ST PHILARET'S CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX INSTITUTE
IN MOSCOW
(INSTITUTE FOR MISSIONARIES AND CATECHISTS)

29, Pokrovka st, office 38,
Moscow 105062, Russia
Phone: +7 (495) 623-0380, 625-7786
Fax: + 7 (495) 623-0380
E-mail: info@sfi.ru

General information

St Philaret’s Orthodox Christian Institute in Moscow has been working since 1988 as an independent non-governmental theological higher school. Its curricula are Orthodox Christian in character.

The main aim of St Philaret’s Institute is to prepare the students for active participation in Church life for them to be engaged in theological reflection on the life and the doctrine of the Church. We’d like to avoid utilitarian approach as well as isolation from the problems of contemporary society.

The Institute provides men and women of different ages, occupations, and abilities (disabled people inclusively) with higher theological education. Our entrants are committed Christians mostly having higher education in different fields.

Along with higher learning the Institute also provides general Christian education and vocational training for adults (three specializations: Theology, Christian teacher training and Church arts). One more direction of its work is to prepare adult people for receiving baptism and further enchurching. So we are also a Catechetical School.

The Institute has both state and church licences:

The Licence of Ministry of General and Vocational Education of Russian Federation:  A № 156730 from 05.05.2004.

The Licence of the Department of Religious Education and Catechism of Moscow Patriarchy (Russian Orthodox Church): № 04-1053-5 from 5.04.2004.

St Philaret’s Institute consists of:

School of Theology

Missionary College

HISTORY

The Institute was founded by Rev. Georgy Kochetkov in 1988. It first began as a catechetical school for laity seeking deeper grounding in the Orthodox faith. In 1990, the Institute became the theological department of the Open University of Russia. In the same year, the Institute started to publish Pravoslavnaya Obshchina journal. In 1992, the Institute was registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. In 1993, the Catechetical School was established as a sub-division of the Institute and a two-year undergraduate program in theology was organized. In 1994, correspondence courses were introduced as an educational alternative for students living outside Moscow. In 1995, the Institute adopted the name of St. Philaret of Moscow (1782-1867), the author of the famous Catechism and a distinguished preacher and church leader under whose auspices the Russian translation of the Bible was accomplished.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Founded in 1996. The Institute reports to the Board of Trustees once a year, during the so-called St. Philaret's days in the beginning of December.

Members:

• Archpriest Pavel Adelheim
  Rector of Holy Mirrhbearers Church in Pskov, expert in Ecclesiology and Canon Law
• K.Ch.Felmy
  Professor, Doctor of Theology (Germany)
• Anatoly A. Krasikov
  Professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Chief of Social-religious Studies Center (Russia);
• Еlena Klepinina-Arzhakovskaya
  member of Russian Christian Movement, writer (France);
• Rev. Prof. Patrick de Laubier
  (Switzerland)
• Ass. Prof. Archim. Augustin Nikitin
  St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Doctor of Theology (Russia);
• Georges Nivat
  Honorary professor at the University of Geneva;
• Rev. Gerhard Podskalsky
  professor of Sankt Georgen Institute Frankfurt am Main;
• Olga Popova
  Doctor of Fine Arts, professor of Moscow State University, Head of Byzantine Art Department in the State Institute of Art Studies of the Russian Ministry of Culture
• Prof. Dimitry Pospelovsky
  (Canada);
• Olga Sedakova
  poet, doctor of philology,  World Culture Institute of Moscow State University;
• Bishop Seraphim Sigrist
  (Orthodox Church of America);
• Prof. Nikita Struve
  Editor-in-chief of “Le Messager” (France);
• Rev. Prof. Ernst Christoph Suttner
  Wien, Austria;
• Archim. Zinon Teodor
  icon-painter, State Prize of Russia laureate (Russia);
• Prof. Evgeny Vereschagin
  Institute of Russian Language, Russian Academy of Science;
• Sergey Yursky
  national artist of Russia.
  

FACULTY AND STAFF

The Institute faculty consists of 57 full-time professors and lectures. There are 50 staff members.

STUDENTS

In the 2007/8 academic year there were 169 full-time graduate and correspondence students of the Higher School, 160 students of the Theological College, 131 listeners of the Special Theological Course and about 600 catechumen from 15 Russian Orthodox dioceses in the Catechetical School. Our correspondence students come from different cities of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia.

