). Over my 36 years in Worcester, we’d sent dozens (hundreds?) of kids to Camp, and they all said amazing things about their experience. The one thing I learned in my very first summer was that everything they said about the place was true. In the chapel, in the dining hall, in MoPro, or just sitting on my porch in the U and watching you all enjoy each other’s — and God’s — company, the holiness of the place was impossible to miss, and absolutely inseparable from the joy. I saw the toughest kids melt over the course of the session, radiant with love for the Lord and for one another. By the end of the session, I was sobbing more than my Hikers were — which is a little embarrassing in hindsight, but what can I say? AV got to me. You all got to me. And I cannot wait to come back.
God willing, I’ll see you at Winter Camp — and again next summer! I’ll be on the bus with my homies from Worcester for Session 2, and at least as eager as they are to come back home.
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