Rating of theological educational institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Holy Synod made a decision on a number of theological seminaries

Catholic seminaries

Seminaries in the Catholic Church are divided into minor seminaries (English: Minor seminary) for teenagers and major seminaries (English: Major seminary) for older people, also including college-seminaries (although in the USA they are often called minor seminaries) for undergraduate and graduate students for those who already have a bachelor's degree. There are also seminaries for adults who have done well in school, such as the National Seminary of St. Pope John XXIII in Massachusetts and for other more specialized purposes.

All seminaries are governed either by religious orders or by dioceses or other similar structures. Often the seminary prepares both priests of that particular order or diocese, and priests of other orders or dioceses who choose that particular seminary for their priests. For example, St. John's Seminary in Boston, Massachusetts trains priests for many other dioceses in New England that are suffragan dioceses of the Archdiocese of Boston. In any case, a person who seeks to enter seminary to become a priest must be sponsored by either a diocese or a religious order.

Often a seminary may be attached or affiliated with a larger Catholic college or university, so that the larger college provides a more general education in history or theology, while the seminary focuses on topics specific to the needs of future priests, such as canonical training. law, sacraments and preaching, or specific to a particular order or diocese. For example, the theological college in Washington, D.C. is part of the Catholic University of America.

In addition, there are several seminaries in Rome that train seminarians or already ordained priests and bishops and that are supported by orders or dioceses from outside Italy. For example, the Pontifical North American College, which trains priests from the United States and other countries, is supported by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Seminaries of the Russian Orthodox Church

The predecessors of modern theological seminaries were fraternal schools that appeared in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In Russia, the first theological educational institution of the modern European type was the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, originally located in the Zaikonospassky Monastery in Moscow.

In the 18th century, a full course, which was not available everywhere, could take 8 years in the following levels (“classes”): fara (or analogy), infima, grammar, syntaxima, pyitika, rhetoric, philosophy, theology. The basis of the entire educational system was the perfect mastery of the Latin language; all other knowledge was given incidentally, from reading Latin texts. The gradual introduction of Greek began at the end of the 18th century, under Metropolitan of Moscow Platon (Levshin).

In 1814-1818, a reform of theological schools was undertaken in the Russian Empire, as a result of which seminaries became equal in status to gymnasiums, while academies were higher religious institutions. Until the end of the 1870s, seminary graduates had free access to higher education institutions on the same basis as high school students; then this access was closed. Under the influence of Metropolitan Philaret (Drozdov) in the 19th century there was a gradual departure from Latin scholasticism.

The seminaries were under the general control of the Holy Synod and were under the direct supervision of the diocesan bishops, who had supreme supervision over the direction of teaching, the education of students and the implementation of the rules of the charter in general. The seminaries were supported by funds from the Holy Synod and benefits provided from the state treasury. Direct management of the seminary belonged to the rector, inspector and board, which had pedagogical and administrative meetings.

Education in seminaries was free, and orphans and children of poor parents were accepted for government support. The course of study was six years. The seminary accepted young people of the Orthodox confession from all classes, both those who had already studied in other educational institutions and those who received home education; for admission to 1st grade the age was set from 14 to 18 years. Theological sciences occupied a predominant role in the seminary curriculum, but general education sciences, which were included in the course of classical gymnasiums, were also taught to a significant extent. To assess knowledge, a point system was used: "5" - excellent, "4" - very good, "3" - good, "2" - mediocre, "1" - weak. Students in the first three grades who showed poor results could be retained once for the second year in the same grade. The best students continued their studies in theological academies; Most of the pupils were assigned by the diocesan authorities to the positions of priests and clergymen or to the positions of teachers and overseers in religious educational institutions.

Since 2010, all seminaries of the Russian Orthodox Church have been teaching students according to the program Bachelor's degree in full compliance with all state standards, and have a state license to carry out educational activities in the specialty “Theology” (031900) of higher professional education. Upon completion of the seminary, graduates receive state diplomas with a degree "Bachelor of Theology". In accordance with the standards of higher education, seminaries of the Russian Orthodox Church are equipped with modern computers and means of communication.

