Academic Calendar 2024-25 School Year

Please find the academic calendar for the 2024-25 school year at the link below:

ACADEMIC CALENDAR 2024-25

Pastoral School Spring 2024 Graduation

On July 13, 2024 thesis review and defense and comprehensive final examinations were held for graduating students of the Pastoral School of the Diocese of Chicago & Mid-America. At this session five students defended their theses and passed their final examinations. Names and titles of theses are below:

Deacon Theodotus Conrad: Catechizing Souls: A Historiography of Eastern Orthodox Catechisms, 1572-2016

Subdeacon Christopher Leung: The Conflict and Adaptation between the Orthodoxy’s Christians Tradition and Chinese Culture

Deacon Mikhail Moibenko: Orthodox Christian Piety

Deacon Matthew Sundahl: The Tools of the Catechumenate

Deacon Timothy Zieminski: The Mercy and Forgiveness of God: The Orthodox Teaching on the Soul after Death in Light of Purgatory

All theses were reviewed by the examination committee (made up of Archpriest Gregory Joyce, Dean of the School; and Archpriest John Whiteford, Assistant Dean for Operations of the Pastoral School, and Deacon Vladimir Pyrozhenko, Professor University of Michigan). All theses met the high standards for scholarly work of the Pastoral School, with Deacon Theodotus and Deacon Matthew receiving honors. 

All students passed their oral final examinations, with Deacon Theodotus and Deacon Mikhail receiving honors.

Later that day the Resurrectional Vigil was held in the Diocesan Cathedral of the Protection of the Mother of God in Des Plaines, IL. The graduates participated in the Divine Service. The next day (July 14, 2024) Divine Liturgy was held in the cathedral, led by Archbishop Peter (President of the Pastoral School). Following the Divine Liturgy the graduates were officially awarded their diplomas. 

We congratulate the new graduates and their families on their significant accomplishment. God willing the theses of the new graduates will soon be published for the edification of all. 

Pastoral School Graduate Ordained to the Deaconate

        

On Sunday, June 17/30, 2024, the universal feast of All Saints, Brian (Branko) Payne was ordained to the Deaconate by Metropolitan Mitrofan of Canada (Serbian Orthodox Church) at the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Milton, Ontario. Deacon Brian is a 2023 graduate of the Pastoral School and will be assigned to Gracanica Serbian Orthodox Church in Windsor, Ontario. Congratulations to Deacon Brian and his family! May the Lord grant him many years of service in His Vineyard!