Diocese of Nizhny Novgorod shares its know-how on distance learning of convicts

The conference on the ‘Interaction between church parishes and public organizations with Orthodox communities in confinement institutions. Real experience, problems, prospects’ was held in Moscow on December 12, 2005.

Among the participants in the conference were clerics and laymen – representatives of Moscow parishes who work with the convicts and guests from other dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The participants exchanged their experience on involving new parishes to the ministry in prisons. The Diocese of Nizny Novgorod is one of the four dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church where the system of distance learning of Orthodoxy was introduced.

The educational program was worked out in St. Tikhon University and includes four blocs: the New Testament, the History of the Church, the Foundations of Faith, and Catechism. The centers of distance learning will soon be established in all dioceses.

Fifty convicts of colony №16 (Ik-16) in the village of Prosek study religion in the frameworks of the program.

Rev. Vladimir Antipin, Rector of the Church of St. Nicholas in Prosek, provides spiritual care for the convicts. Students of the Nizny Novgorod Theological Seminary also help the convicts to study Orthodox subjects.

Diocese of Nizny Novgorod