Academic Calendar for 2023-24 Posted

Please find the academic calendar for the 2023-24 school year at the link below:

ACADEMIC CALENDAR 2023-24

Pastoral School of the Diocese of Chicago & Mid-America to Offer Summer Courses

With Archbishop Peter's blessing, this year summer courses will again be offered in the Pastoral School of the Diocese of Chicago & Mid-America.  Applications for admission for the summer semester are due June 15, 2023. The following courses will be offered this year – dates for the courses are June 19 – August 5, 2023 (some courses are slightly longer in duration):

    • Liturgics

    • Church Slavonic

    • Parish Management and Operations

    • Thesis Writing Workshop

    • Comprehensive Homiletics Seminar

    • New Testament Greek

    • New Testament Latin

    • The Pivotal Points in the History of Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

    • Survey of Mental Illness for the Pastor

All Pastoral School summer courses are available to the general public without the need for a formal application to our complete Diploma program.  

To register please visit this following link

To learn more about the summer courses and all the offerings of the Pastoral School please visit this link

For more information or with questions please contact the Dean of the Pastoral School, Archpriest Gregory Joyce (fr.gregory.joyce@orthodoxtheologicalschool.org).

Pastoral School Graduate Ordained to the Priesthood in Switzerland

On Antipascha (Thomas Sunday), 2022, graduate of the Pastoral School, Deacon Daniel Scharer, was ordained to the priesthood by Metropolitan Nestor at the Resurrection Parish in Zurich, Switzerland. The new Priest Daniel will serve as assistant to the Rector of the Resurrection Parish, and also work as a missionary to the local Swiss population in hopes of bringing more and more of the native Swiss to the Holy Church. He will also teach a course in the Pastoral School Summer Semester entitled “Survey of Mental Illness for Pastors”, which is a primer for present and future clergymen designed to help them with one of the most difficult aspects of ministry: working with those with mental illnesses. Fr. Daniel has more than 20 years of experience teaching Psychology at the college level, and his Pastoral School thesis successfully compared and contrasted the approach to psychological illness in the secular world with the approach to spiritual illness in the Orthodox Church.

We congratulate Priest Daniel and his family on his ordination! May the Lord grant them many years of service in His Vineyard!

Fr. Gregory, Dean

Pastoral Bridge Program 2023

The Pastoral School Bridge Program, in cooperation with the Synodal School of Liturgical Music, which covers your Liturgics and Church Slavonic requirements, is set for this July 16-29. More information and registration can be found HERE.

Those for whom the Bridge Program does not work can take Slavonic and Liturgics via Populi in the summer as well, but the Bridge Program is a good option for some and we are happy to partner with the Synodal School to provide this opportunity to our students that can take advantage of it.

Fr. Gregory

Liturgical Practium 2023 - Save the Date!

Save the date for our annual Liturgical Practicum at the Diocesan Cathedral of the Protection of the Mother of God in Des Plaines, Illinois: October 15-18, 2023. More information will be forthcoming.

Fr. Gregory

Pastoral School Student Ordained to the Priesthood

Photo Credit: eadiocese.org

On Sunday, February 6/19, the Sunday of the Last Judgment, Deacon Michael Fiocca, a student of the Pastoral School, was ordained by Metropolitan Nicholas at the Synodal Cathedral of the Kursk Root Icon. Fr. Michael will be assigned to serve in Mayfield, PA. A full report can be found at the web site of the Eastern American Diocese, ROCOR. May the Lord grant him and his family many years of service in Christ's Vineyard!

Pastoral School Student Ordained to the Deaconate

We congratulate our Pastoral School student, Theodotus Conrad, with his ordination to the deaconate on October 9/22, 2022 by Metropolitan Nicholas! A full account of the day, with photographs, can be found at the the link below from the Eastern American Diocese web site.

ORDINATION OF THEODOTUS CONRAD TO THE DEACONATE