Seminaries of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church

From 1872 until the first years after the liberation, the Peter and Paul Theological Seminary, subordinate to the Bulgarian Exarchate, functioned in the monastery of Saints Peter and Paul near Tarnovo. From 1892 to 1912 it operated in Constantinople Tsarigrad Bulgarian Theological Seminary. Since 1944, a number of measures by the communist government were aimed at reducing the number of students in religious educational institutions and creating various obstacles to the normal educational process. Persons who graduated from theological seminaries or theological faculty were deprived of the opportunity for any social realization outside the church sphere, which led to their isolation in society. By 1951, only the Sofia Theological Seminary functioned; the theological faculty was removed from Sofia University and transformed into a theological academy. Currently, there are 2 Orthodox seminaries in Bulgaria - Plovdiv and Sofia, subordinate to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. They train seminarians in a regular five-year course (for students who have completed 7th or 8th grade) and a two-year parallel course (for candidates who have completed secondary education).

On March 9, 2017, in the meeting hall of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchal and Synodal Residence in the Danilov Monastery in Moscow, under the chairmanship of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church was held, reports the official website “Patriarchia.ru”.

At the meeting of the Synod, the report of Archbishop Eugene of Vereisky, chairman of the Educational Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church, on the ranking of higher theological educational institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church as of December 2016 was considered. The Educational Committee conducts regular scheduled inspections of higher theological educational institutions (academies and seminaries) located on the territory of the Russian Federation. Based on the results of inspections, the results obtained are analyzed and a rating is compiled, within which educational institutions are divided into four groups:

The first group includes religious educational institutions that, in the opinion of inspection commissions, have reached the level of master's programs or are potentially capable of opening them;

The second group included theological seminaries that operate stably at the bachelor’s or specialist level and have minor shortcomings;

The third group unites theological seminaries that operate stably at the bachelor's or specialty level and have shortcomings in providing the educational and/or educational process;

The fourth group consists of seminaries that do not meet most of the criteria of a modern higher theological educational institution.

The fourth rating group currently includes Vladimir, Voronezh, Kostroma and Tomsk theological seminaries. Vladimir and Kostroma theological seminaries were included in the fourth group earlier. Kursk Seminary is included in the third group.

In 2013, the Holy Synod, considering the rating of higher theological educational institutions, in particular determined: “Higher theological educational institutions belonging to the fourth rating group based on the results of inspection by the Educational Committee are given a three-year period to correct the situation, warning that in the absence of correction they may be the question of depriving them of the status of independent higher theological educational institutions" (magazine No. 79).

The Holy Synod decided:

1. Express gratitude to the rectors and administration of the following theological educational institutions belonging to the first rating group: St. Petersburg and Moscow Theological Academies, Saratov, Kolomna, Penza, Orenburg, Smolensk, Kazan, Sretensk and Kuzbass theological seminaries.

2. Particularly note the efforts of the leadership of the following theological seminaries, which led to a significant improvement in their educational activities in the latter and an increase in their rating: Orenburg, Kuzbass, Stavropol, Barnaul, Ekaterinodar and Perervinsk theological seminaries.

3. Suspend the enrollment of students for distance learning for a period of two years at the Vladimir and Kostroma theological seminaries, about which to send their administrations the appropriate notifications, accompanied by a list of instructions from the Educational Committee.

4. Indicate to the administration of religious educational institutions the need, when considering the issue of enrolling a student who was previously expelled from any religious educational institution, to take into account the opinion of the religious educational institution in which this student previously studied, and in case of disagreement, contact the Educational Committee for which secures the right of final decision regarding the possibility of further education of such a student in religious educational institutions.

The rating of church educational institutions has been compiled. Which theological school was in first place, what is the secret of their success and what will happen to the seminaries that are in the lower positions of the ranking, says the first deputy chairman of the Educational Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church Archpriest Maxim Kozlov.

The idea of rating church educational institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church arose in the second half of 2012 - early 2013, when a virtually simultaneous inspection of all theological seminaries and academies on the territory of the Russian Federation was carried out over four months.

