ROCOR Chicago Pastoral School offering new catechist training program

Chicago, July 25, 2017

Photo: orthodoxtheologicalschool.org/

The Pastoral School of the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) will be offering a new catechist training program in the coming fall semester. The course is the first of its kind in English in the Russian Church, according to the official ROCOR site.

The program will be led by His Eminence Metropolitan Jonah, and fulfills the call of the Synod’s February 2013 session, at which the bishops called for the training of catechists, as well as new institutions to be created for this purpose. Students completing the course will be certified to prepare catechumens and their sponsors for Baptism, and those preparing for Marriage in the Church.

According to the school’s catalog,

The one-year Catechist Program consists of a cadre of students and mentor/instructors that utilize the e-Classroom for their course to cover topics important for catechists to master in order to successfully prepare candidates for baptism, baptism sponsors, and those who will be wed in the Church. Topics include, but are not limited to: the Holy Scriptures, Theology of the Orthodox Church, Orthodox Cosmology and Anthropology, Orthodox Soteriology and Ecclesiology, History of the Church, the Liturgical Life of the Church, Comparative Theology, Orthodox Family Life, the Mystery of Baptism, the Mystery of Marriage, as well as other pertinent topics.

Students who complete the one-year catechist program may then enroll in the second year courses of the Orthodox Studies major if desired.

The Pastoral School is also offerings its students a loan program this year. The school is now accepting applications for the coming fall semester, with a deadline of September 1. It is also accepting applications for needs-based and academic scholarships, with a deadline of August 15.

For more information, see the Orthodox Pastoral School’s site.