Kiev Theological Academy Agreement - Program for Pastoral School Students

 

The Kiev Theological Academy has begun a remote lecture and consultation course for students in the United States of America. The online program is blessed by the school's Rector, His Grace Bishop Sylvester of Belogorodsk, as part of the Cooperation Agreement with the Pastoral School of the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

The lectures and consultations will be held on the Zoom platform. Curating the program is Professor Archpriest Rostislav Snegirev, Assistant Rector for Foreign Students.

With the blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Peter of Chicago and Mid-America, parishioners of the Russian Church Abroad participating in the Pastoral School can also participate in the program.

See the Announcement in Ukrainian here.

Source: synod.com

Thesis Ideas for Present & Future Students

Over the last few months many of you have shared ideas with me about theses that are needed by our society and the faithful. This is very helpful and I encourage you to continue to share. There is no limit to what we can accomplish if we do not care who gets the credit. If we keep this in mind, we will work collaboratively for the good of the Church and the faithful. Here are some of the good ideas that were shared with me that I think would be something good to tackle for a future Pastoral School thesis:

ONE - Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. This is a concept that Rod Dreher describes in his book “The Benedict Option.” He has also written about this outside that publication and you can find an article by him in this regard here.

How do we help our youth NOT to fall into this pit that our society has dug for them? How do we help our society to leave off this unhealthy spiritualism? How does the Church fight this heretical but wide-spread idea? This is a very important issue, but the Orthodox Church is just starting to scratch the surface. Your contribution will be very valuable to this major problem we need to face and to fight.

TWO – Divine Simplicity: the Orthodox vs. Roman Catholic concepts. St. Photios vs. Thomas Aquinas. The Nicean Creed vs. the Filioque. This may be a less “urgent” question than Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, but perhaps not. With the onset of the pandemic many Roman Catholic faithful have appeared at the doors of Orthodox parishes. The better we understand the errors of Roman Catholicism the better we can help Roman Catholics to come home to the Orthodox Church. Thus, maybe this really is quite an urgent question.

THREE - Does the acceptance of the canons of the Council of Carthage (419) as Ecumenical by the Fifth-Sixth Council necessitate the acceptance of the doctrine of Original Sin, as it is understood by Rome? Does this then leave no objection to the Immaculate Conception? What are the differences between Original sin in the Orthodox and Roman Catholic iterations of this idea? Or are there any differences? If there are – what are the repercussions? If not – what are the repercussions?

Thank you again to those who submitted these ideas! Please keep sharing for the good of our present and future students!

Fr. Gregory