Are Icons Relevant Today?

7 p.m. Keynote: Are Icons Relevant Today? A Discussion
With Hegoumen Nicodim Balyasnikov, Abbot of St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral in New York City, Archpriest Igor Vyzhanov, representative of the World Russian People’s Council to the United Nations, and independent Russian journalist Maxim Trudolyubov
Moderated by Ellen Barry, Moscow Correspondent, The New York Times.
Hegoumen Nicodim Balyasnikov
Abbot Nicodemus is the newly-appointed Abbot of St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral in New York City. He studied at the Kostroma Theological Seminary where he worked on popular pocket guides “Orthodox prayers”, “Orthodox Cuisine” and tear-off calendars. In his home province of Transnistria he served as subdeacon of Bishop Justinian and the correspondent of the diocesan newspaper “Orthodox Transnistria”. He became a monk in 2005 and was ordained a priest at year later, whereupon Fr Nicodemus was appointed head of the Tiraspol office of the diocesan administration and promoted to secretary in 2008. He participated in the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2009 as an elected delegate of the diocesan assembly of monks of the Tiraspol diocese. From 2009 to 2010 he concluded an external theology course at the Saratov Orthodox Theological Seminary. In March 2010 Fr Nicodemus joined the staff of the Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the United States Archbishop of Naro-Fominsk Justinian.
Archpriest Igor Vyzhanov
Archpriest Igor Vyzhanov studied in the Moscow Theological Seminary and Academy and has a degree in Theology. In 1999 he joined the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations where he reached the position of the Secretary for Inter-Christian relations, the Moscow Patriarchate official responsible for relations with non-Orthodox Christian confessions. While working in the Department for External Church Relations, he was a member of the World Council of Churches Central Committee, Joint international commission for the theological dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church and Joint working group on problems between the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches. On March 5, 2010, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church assigned Archpriest Igor Vyzhanov to St. Nicholas’s Cathedral in New York and appointed him representative of the World Russian People’s Council to the UN.
Maxim Trudolyubov
As an editor and columnist for Russia’s most influential, independent business daily, Maxim Trudolyubov has significantly furthered professional journalistic standards in Russia. He has served as the Editorial Page Editor for Vedomosti since 2003, nurturing and creating open, informed political debate amongst a public intellectual elite. His weekly column often addresses profound social and political issues such as changing values in Russian society. He also co-anchors a weekly talk show on Ekho Moskvy, one of the few editorially independent radio stations in Russia. Previously, Trudolyubov was Foreign Editor for Vedomosti, Foreign Editor and correspondent for Kapital, and a translator for Moscow News.