Round Table Projects: Regional
education-diaconia projects
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 The
Siberian Religious Center
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The
St. Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood's Center of Religious Education
The Siberian Religious
Center
THE PROBLEM: The Russian Orthodox Church
suffered the greatest losses in regions, especially in Siberia. A Siberian
Religious Center is needed to render methodological assistance to the emerging
diakonical and educational centers in Siberia.
The aims of the project:
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to set up a Religious Center at the Parish of All Saints Who Shone Forth
in the Russian Land to promote continuous religious education and diakonical
work and to build a gymnasium as a major unit in educational work;
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to disseminate throughout Siberia the experience gained by the Siberian
Religious Center in diakonia and religious education.
The project has been
carried out by the parish of world-famous Akademgorodok. This parish has
at its disposal great intellectual resources and strong relations with
the local scientific structures and various scientific and cultural institutions.
In September 1992 the Center opened an Orthodox Gymnasium of St. Sergius
of Radonezh. At present there are 118 children studying in seven grades.
The gymnasium offers general secondary school education, as well as special
courses in Russian History, Literature, Catechism, the Slavonic and Greek
Languages, Church Singing and Art. In August 1994, the gymnasium opened
a children's choir school. In 1994 the gymnasium opened a pre-school department
(kindergarten). It has been attended by 40 children. The kindergarten has
become an initial unit in the system of continuous religious education.
The project envisages a summer school with an enlarged catechetical course
for children and their parents. Since 1991 a children's camping school
has functioned at a 4,4 sq. km.-summer camp bought by the parish.
 The
work of the Orthodox gymnasium at Akademgorodok has attracted attention
of church leaders and secular educational institutions in Siberia and the
Far East. The curriculum and educational aids developed by the gymnasium
have been sent on demand to schools seeking to restore the tradition of
religious education and formation. The Center has organized a Sisterhood
of St. Great Princess Elizaveta Fyodorovna. The sisters are engaged in
visiting sick people at home, standing on duty at hospitals and taking
care of elderly people at the House of Invalids and children at the local
orphanage. Together with Medical Vocational School No.13, the Sisterhood
has been engaged in training nurses. Sisters regularly stand on duty in
four major hospitals in the area. The sisterhood has also organized for
patients to meet and talk to priests, to be baptized, to make confession
and to receive communion.
The need to help the poor and unemployed and to introduce children to
working skills has prompted the gymnasium to set up special handicraft
workshops for sewing, embroidery and knitting. In its methodological and
publishing work the Center aims at preparing and publishing curricula,
educational aids and methodological recommendations for gymnasia, Sunday
and general public schools. The Center has already published 'Russian Literature',
a text-book which passed an all-Russian contest for renovation of humanitarian
education in Russia. Another book, 'A History of Russia', has been prepared
for print. The Center has also prepared for publishing a bibliography of
educational programs, methodological and educational aids on religious
instruction, as well as various text-books on doctrinal disciplines.
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The St. Alexander
Nevsky Brotherhood's Center of Religious Education
THE PROBLEM: As traditional centers of
intellectual forces and materials and human resources, Moscow and St. Petersburg
have soon become leaders in religious and diaconical work as well. The
process of regenerating religious education and social work has been much
more difficult in regions.
The aim of the project:
to establish a center of religious education in the Nizhni Novgorod
Region for promoting diakonia, religious education, book-selling and publishing
work at the Diocese of Nizhni Novgorod.
To achieve its goals
the project has set up a "Church Shop". It has become one of the largest
Orthodox book-trade organisations in the region. It has purchased Orthodox
books and church utensils in bulk directly from publishers and producers
in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities. The Church Shop has established
a network of retail book-trade dealers in Nizhni Novgorod. It has provided
goods for many parishes in the region and can deliver them in bulk. It
also runs a Book by Mail service through which any Orthodox believer can
order a book or a church article from a catalogue. The Church Shop has
also rendered services to parishes, Sunday schools and libraries in acquiring
and replenishing Orthodox libraries through its central book collector.
 The
Brotherhood has run a two-year catechisers' course. It has trained religious
instructors for secondary schools and higher education institutes in the
city and the region. The Brotherhood has also run a children's icon-painting
class, as well as a Sunday school and a choir school. An Orthodox library
with some 9000 titles has been arranged at the St. Alexander Nevsky parish
house.
According to the project, the brotherhood has organized its own publishing
body and a small printing house to produce some of its editions. The brotherhood
has published a number of religious and educational books which are in
great demand in the Nizhni Novgorod and other regions. Since February 1993
it has published "The Orthodox Word" newspaper, which has been distributed
free. There have been 40 issues, with 3 special issues. It has a circulation
of 10.000 copies and has come out in 8 A3-type pages.
The Center has also developed diakonical work. Thus, it has regularly
delivered food and humanitarian aid to the sick and the elderly in the
Nizhni Novgorod Region, using the bus bought under the project.
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