Moscow, May 19, 2017
A partnership agreement was signed between the St. John of Kronstadt Pastoral School of the ROCOR Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America and the Kiev Theological Academy on May 17, reports the site of the Chicago Diocese.
The agreement was signed at the Kiev Academy by Archbishop Peter of Chicago and Mid-America and rector of the pastoral school, and Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary on behalf of the Kiev Theological Academy and Seminary. The partnership is designed to benefit both schools through an exchange of students, teaching and research personnel, experience in the area of modern educational technologies, educational and scientific publications, and of training, scientific and other materials representing mutual interest, as well as the development and implementation of joint research projects, the organization of joint research symposiums, conferences and seminars, and publications, and the mutual providing of the opportunity for publication in editions published by each school.
Fr. Gregory Joyce, the dean of the ROCOR pastoral school explains the need for such cooperation:
The Pastoral School of the Diocese of Chicago & Mid-America feels strongly that active partnership with higher education theological institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church/Moscow Patriarchate is an important aspect of making the continuing reconciliation of the Russian Church a real, living effort that will bear spiritual fruit, and that this is fully within the spirit of the Act of Canonical Communion signed by the ever memorable Patriarch Aleksey II and Metropolitan Laurus on the day of the Ascension 2007,
A similar agreement was signed with the St. Petersburgh Spiritual Academy in February. Also, the school began to offer Spanish-language instruction beginning in February.
The pastoral school is named in honor of St. John of Kronstadt because he struggled greatly with his studies as a youth, but after a miraculous Divine intervention, he became an excellent student, receiving the highest grades in his theological studies.
