“Remember Me in Your Kingdom, O Lord”: Rethinking Liturgical Commemoration in the Byzantine Rite of Proskomide
The B.C.S. Annual Lecture will take place May 12, 2026 @ 7 P.M.
We are eager for you to join us!
Fr. Muksuris’ presentation will explore the liturgical commemoration of names in the holy prothesis from historical, theological, ecclesiological, and liturgiological perspectives. While the practice of commemoration in Orthodox Liturgy today typically excludes non-Orthodox Christians, Fr. Stel will challenge us to rethink the Church’s boundaries of grace and to envision the completed proskomide as the future kingdom of all believers in Christ. He proposes that remembering all Christians in the prothesis is consistent with the Church’s teaching on salvation, all the while stressing pastoral opportunities and initiatives to achieve a unity of love and solidarity among all peoples.
All are welcome to attend this lecture virtually via the Seminary website.
Born in Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey), the Very Rev. Dr. Stelyios Muksuris has been a priest of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOA) for 33 years. He earned his MLitt (terminal DTh) and PhD in theology from Durham University in the UK. He is Professor of Liturgy and Sacramental Theology and Languages at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary in Pittsburgh, PA, where he has been teaching for the past 17 years, making him the longest full-time Orthodox faculty member in the Seminary’s history. Fr. Stel is the Orthodox editor for The Eastern Churches Journal and co-editor of the internationally renowned The Wheel Journal and The Spin Blog. He serves as a member and consultant for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America’s Synodal Committee on Liturgical Texts, and he was recently appointed to the Board of the St. Phoebe Center for the Deaconess. He currently serves the St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church in Clarksburg, WV.
Fluent in several languages and a prolific author of books and articles, as well as a conference speaker, Fr. Stelyios has served as a principal consultant on liturgical matters in both the Church and the Academy. He was the final editor for the Greek text of the current Divine Liturgy book used throughout the GOA. He was one of the nine original co-authors and co-signers of the historic theological statement for the re-institution of the ancient order of the female diaconate, drafted for the Patriarchate of Alexandria in 2017. He is the author of Economia and Eschatology: Liturgical Mystagogy in the Byzantine Prothesis Rite (Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2012) and is one of the original translators for the Phountoulēs Answers to Liturgical Answers project (volume 4). He produced the only existing English translation of the Archieratikon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, scheduled for publication in the summer of 2026, and is currently translating a festschrift in honor of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s 35th Anniversary of his elevation to the Throne of Constantinople.