Graduates of St Philaret’s Institute teach theological subjects in high schools and universities, they can be catechists, work as organizers and teachers of Sunday schools, work at Christian publishing houses and in mass media. Many of our graduates are leaders of Orthodox brotherhoods and communities. 

HIGHER SCHOOL CURRILCULUM

All course work is carried out in seven departments:

Department 1: Missiology, Catechetics, and Homiletics Chair: Rev. Georgy Kochetkov
Courses offered: Missiology, Homiletics, Catechetics, History of Catechism.

Department 2: Theological Studies and Liturgics. Chair: David M. Gzgzyan 
Courses offered: Dogmatic Theology, Ascetics, Comparative Theology, Ethics and Axiology in Religion, Patristics, Liturgics, Sacramentology, Ecclesiology, Reading and Singing in the Church, Church Slavonic.

Department 3: Scripture and Biblical Studies. Chair: Larisa Yu. Musina
Courses offered: Introduction to the Old Testament, Introduction to the New Testament, Old Testament Exegesis, New Testament Exegesis, Biblical Archaeology, History of the People of God, Biblical Hebrew, New Testament Greek, Biblical Apocrypha.

Department 4: Church History. Chair: Olga Yu. Vasiljeva
Courses offered: Introduction to Church History, Early Church History, History of the Russian Orthodox Church, Modern Church History, History of Religions.

Department 5: Philosophy and Humanities. Chair: Grigory B. Gutner
Courses offered: Introduction to Philosophy of Religion, History of Philosophy, Logic, Christian Apologetics, Russian Religious Philosophy, Christian Anthropology, Christian Aesthetics, Christian Ethics, History of Mysticism, Church Archeology, English Language.

Department 6: Religious Studies. Chair: Margarita V. Shilkina
Courses offered: History of Religion, Geography of Religion, Law and Religion, Buddism, Islam, New Religious Movements and Cults, History of Archaic and Non-Christian Religions, Politology, Sociology, Psychology of Religion, Religious Anthropology, Church Law, Phenomenology of Religion, Religion and Culture, Religion and Politics, Religion and Mass Media, Man in Christianity and Islam.

Department 7: Maths and Science. Chair: Boris A. Voskresensky
Courses offered: Bioethics, Concepts of the Origin of Man and Life, Concepts of Contemporary Natural Science, Computer Literacy and Maths, Science and Religion, Introduction into Psychiatry for Catechists.

Each student participates in charitable practical work in hospitals, old people's homes, orphanages.

LIBRARY AND AUDIO-VISUAL FACILITIES

The Library currently holds 16 000 volumes and receives 100 periodicals. The collection is especially good in Bible study and modern theology.The collection is especially developed in the area of Biblical Study and Modern Theology. Students and faculty members have access to major state libraries located in Moscow. Audiocassette and video recordings of any lecture or seminar held at St. Philaret are available to students.

PUBLICATION FACILITIES

In 1990, a publishing department was founded. The department began its activity printing the materials and documents of the annual international conferences and catechetical seminars, carried out in the Institute. In addition, the department published, for the first time in Russian, philosophical and theological works pertaining to the period of Russian religious renaissance which were previously published abroad. Publications include 20 book titles and 49 issues of the "Pravoslavnaya Obschina" Journal.

In the future, we plan to publish the works in the field of church history and of the Russian Orthodox Church history, missiology and catechumenate, church archeology, as well as collections of articles and speeches on contemporary ecclesiastical issues. Here there are some of those titles, which have been just published or prepared for publishing: "Desert Father" (sermons, diaries and memoirs about archimandrite Tavrion (Batozsky)), "The History of the catechumenate from the apostolic times to the early middle ages" by P.L. Gavrilyuk, "The Language of the Church" (almanac), "Records of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917-18 years", "Lectures on the New Testament" by S.S. Averintsev, "Catechism for Catechists" by G. Kochetkov, "Ancient Liturgies".

FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Students are admitted to the Institute on the basis of the results of competitive entrance examinations.

Men and women over the age of 21 may apply. They must be committed members of the Orthodox Church and must have attained at least the level of a secondary school education. The entrance examinations consist of the following:

In writing - an exposition of a passage from the New Testament and a written sermon based on the text.

Oral examination - a test of the applicant's knowledge of the morning and evening prayers, of the text of the New Testament and selected books of the Old Testament, of the Orthodox Church Ritual Proceedings and a number of other books.

Address: 29, Pokrovka st, office 38,
Moscow 105062, Russia
Phone: +7 (495) 623-0380, 625-7786
Fax: +7 (495) 623-0380