Moscow, February 8, 2019
Photo: chicagodiocese.org A partnership agreement was signed by the rector of the Pastoral School, His Eminence Archbishop Peter of Chicago and Mid-America, and the dean of the University of St. John, His Grace Bishop Anthony of Moravici, on Monday, February 4.
The Russian Orthodox University of St. John the Theologian was established with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow and All Russia in 1992, “as a powerful educational and research platform for training highly qualified specialists in various fields of knowledge rooted in the traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church.” In January 2011, it was recreated as an institution of higher professional religious education of the Russian Church.
The Pastoral School also entered into a cooperation agreement with the St. Petersburg Spiritual Academy in February, 2017, and with the Kiev Theological Academy in May, 2017, and the diocese hopes to announce additional partnerships in the near future.
“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,” the diocesan statement reads.
The school also began to offer Spanish-language instruction in February 2017, and a special catechist training program in the fall of 2017.
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.
Follow us on Facebook!