Today, the ranking of church educational institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church includes 35 seminaries and 2 academies. All 37 educational institutions correspond to the bachelor's level, while 29 out of 37 have preparatory departments, and 10 have educational programs at the master's level. There are 2 postgraduate schools, 19 regency departments and 8 icon painting departments at 37 educational institutions.

There are 9.5 thousand students studying in church educational institutions, of which there are more than 7 thousand students at the bachelor’s level, about 1 thousand students at the master’s level, more than 500 people in the regency departments, more than 250 people in the icon painting departments.

The rating takes into account various parameters of the life of theological schools. The Educational Committee gets acquainted with some of them on the basis of self-examination sheets - documentation that is sent by educational institutions to the Academic Committee at regular intervals or on an extraordinary basis upon request. Other parameters are monitored during scheduled inspections - on average, each educational institution will be visited by an inspection from the Education Committee once every three years.

The main parameters that are taken into account in the rating:

— regulatory support, that is, the availability of all necessary documentation - license, state certificate, etc.;

— material support, that is, parameters for the number of classrooms, the quality of equipment in classrooms, living conditions for students - food, gyms, etc.;

— quality and results of training.

— results of testing of final year students to check the result of knowledge during the inspection;

— availability of additional programs at the educational institution;

— indicators of educational work, the work of the institute of individual mentors;

— degree of communication between students and administration;

— information and library support;

— teaching staff;

— educational and methodological support;

— research activities - the presence of a website, a collection of teaching works, holding conferences, cooperation with secular universities.

All these factors correspond to a certain kind of coefficients and are compared with paper data and data from remote monitoring of the defense of qualifying works and final exams, which was introduced last year.

Rating: alarm bell

— Father Maxim, can we say that the rating is primarily a purely bureaucratic criterion?

- No, the rating is a criterion that shows a certain kind of dynamics in the development of a church educational institution - up, down, stability. If the rating of an educational institution has changed by one or two places in relation to the original parameters, this is one thing, but if by ten, this is already an important change. And it’s good if it’s ten up. Therefore, the rating is a certain kind of warning system. Either a wake-up call or confirmation that the educational institution is doing everything correctly.

— Who are the leaders of spiritual education today according to the rating?

In general, church educational institutions that are historically central - SPbPDA and MDA - are traditionally in the top. Also at the top of the ranking are seminaries that already have state accreditation - these are Smolensk, Saratov and Penza. There are also seminaries that have master’s degrees: Sretenskaya, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, etc. And also consistently strong seminaries, with a well-formed teaching corps and an attentive archpastoral attitude. This is, for example, the Kolomna Seminary, where, among other things, there is an excellent material base and the best seminary building today, recently built on the territory of the Holy Trinity Novo-Golutvin Monastery, which is ideally suited for the educational process and student accommodation.

The second group consists of seminaries that show stable indicators, but have certain shortcomings.

The third group are seminaries with more significant shortcomings that are under control.

The fourth rating group is the lowest. There are seminaries here, which today do not indicate confirmation of the status of a higher educational institution. I will not name these seminaries, but they are aware of their situation and the decision of the Synod of July 2013 to give them three years to correct the situation. If the level is not raised, then these seminaries may be transformed into educational institutions of a different profile. For example, to one of the centers for training parish specialists.

As I have already indicated, the publication of the ranking is not intended by the nature of the document, but with the blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch, the interim document has already been sent to the rectors of theological educational institutions, and everyone locally already knows where they stand.

- Why are they needed? training centers for parish specialists?

— Today there are more than 15 such centers. They have four profiles: youth, missionary, social and catechetical. An interdepartmental commission under the Educational Committee evaluates the organization of these centers and grants them the right to issue students with a church-wide document upon completion of training. The demand for this kind of personnel in parishes is great, and so far only a small part of the potential is being used - so this area of church education will develop intensively.

It will be possible to increase the number of such centers at the expense of theological schools that are ending their historical existence. An example is the Chita Theological School, which is now in the process of being transformed into a Center for the Training of Parish Specialists. But the Vologda Seminary, on the contrary, after the decision of the Synod in 2013, increased its status and is developing very dynamically through the efforts of the rector, the Vologda Metropolitan.

