The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies
Cambridge, England
IOCS Staff
Professor David Frost, MA, PhD (Cambridge) is Principal and Administrator. David is Emeritus Professor of English Literature in the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, where he served for twenty-one years in various capacities, as Head of Department, Chairman of Religious Studies, and as Chairman of a number of administrative committees of the University Senate. Prior to that, he was for ten years a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, Director of Studies in English, and a University Teaching Officer in the English Faculty of the University of Cambridge. Since his early retirement from his chair in 1998, he has been Visiting Professor at the University of Zhengzhou, China, a Director of IOCS, Director of the Institute's outreach programme, THE WAY, and from October 2005 Honorary Administrator of the Institute. He has also been Visiting Lecturer in Liturgy and in Ethics at St Paul's School of Theology, Sydney.
Though David was initially a student of Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the drama, his interests include the theory and practice of translation, and prayer books and Bible translations from the renaissance to the present day. A member of the Church of England Liturgical Commission from 1969 (and later also a member of the Liturgical Commission of the Anglican Church of Australia), he advised throughout the period of modern liturgical revision that culminated in An Alternative Service Book 1980, to which he contributed chiefly material for the Communion and Marriage services and Collects for the Church's year. Subsequent to his chrismation as Orthodox in 1997, he has translated into modern English the liturgies of St John Chrysostom and St Basil for use in the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australasia. He is best known in church circles, however, for his modern English version (composed with the help of a distinguished ecumenical panel of Hebraists) of the Book of Psalms, otherwise The Liturgical Psalter, which was used in ASB and included in national prayer books in England, Ireland, Australia (twice), and South Africa. It is also reprinted in various other publications, including the Methodist Hymns and Psalms.
David is a narrow-boat enthusiast, writes fiction, and while in Australia administered a national symphony orchestra and acted - not least as Lucifer and Herod in the Newcastle Cathedral production of the Chester mystery plays. He is married to Christine Mangala, a convert to Christianity from a Brahman background, whose novels explore what differing religious faiths mean in human experience. She has lectured extensively in the field of comparative religion. They have four children.
Dr Marcus Plested, MA M.Phil D.Phil (Oxford). Marcus Plested is Vice-Principal and Academic Director. He was schooled in London and went on to read Modern History followed by Theology at Merton College, Oxford. He took his doctorate from Oxford in 1999 with a thesis on the Macarian Homilies supervised by Bishop Kallistos (Ware). He has been at the Institute since 2000. Dr Plested has taught, lectured, and published widely in the field of Orthodox Christian studies. His most recent book is The Macarian Legacy: The Place of Macarius-Symeon in the Eastern Christian Tradition (Oxford: OUP 2004). Other research interests include the understanding of wisdom in the Christian tradition and the interaction between western and eastern theological traditions. He was received into the Orthodox Church in 1992.
Dr Christoph Schneider, MA (King's College London), 'Staatsexamen' (University of Zürich), Ph.D. (University of Zürich) is Lecturer and Bursar for the Institute. He studied Theology, Systematic Theology and Philosophy of Religion in Zürich, London and Cambridge. He also holds a degree in Pedagogy and Didactics. After his doctoral degree he was involved in a research project on John Chrysostom at the University of Bern and contributed to the Institute’s distance learning programme as a Tutor. His research interests include Orthodox Theology and contemporary thought, the relationship between Theology and Philosophy, and Russian Religious Thought (esp. Pavel A. Florensky). He is also interested in the dialogue between Orthodoxy and twentieth-century Protestant Theology.
Revd Dr Alexander Tefft, M.Div., is Chaplain at IOCS. He is a graduate of St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary in the USA and Parish Priest of the Antiochian Orthodox community in London, meeting at St. Botolph's Church near Liverpool Street. He is also Assistant Dean of the Antiochian Orthodox Deanery of UK and Ireland. A Canadian resident in London, he is the author of a PhD in Orthodox ecclesiology. Fr. Alexander has served under the Orthodox Church in America and the Patriarchate of Moscow, as well as the Patriarchate of Antioch. He has been a Commonwealth Scholar at Oxford University and has taught Orthodox dogmatic theology and church history in Canada, the USA, and the UK since 1991. He has been a tutor at the Institute since 2004, where he created and teaches the MA in-house course on Orthodox apologetics.
Fr Raphael Armour is Associate Chaplain at IOCS and also a member of THE WAY Organising Committee. Following a career in the marine industry in London and New York, he and his family returned to the UK in 1996 and moved to Cambridge four years later. He was ordained to serve as deacon for the Russian Orthodox parish in Cambridge in October 2000 and to the priesthood in July 2001. Fr Raphael is also a member of the ecumenical Chaplaincy Team at Oakington Immigration Reception Centre, near Cambridge.
Razvan Porumb is Assistant Lecturer and Development Officer of the Institute and is currently studying towards a PhD offered by Anglia Ruskin University through the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies and the Cambridge Theological Federation, on the topic of Orthodox participation in ecumenical contexts. Razvan has previously completed an MA in Pastoral Theology (also through IOCS/CTF), writing his research thesis on 'Deification and Spiritual Life in Orthodox Pastoral Theology.' He previously worked for the Metropolitanate of Moldavia and Bucovina (Iasi, Romania) as editor and translator of theological literature - an activity he enjoyed for almost nine years. Razvan has had a special interest in ecumenism, being involved in various ecumenical milieux and more recently spending a year as an Intern with the World Council of Churches (Geneva, Switzerland) before coming to Cambridge.
Rev'd Deacon Dragos Herescu is Assistant Lecturer and Secretary of the Institute. He is an alumni of the Institute, having completed the MA in Pastoral Theology some years ago. He later graduated an MPhil in Theology with the Divinity Faculty, University of Cambridge. He is currently undertaking doctoral research with Durham University, exploring the secularisation paradigm in the social and religious context of Eastern Orthodoxy, with particular focus on Romania. Apart from administrative duties, Deacon Dragos is also teaching at undergraduate level on the degree programmes offered through the Institute and the Cambridge Theological Federation. He serves for 'St John the Evangelist' Romanian Orthodox parish in Cambridge and, as part of the Institute's liturgical life, leads our small Byzantine choir. Before coming to Cambridge, Deacon Dragos worked for the Metropolitanate of Moldova and Bucovina (Iasi, Romania) as administrator and later as project officer responsible with accessing funds from the European Union for social assistance and cultural projects.
Mrs Victoria Tokareva, Assistant Librarian
Federation Staff
Dr Matthew Ridley is the Federation's IT Officer. He is also IT Officer for IOCS, Wesley and Westcott.
Dr Carol Reekie, Federation and IOCS Librarian