Autumn session of XIX Annual Theological Conference of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University opened on October 9, 2008

The conference is dedicated to the commemoration day of Apostle John the Theologian and the University’s heavenly patron St. Tikhon, Patriarch of All Russia.

The university press service informs that the festive Liturgy in the University’s Holy Trinity church in Vishnyaki was presided over by Metropolitan Philaret of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus.

According to the university press service, the plenary session was opened by Metropolitan Philaret, head of the Synodal Theological Commission, under whose auspices the conference is held. He noted with satisfaction the participation of young specialists in the conference. “It is delightful to see representatives of the young generation of our reviving ecclesiastical scholarship among the reporters – without their participation there is no future,” the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus noted.

The theme of the plenary session is “Translation and interpretation: dogmatic aspect”. Various aspects of this problem are dealt with in reports presented by Professor of Pontificio Istituto Orientale (Rome) Eduardo Farudgia and Professor of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University Y. Shichalina.

Among the participants of the conference are scholars from Pontificio Istituto Orientale, the Venice University, the Genoa University, The Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Italy), St. George’s University, the Hattinghen Academy for Scholarship, the Munich University, the Cologne University (Germany) and other foreign scholarly centres. “There can be no progress of scholarship without scholarly exchange,” Metropolitan Philaret noted. “By gathering together, informing each other of the results of our research, discussing acute scholarly problems, we not only expand our knowledge, but also create conditions for its deepening and specification.”

The conference will last until October 12. Information about the work of the sections is available on the university site.