Autonomous existence among ourselves is not useful for us

— Should church educational institutions meet the parameters of secular universities?

- Undoubtedly. This is the need of the hour. All church educational institutions are licensed, and His Holiness the Patriarch has set the task of carrying out state accreditation of at least the best part of the seminaries. Accordingly, seminaries are subject to licensing and accreditation inspections by Rosobrnadzor. And the task of the Academic Committee is to help church educational institutions prepare for state accreditation.

Of course, this work adds a lot of trouble to us: government requirements change all the time. For example, there was a requirement that the university needed an agreement with the clinic, but in order for the clinic to carry out medical activities on the territory of the seminary, it needed to change its license. You can imagine what efforts are needed to get the management of the clinic to agree to renew its license! The same applies to the requirements for teaching staff, for educational and regulatory support - the standards, unfortunately, are extremely unstable.

On the other hand, the process of obtaining state accreditation is a stimulating factor. Autonomous existence among ourselves is very unprofitable for us. And the church educational institution as a kind of abstract provincial theological school issuing its own diplomas has now come to an end.

— How painful was the transition to the Bologna system for church educational institutions?

— There were a lot of useful things in this transition. Yes, master's programs have become specialized in their field, but these are obvious requirements of the time, it is clear that it is necessary to move to faculty-type specialization, this is done in the master's program - biblical, theological, historical, church-practical disciplines are taught to choose from.

Obviously, it was also necessary to transition from the lesson-questioning system, which was recommended in theological schools in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, to the lecture-seminar system. Teaching in higher educational institutions is not lessons with quizzes, but lectures, seminars, and practical exercises.

As for the holidays, yes, we began to study more, but if not with my heart, then with my head, I understand that the inadequate number of weekends and vacation days that we had before the Bologna system was harmful to the educational process. The liturgical cycle is one thing, but the academic year is another; it cannot be directly related to Easter, for example.

If there is anything painful, it is in the incomprehensible variability of the external forms of our state higher education, which we must take into account. There is a constant flux of criteria and requirements - for example, the issue of the status of theology in the higher education system has not been fully resolved. Today it is impossible to defend dissertations in theology; there is no appropriate advice. There is discipline, but there is no corresponding dissertation council - absurd.

Components of success

- ABOUT What determines the success and failure of a religious university? Can you give examples of the correct strategy or typical mistakes based on the inspection results?

— As a positive example, we can certainly name the Saratov Theological Seminary. What are the parameters of success?

Firstly, from unconditional interest of the ruling bishop. When the ruling bishop sees that having a good seminary in his diocese is not just prestigious, but that in itself the forging of a cadre of educated clergy and church workers in a quality higher educational institution is one of the cornerstones of positive development for the diocese - then this is a kind of depth, sobriety and the correctness of the vision of the situation.

Secondly, the key to success is formation of qualified teaching staff. The teaching corps should not consist primarily of part-time workers! The backbone should be people for whom the place of work in the educational field is the main thing. Of course, it is good to attract famous teachers from secular universities, but even the church educational institution itself must have a strong core of “its own” qualified teachers.

Third, decent wages for teachers. “A slave is not a pilgrim” - a church saying, or “Slave labor is unproductive” - the words of one non-church economist. Work must be adequately paid!

Fourthly, it is important work with applicants. Nowadays, this work can be carried out in different forms. As a debatable example, but one that undoubtedly meets the challenges of the time, I will cite the well-known video of the Kazan Theological Seminary, prepared by its new leadership. Such vital, positive creativity testifies to the processes of renewal and development that are taking place in the theological school, which was once one of the four academies of the Russian Church and is now dynamically developing again.

Seminaries must also provide normal living and working conditions for students. His Holiness the Patriarch pays great attention to this - students came to study, and all kinds of additional obediences and duties must be strictly dosed.

Fifthly, the key to success is normal atmosphere in relations between the educational part of the administration and students. For example, the hostel system in seminaries is a very important educational beginning: can I live with other people together, not the way I want, as I’m used to with my mom and dad, but build relationships on my own after 4-5 years of study? Seminarians are students living in a dormitory, performing certain duties, but at the same time being open to modern society.

— Can you tell us more about the educational component in a church educational institution, what is its significance?

