Photo: With the kind authorization of Fr. Steven Klund.
The father. Steven Klund, director of the village of Ionian, spoke with Marissa Costidis of the Orthodox observing his way to the priesthood, the Ionian village and the importance of “disconnecting” the young people of technology to allow them to focus on their relationship with God.
Marissa: Fr. Klund, I wanted to thank you for taking the time today to talk to me. First of all, tell me a little about you, where you grew up and your trip to the catch.
The father. Klund: I was born in Alexandria, Virginia, and I moved to Charlotte, in North Carolina, when I was about seven years old and I spent the rest of my childhood attending the Cathedral Holy Trinity, then finally Saint Nektarios.
I was baptized as an infant. My mother is 100% Greek per descent and my father converted at the age of six. My way to the priesthood was really a natural progression, an organic thing that did not come because I was looking for it or, because I told myself that this is what I wanted to do from a very young age.
I am an adult in art and trade graphic designer. So, for a long time, I thought I was going to become iconographer. I thought that was how I was going to use the talent that God gave me to glorify him. I always knew that I wanted to serve the church to some extent. My mother was, and is still the parish administrator of St. Nektarios. She has been there for twenty-six years. I remember being picked up at school and was brought to the church to do our homework there, then go home once she finished working. In fact, a few weeks ago when we had more dinners at the church than in our own house. To say, we were in church all the time.
So, the Church was the environment in which I felt at home, but the priesthood itself was not something of which I thought. During my last year at East Carolina University to study the Fine Arts, I had the chance to stagnate with the iconographer Tom Clark for about ten months. It was Tom who first suggested that I go to the village of Ionian as a member of the staff. I went to IV as a motorhome in 2004, but I planned to work with Tom for the rest of this year. In addition, in the previous three years, I committed myself to serve at the Saint Stephen camp as an advisor. Tom spoke to me when we were in the dome working on the icon of the pantocrator and told me that IV had trouble finding good young men to be advisers and suggested that I apply (his wife Sophia worked at Office IV at the time). I thought it was a crazy idea, but I had a good experience as a motorhome, so I applied and I was accepted. I met my wife at Ionian Village that summer in addition to so many other truly incredible people, many of whom would become my classmates in Holy Cross in the coming years.
I also had the chance to have many influential spiritual leaders in my life. But three men in particular had an important mark on me. The first was the father. Nicholas Triantafilou, who in my opinion is the quintessence of what a priest should be. He was so inspiring and excited me to serve as acolyte in the altar as a young boy. I absolutely idolized it and he was the first person to tell me that he saw a higher call in store for me.
The second clergy that touched me is the Metropolitan Gregory of Nyssa. He was my Sunday school teacher who grew up in Charlotte for many years and remains my spiritual father to date. He responded to his call to the priesthood later in life. So I could see what the process could look like and feel through its example. The way he humbly and for prayer accepted this new vocation was a huge advantage for me, and something I would think about in recent years when I found myself walking on a similar path.
The third priest is the father. Constantine Lazarakis, which I met in the village of Ionian in 2008. He had a strange way of connecting with people and really interested in the life of all of us in the staff. It was accessible and earth to earth – relatable. He was the first to show me that the priesthood could be something I could consider for my life.
The three men gave me a unique and yet invaluable perspective. The father. Nick showed me what the priesthood could and should be, Metropolitan Gregory has shown what it looks like to decide to continue the call, and the father. Constantine proved to me that the priesthood is something that you can really do as long as you have an honest love for Christ and that you want to serve others. And I wonder, if I had met these priests in a different order – would it have the same impact on me? But their examples and what each of them did for me really affected me.
Marissa: It’s really beautiful. The priests make a difference by encouraging young people. THANKS. The Fr., it will be your first year as director of the village of Ionian, what will something change for the program this year?
The father. Klund: We have many veterans advisers who come back this year. They are exceptional, and even many of them asked me the same question. I answered saying: change is not my goal. Although I have not been to Ionian Village for 16 years, I spent each of these summers to serve at the Saint Stephen camp in the Atlanta metropolis. Meanwhile as Director of Camp I, with the father. Mark Leondis (my predecessor), used the same SSC guiding principles that we learned for the first time in the village of Ionian. I always appreciate and I try to join all the basic basic blocks that have made IV the standard of excellence in the campsite ministry for more than 50 years. I hope that IV 2025 is recognizable in its essence to all our return participants, and that anyone coming for the first time will enjoy the same transformer ministry who had an impact on the tens of thousands of campers in its legendary history.
Marissa: Yes, this camp has transformed so much with, as they say, friendships who last a lifetime. Let’s talk about an important problem, one of the most difficult parts to understand parents and their campers is that phones – and technology – are not allowed at the camp. What do you say to those who say to those who question this?
The father. Klund: Well, the first thing I would say is that you don’t lose your child. It is very important to ensure that parents feel that they can reach their child in an emergency, or simply to simply hear their voices. We have installed several new wall phones on the campus that campers can use to call home during free time every day. Parents can also send messages by email that the staff will deliver to their child, and all parents who are in Greece can even plan visits to camp every Sunday. Finally, we will have an online photo album to which all parents will have access, and our staff will be very active on social networks, making daily articles of photos and videos of the camp.
But what makes the Ionian village so special is that it is a technological detoxification for today’s children. We are currently in Lent – and Lent is all about the fast and the abstinence of the distractions of the world and appetites. Saint Basil has agreed that “fasting does not only abstain from food, but the real fast is a stranger to all vices”. Vices do not need to be made in the alleys or on street corners. Vices can simply be a worldly comfort or attachment. So this could be hours of frenzy or incessant game or scroll observation on your phones. Lent presents us an annual opportunity to renew us spiritually and to refocus our priorities through this fast and this detachment.
In the same way as Lent, Ionian Village offers this possibility of detachment in summer, and allows our children to detach themselves from the noise of non -stop technology today – an overload that we all experience – and focus on the real priorities of their lives. Priorities such as the deepening of their relations with God, the establishment of sustainable identities as Orthodox Greek Christians and establishing permanent relations with peers from all over the country. Ionian Village will be an incredible experience where they will really focus – for the first time – on things that really count without distractions, interruptions or advanced notifications that come from their devices.
They will see their faith and their culture of the first hand and uninterrupted in their natural environment in Greece. I mean, what opportunity – Why would we like to distract them with endless traction and subconscious to check their phone in their pocket?
Marissa: What an incredible opportunity for our children.
The father. Klund: Amen. There is a book titled Anxious generationBy Jonathan Haidt, who describes the epidemic we face with regard to the technology and social deprivation that children have today … They cannot establish visual contact, they have a sleep deprivation, they have short attention … All the addictive qualities that technology presents them, to such young ages. I know that the Ionian village, in a very real way, will offer a tangible help by exposing them to the beauty of the natural world and by really spinning them sink into whom they are as Orthodox Christians, so that identity lasts their whole life.
Marissa: It is so well said, the father. Thank you very much for your time today, for your stimulating comments and for your dedication to the Ionian village. I pray for the continuous success of this ministry.
Learn more – and save your child in Ionianvillage.org.
Scholarships are available for the Ionian and IV village (for older campers) and spots fill quickly.