Metropolitan Hilarion’s talk to faculty and students of the Vinnitsa State Pedagogical University

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, during his visit on 24 March 2010, to Vinnista, Ukraine, had a talk with students of the Kotsyubinsky State Pedagogical University. The DECR chairman was accompanied by Archbishop Simeon of Vinnitsa and Mogilev.

The archpastor was welcomed to the university by its rector, A. Tkachenko, and faculty members, who took him to the assembly hall where nearly a 400-strong audience awaited him.

He gave a lecture on Pedagogy – Formation of the Human Personality, focusing on the responsibility of teachers for the formation of future generations. ‘To be a teacher means not only to hand down certain information. In the first place, a teacher is called to lay and form the foundation of a future personality’, he said. The person of integrity is a guarantee of a solid and healthy society, he said, adding, ‘For one to educate others one has to be a person of integrity oneself. The foundation for such personality should be found in spiritual and moral values’.

His Eminence explained in detail the Christian teaching on family, marriage, marital fidelity and bearing and raising children. He underscored the importance of family in forming a human personality. In his opinion, family values should become central points in training teachers to be.

After the lecture, students had an opportunity for questions.

As a token of his visit, Metropolitan Hilarion presented the rector with a copy of his book ‘Patriarch Kirill: His Life and Worldview.

DECR Communication Service