— Church educational institutions are called upon to provide not only education, but also upbringing. No matter how lofty these words may sound, we all understand that priesthood is not a job, but a lifelong service. Of course, there are comparable vocations in society: physician, teacher, military man. We all want to see in a doctor not only a specialist, but also a sympathetic person; a teacher is not only a teacher, but also an educator; in a priest not only a person who can serve the required service, but also a mentor, a comforter. And such a skill for a priest is impossible without acquiring a certain internal experience of Christian life, the education of the soul.

And here we come to the most delicate sphere of education in theological schools, which, on the one hand, is necessary, because how will someone educate who has not been educated, and on the other hand, is easily replaced by purely disciplinary principles.

It cannot be said that all approaches have already been found here, but it is also impossible to abandon this part of the work in church educational institutions. A new and good example of the educational principle in church educational institutions is the institute of individual mentors. In the system of the Educational Committee and in the MDA, this work is headed by Oleg Sukhanov - a man with a higher military education, a former naval sailor, exceptionally loved by students and able to find a common language with them. The most interesting materials on a specially created website for individual mentors, programs on “Theologian” and the live communication that takes place between him and other mentors within the framework of this portal show how much this institute is in demand.

A mentor is a person who occupies a borderline position between students and administration. Most often, this is a young teacher or a recent graduate who can help students in practical life, in educational activities, and in solving some problems that arise during their studies with high-ranking members of the administration.

This form has already been introduced everywhere; now it is important that it be filled with content everywhere. Close attention is paid to those cases when representatives of the administration, including educators, turn out to be inconsistent with their calling. When the corresponding signals are confirmed by facts, such people definitely stop working in church educational institutions.

MDA: statistics

— Do you have statistics specifically on the Moscow Theological Academy? To compare over the years and identify trends.

— This year, several times more young people entered the MDA than usual - more than 150 people entered the bachelor’s program. Moreover, this year there are more stringent requirements and the Unified State Exam is mandatory. Of these 150 people, more than 80 were accepted into the preparatory department, and about 10 people immediately entered the first year.

The new unified curriculum implies a mandatory four-year bachelor's degree for all and the presence of a preparatory department. At the preparatory department, church disciplines are taught, which are absent in secondary school, and the situation with ordinary subjects is also normalized - Russian language, foreign language, general humanities, historical disciplines. But the best students from high school, and especially young people with a higher secular education, can immediately enter the first year.

In the final year, there are usually about 60 people in the MDA: about 30% of students do not make it to graduation for various reasons. Firstly, it is difficult to study in a theological school. Secondly, someone switches to the correspondence department due to various life circumstances. Thirdly, someone himself understands that he is in the wrong place and has chosen the wrong path. And it happens that the administration understands this about someone.

Most students graduating from MDA are ordained. The task of the seminary is primarily to train clergy. But there cannot be a formal mechanistic approach here: “Please decide during your graduation year whether you will become a monk or get married. And if you don’t decide, you won’t get a diploma.” If something like this ever happened, we are now monitoring this kind of pressure and suppressing it in every possible way.

The MDA has courses where 60% of students become clergy by the time they graduate. But there shouldn’t be a competition to see which seminary will have the most clergy by the end of their studies. The main thing is that the graduates then remain in the sphere of church work, in the ranks or as church workers. And today there are a decisive majority of such graduates. And in this sense, most seminaries realize their task - they prepare people who then go out to serve the Church.

— Father Maxim, what are your feelings and intermediate conclusions from observing the development of the MDA during the period of your work in the Academic Committee?

— MDA is a unique institution, an ancient theological educational school. The forced “Soviet” break in the MDA and SPbPDA was minimal; the Moscow and Leningrad theological schools, resumed in the mid-40s, could rely on the teaching staff and graduates of pre-revolutionary theological educational institutions that survived the years of persecution. Therefore, these academies are not comparable in scale to other church educational institutions. These are institutions that have a very large margin of safety and that depend little on the personality of the leader or a particular teacher. This is stability and conservatism in the best sense.

