"Into the Light"
Join our virtual global online conference for Orthodox Christian educators, administrators, parents, board members, and consultants. Inspired by the collaborative efforts of the new book on Orthodox education, Into the Light, this conference hopes to bring together the greatest ideas in Orthodox education, inspire leaders and teachers, and connect Orthodox Christians with a common cause.
Hosted by Living Classical Education and NOUS
The Mission of Saint Nektarios
Othodox Educators
Through conferences and other resources Saint Nektarios Orthodox Educators supports and connects Orthodox Christian educators, administrators, leaders, board members, clergy, and parents who are pursuing the Kingdom of God with fear and trembling and working to raise the next generation of saints through Orthodox Christian education.
Conference Schedule
A Conversation between David Hicks and Andrew Kern
David Hicks and Andrew Kern discuss Orthodox education in America.
Friday 06
What Hath Homer to do with Holy Week
Deacon Seraphim outlines a healthy Orthodox relationship with pagan, protestant, and Catholic literature.
Friday 06
Teaching in the Trenches
Josh Gibbs offers insight on the role of the teacher in educating the next generation.
Saturday 07
Breakout Sessions
Adrienne Freas offers practical insight on how to train students in attention through narration and Rdr. Dionysius leads a discussion group of attendeeds addressing the challenges of offering an Orthodox education to our children.
Saturday 07
Foundations of an Orthodox School
Dionysius Buhler suggests practical steps for building an Orthodox educational community.
Saturday 07
A Liturgical Pedagogy for Heart Formation
Sbdn Callum outlines a method of educating the hearts of children through atmosphere, habits, and ideas.
Saturday 07
Panel Discussion
Our presenters discuss questions posed by attendees.
Saturday 07
Featured Presenters
Our speakers are teachers, administrators, school founders, consultants, clergy, and parents. We are proud to present . . .
David V. Hicks retired in 2015 as Chief Academic Officer for Meritas LLC, a company based in Chicago that owned and operated K-12 college preparatory schools worldwide. During his thirty-year career in independent education, he headed St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Jackson; St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas; St. Paul’s School in Concord; and the Darlington School in Rome, Georgia. He also served as interim headmaster at St. Christopher’s School and North Broward Preparatory School.
After graduating from The Stony Brook School (New York) in 1966, Hicks studied at Princeton where he majored in English and graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1970. He then read for a master’s degree in philosophy, politics, and economics at Jesus College, Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. He later studied at the University of Moscow.
In 1981 his book, Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education, won the Outstanding Book Award for Education from the American Library Association. In 1996, Hicks created a stir in boarding school communities around the United States when he published his essay, “The Strange Fate of the American Boarding School,” in The American Scholar. He and his brother Scot then made a modern translation of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, published by Scribner as The Emperor's Handbook in 2002. They went on to translate and annotate three volumes featuring Plutarch’s Lives: The Lawgivers, The Statemen, and The Tyrant, published by CiRCE. In 2025 CAP published Hicks’ book The Stones Cry Out! Reflections of The Myths We Live By, and St. Vladimir’s Press published Father Anthony Gilbert and his anthology, Orthodox Christianity and Classical Education. In 2026 he and his wife self-published his collected poems, Shards.
Hicks and his wife Mary Elizabeth, a retired freelance film producer, have four grown children. Their home is a ranch ten miles east of Pony, Montana, that is now being converted into an English-speaking, Athonite monastery and metochion of Holy Hilandar Monastery. They are members of St.
Anthony the Great Orthodox Church in Bozeman.
David V. Hicks
Andrew Kern is founder and president of the CiRCE Institute and coauthor of The Lost Tools of Writing and of Classical Education: The Movement Sweeping America, which he wrote with Dr. Gene Edward Veith.
Andrew helped start Providence Academy in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1993; Foundations Academy (now the Ambrose School) in Boise, Idaho, in 1996; the Great Ideas Academy in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2001; and Regents School of the Carolinas in 2006.
Andrew continues to mentor classical educators and home educators through speaking, writing, and consulting, and through a number of programs developed by the Circe Institute, including their Apprenticeship program. He and his wife live in North Carolina, and their 5 more or less classically educated and more or less homeschooled children, and ever more grandchildren, live in various places, depending on when you ask.
Andrew Kern
Josh Gibbs
Joshua Gibbs is the director and co-founder of The Classical Teaching Institute. He is the creator of the Proverbial podcast, the In the Trenches podcast, and the author of How to Be Unlucky, A Parley with Youth, and Love What Lasts. In 2019, Gibbs authored Something They Will Not Forget, in which he described his pioneering use of classroom catechisms, which are now found in many classical Christian schools in America and abroad. His pamphlet, “A Short Introduction to Classical Christian Education,” is used by hundreds of schools to introduce prospective families to classical education. He teaches classic literature online to high school students, parents, and teachers through Gibbs Classical. His forthcoming book is a manual on the classical classroom.
Deacon Seraphim Richard Rohlin
Deacon Seraphim Richard Rohlin is a software developer, Germanic philologist, and an ordained deacon in the Orthodox Church of America (OCA), living in Texas with his wife and children. He speaks and publishes on Germanic poetry, the Inklings, and the Sacramental Imagination.
He regularly contributes to Jonathan Pageau’s The Symbolic World YouTube channel through the Universal History series. Along with Jonathan Pageau he has co-presented a 6-week course studying the epic poem Beowulf, as well as several courses on Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso). He has also hosted his own course on this platform, Tolkien and Universal History.
Richard co-hosts The Amon Sul Podcast, and has published several works of fiction and non-fiction.
Rdr Dionysius Keith Buhler
Dr. Buhler is the founding headmaster of St Andrew Academy in Riverside, CA. He helps Orthodox schools move from initial vision to sustainable reality. His entrepreneurial endeavors include non-profit fundraising, real estate syndications, capital management. His latest initiative serving Orthodox schools is called "NOUS", which connects and equips boards, clergy, and homeschool parents.
Sbdn Callum Benjamin Lyda
Benjamin Lyda has over 20 years of experience in public, private, charter, and homeschool settings as a teacher, administrator, and consultant. He holds a Master of Humanities and Master of Theological Studies. He is the author of Scriptorium Writing, a 3rd-8th grade curriculum and the founder of Living Classical Education, an educational consulting organization.
Through curriculum, speaking, training, and other resources, he seeks to provide teachers with a vision and method for education that is distinctly Christian resulting in formation of the student's heart toward loving the Good, True, and Beautiful, to the end that, when they see it, those students reach out their hands in welcome of the epiphany of God's glory.
Adrienne Freas
Adrienne is the founder of Beautiful Teaching and the current Instruction and Curriculum Coordinator for St. Gregory Classical Academy in Ohio. A specialist in classical curriculum and professional development, she has held high-level advisory roles for Responsive Education Solutions and the University of Dallas. Throughout her career, she has led teams in creating virtue-based humanities materials, facilitating parent workshops, and guiding both new and established schools toward educational excellence.
A prominent voice in the field, Adrienne hosts The Classical Education Podcast and is a frequent speaker at national conferences.
Connect With Us
For questions about the conference or to sponsor a session please reach out to us.
benjamin@livingclassical.org