Patriarch Kirill on the place of the Church’s Post-Graduate School in the Russian Church’s structure of theological education

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, speaking at the meeting of rectors of the Russian Orthodox Church’s theological schools, which took place on November 13 at the Church of Christ the Saviour, pointed to the need to adjust today’s system of theological education to the Bologna system.

According to His Holiness the Patriarch, a four-year study at a seminary could be sufficient for baccalaureate. In this way, every priest will have at least the bachelor’s degree. For those who wish to continue education, it is possible to introduce the master’s course to be undertaken for one or two years.

‘After the master’s course, which will mean a full higher education, a student, if he is qualified, can inter a theological academy and write a candidate’s thesis’, His Holiness continued, pointing to the advisability of keeping the candidate’s degree for a more or less long time. In this way, the academies will play the role of today’s post-graduate schools.

Recalling that Sts Cyril and Methodius’s Post-Graduate and Doctoral School has been launched this year, he said, ‘This post-graduate school will provide an opportunity for defending both the doctor’s and candidate’s theses on subjects absent from our academies’.

In this way the traditional system of theological education in the Russian Orthodox Church will be adjusted to the Bologna system without any upheavals or a total reformation of the seminaries, His Holiness Kirill stressed.

DECR Communication Service