On the other hand, it is precisely this conservatism that can lead to a certain kind of inertia processes. The scale of activity within the framework of a huge teaching and student corporation is such that the resolution of some practical issues is carried out more slowly than in small seminaries. Perhaps this is why today neither the Moscow nor the St. Petersburg academies have state accreditation.

But I think that the current problems of MDA are surmountable. Some areas are developing dynamically, for example, the library, which is being improved not only externally, but also internally - using modern technologies. At the Institute of Individual Tutors, MDA also became the flagship. Distance learning, when lectures were broadcast for provincial seminaries, also relied primarily on MDA personnel.

When it was necessary to develop training programs for the new unified curriculum, it was MDA that was the first to post them on its website so that others could benefit. And there are many such examples of the successful implementation of various tasks of our alma mater.

Crisis or not crisis?

— One of the main problems of provincial seminaries is the personnel crisis. How is this problem solved?

“I wouldn’t call the situation today a crisis: the problem is not so much with the lack of personnel, but with meeting the necessary parameters for staffing positions - teachers, for whom work at the seminary is the main one. And here, indeed, the local diocesan authorities are often faced with the task of combining moral and material factors so that the teacher agrees to make the seminary the main place of work.

Over the past 3-4 years, there has been tremendous progress here. The situation of so-called volunteer contracts for the provision of charitable services by teachers is almost one hundred percent a thing of the past. The level of teacher pay is not yet satisfactory, but we hope the situation will improve. Namely, because of the low level of wages, teachers are forced to work simultaneously in several universities and cannot devote the necessary time, attention and effort to students.

Also, graduates of central academies and master's programs are filling up the staff in those regions where self-reproduction of the teaching force is not yet possible. In recent years, another form of support for teachers has become advanced training courses, which are both legally required and essentially important for keeping teachers on their toes. In general, I see an obvious trend towards improvement in the situation with the teaching staff.

— Are remote lectures in demand for provincial seminaries?

— Time has shown that simply broadcasting lectures or classes from central religious educational institutions as a form of education is of little demand.

Full-fledged distance education, which involves appropriate faculties and assessment of students’ knowledge, is a task that is not so easy to implement. Such a system exists today at the Orthodox St. Tikhon Humanitarian University. But we must still gradually move towards distance learning replacing the current distance learning sectors. The form of distance education is a requirement of the time, and we will inevitably come to it.

In conclusion, I would like to express my firm confidence that the current responsible academic year, when for the first time in our modern history, religious universities will work according to a unified curriculum approved by the Supreme Church Council and the Holy Synod, will become an important stage in raising their overall level and approaching the solution to the task of creating unified educational field of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Educational Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church established in 1867, recreated in 1945. It is a department under the Holy Synod, designed to provide general management and coordinate the activities of theological schools, provide them with methodological assistance, and perform administrative functions together with the ruling bishops. The committee constantly operates a group to develop a new concept of education. Over the past 10 years, the committee has been holding rector's meetings, seminars for teachers of theological schools in individual disciplines, and collaborating with secular institutions and organizations. Chairman of the Academic Committee: Evgeniy, Archbishop of Vereisky, vicar of the Moscow diocese.

First Deputy Chairman: Archpriest Maxim Kozlov. Appointed to the position by the decision of the Holy Synod of March 15, 2012. Also by the decision of the Holy Synod of June 6, 2012, he was appointed secretary of the Commission of the Inter-Council Presence on Issues of Spiritual Education and Religious Education. Rector of the Patriarchal Compound - the Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment in Moscow.

The idea of rating church educational institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church arose in the second half of 2012 - early 2013, when a virtually simultaneous inspection of all theological seminaries and academies on the territory of the Russian Federation was carried out over four months.

Today, the ranking of church educational institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church includes 35 seminaries and 2 academies. All 37 educational institutions correspond to the bachelor's level, while 29 out of 37 have preparatory departments, and 10 have educational programs at the master's level. There are 2 postgraduate schools, 19 regency departments and 8 icon painting departments at 37 educational institutions.

There are 9.5 thousand students studying in church educational institutions, of which there are more than 7 thousand students at the bachelor’s level, about 1 thousand students at the master’s level, more than 500 people in the regency departments, and more than 250 people in the icon painting departments.

