Round Table Projects: Lay
education projects
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 The
St. Sergius University in Volgograd
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The
St. Tikhon Theological Institute in Moscow
The St. Sergius
University in Volgograd
THE PROBLEM: As a result of decades of
struggle waged by the state against Christianity, educated people in Russian
society have been torn away from their spiritual roots. The scientific
community has contrived technocratic myths with a characteristic anti-human
attitude towards nature and the environment.
The aim of the project:
to establish and develop an Orthodox university which could combine
religious and secular disciplines with a view of solving the problems of
moral education, ecology and harmonic development of the technosphere.
The university offers
training in the following disciplines:
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theology,
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diakonia,
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social pedagogics,
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systematic ecology of the region,
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economics (enterprising and management),
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automatic designing systems.
On the ground of its curricula and other required documents, the university
has obtained a state license for teaching secular subjects. The university
graduates will be granted non-state higher education certificates, while
those trained for secular professions will be granted state higher education
certificates. At present there are 450 first-year and second-year students,
including 110 day-time students, 60 evening-time students and 280 extramural
students. In addition, there are a pre-seminary with a pastoral department
and an evening department of religious readings for lay people, a children's
school of church singing and a Sunday school.
The university has maintained a close cooperation with the Volgograd
State Technical University which has given a substantial assistance to
it in developing its educational and research work. A number of local businesses
have given support in maintaining the building and paying the salaries
of the faculty and employees and student scholarships. The Orthodox University
in Tsaritsyn has been supported by the local authorities. It has worked
in cooperation with the local environmental committee, the Volgograd State
Pedagogic University, as well as secular and theological educational institutions
and research organizations in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk, Ivanovo, Novgorod,
and other cities.
At the monastery of the Holy Spirit where the university is located,
all necessary facilities have been provided for its functioning. The total
floorspace of 2,600 sq. m. is available for its lecture-rooms and other
premises necessary for educational and research work. The administrative
staff consists of 5 people with 3 of them working part-time. The general
service personnel consist of 6 persons. The faculty is made up of 20 professors.
Some of them are specialists well known in Volgograd, who have worked for
the university as part-time staff.
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The St. Tikhon Theological
Institute in Moscow
THE PROBLEM: The absence of theological
institutions of higher education for the laity.
The aim of the project:
to train highly qualified personnel for the service of the Church in
the fields of education, theological research, church art, journalism,
etc., and to prepare candidates for priesthood.
St.Tikhon's Orthodox
Institute was founded in March 1992 on the basis of the Evening Theological
Courses. The first enrollment to its day-time department took place in
Autumn 1992. The institute soon became popular among Orthodox young people
in Moscow and Moscow region. About 300 students have been enrolled every
year. In the Autumn of 1994 the total number of the students at the day
and evening departments was 980. A preparatory department was opened for
some 140 entrants in February 1994. A department for non-Muscovites was
opened in Autumn 1993. Correspondence departments for three other cities
were opened in Autumn 1994. In December 1993 the institute was granted
a state license allowing it to train bachelors in 11 disciplines. In prospect,
after three graduations, it will obtain a state accreditation. In summer
1994, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy presented the first 36 graduates with
Bachelor of Theology certificates.
 New
study courses are under preparation. Since Autumn 1994, the institute has
offered training in several new professions including a teacher of Russian
History, a teacher of a foreign language and a teacher of the Philology
of Eastern Christianity. These disciplines together with the Russian Language
and Literature, which was taught before, cover all the major humanitarian
disciplines taught in general education schools. Along with teachers, the
institute trains clergy with higher theological education, as well as catechists,
specialists in church singing and art, thus embracing the most important
aspects in life of the Russian Orthodox Church today. The institute also
runs 2 workshops for gold-sewing, 2 workshops for mosaics craft, one workshop
for icon-painting and one workshop for icon restoration. These 6 workshops
are run in various parts of Moscow. The institute has set up a publishing
house of its own. Last year it produced 4 sizable books and a large amount
of information and advertising products. It is planned to publish over
10 editions in the nearest future.
Preparation of educational aids has occupied a considerable place in
the publishing work of the institute. For two and a half years the institute
has managed to secure equipment for the entire technological cycle of preparing
and multiplying lecture texts. Some 25 lectures a week are delivered at
the institute. Most of them are recorded and then fed into a computer.
In this way the institute has prepared 12 lecture-courses with a circulation
of 500 copies a term. The lecture texts are especially important for extramural
students, as the absence of text-books in regions constitutes a major difficulty
in their studies. The Institute has carried out a considerable research
work. It is preparing the 3d theological conference. It has published works
on Patristics in three volumes and on one-volume Modern History of the
Russian Orthodox Church in two parts. Each of these books begins a series
founded by the institute's professors. Among the visiting lecturers at
the Institute were Dean of the Theological Institute in Paris Archpriest
Boris Bobrinsky, Emeritus Dean of the same institute K.Ya.Andronnikov,
Prof. D.Pospelovsky and others. Dr. Konrad Raiser, WCC General Secretary,
visited the institute in December 1993.
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