The rating takes into account various parameters of the life of theological schools. The Educational Committee gets acquainted with some of them on the basis of self-examination sheets - documentation that is sent by educational institutions to the Academic Committee at certain intervals on a regular or extraordinary basis upon request. Other parameters are monitored during scheduled inspections - on average, each educational institution will be visited by an inspection from the Education Committee once every three years.

The main parameters that are taken into account in the rating:

regulatory support, that is, the availability of all necessary documentation - license, state certificate, etc.;

material support, that is, parameters for the number of classrooms, the quality of equipment in classrooms, living conditions for students - food, gyms, etc.;

quality and learning outcomes.

test results of final year students to check the result of knowledge during the inspection;

availability of additional programs at the educational institution;

indicators of educational work, the work of the institute of individual mentors;

degree of communication between students and administration;

information and library support;

faculty;

educational and methodological support;

research activities - the presence of a website, a collection of teaching works, holding conferences, cooperation with secular universities.

All these factors correspond to a certain kind of coefficients and are compared with paper data and data from remote monitoring of the defense of qualifying works and final exams, which was introduced last year.

The seminary and its rating: a wake-up call

- No, the rating is a criterion that shows a certain kind of dynamics in the development of a church educational institution - up, down, stability. If the rating of an educational institution has changed by one or two places in relation to the original parameters, that’s one thing, but if by ten, that’s already an important change. And it’s good if it’s ten up. Therefore, the rating is a certain kind of warning system. Either a wake-up call or confirmation that the educational institution is doing everything correctly.

Archpriest Maxim Kozlov

–Who are the leaders of spiritual education today according to the rating?

In general, church educational institutions that are historically central - SPbPDA and MDA - are traditionally in the top. Also at the top of the ranking are seminaries that already have state accreditation - these are Smolensk, Saratov and Penza. There are also seminaries that have master’s degrees: Sretenskaya, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, etc. And also consistently strong seminaries, with a well-formed teaching corps and an attentive archpastoral attitude. This is, for example, the Kolomna Seminary, where, among other things, there is an excellent material base and the best seminary building today, recently built on the territory of the Epiphany Staro-Golutvin Monastery, which is ideally suited for the educational process and student accommodation.

The second group is seminaries that show stable indicators, but have certain shortcomings.

The third group are seminaries with more significant shortcomings that are under control.

–Why are they needed? training centers for parish specialists?

– Today there are more than 15 such centers. They have four profiles: youth, missionary, social and catechetical. An interdepartmental commission under the Educational Committee evaluates the organization of these centers and grants them the right to issue students with a church-wide document upon completion of training. The demand for this kind of personnel in parishes is great, and so far only a small part of the potential is being used - so this area of church education will develop intensively.

Autonomous existence among ourselves is not useful for us

–Should church educational institutions meet the parameters of secular universities?

–How painful was the transition to the Bologna system for church educational institutions?

– There were a lot of useful things in this transition. Yes, master's programs have become specialized in their field, but these are obvious demands of the time, it is clear that it is necessary to move to faculty-type specialization, this is done in the master's program - biblical, theological, historical, church-practical disciplines are taught to choose from.

Photo by Anna Galperina

Components of success

–ABOUT What determines the success and failure of a religious university? Can you give examples of the correct strategy or typical mistakes based on the inspection results?

– As a positive example, we can certainly name the Saratov Theological Seminary. What are the parameters of success?

Firstly, from unconditional interest of the ruling bishop. When the ruling bishop sees that having a good seminary in his diocese is not just prestigious, but the very forging of a cadre of educated clergy and church workers in a quality higher educational institution is one of the cornerstones of positive development for the diocese - then this is a kind of depth, sobriety and the correctness of the vision of the situation.

Third, decent wages for teachers. “A slave is not a pilgrim” - a church saying, or “Slave labor is unproductive” - the words of one non-church economist. Work must be adequately paid!

Fourthly, it is important work with applicants. Nowadays, this work can be carried out in different forms. As a debatable example, but one that undoubtedly meets the challenges of the time, I will name the well-known Kazan Theological Seminary, prepared by its new leadership. Such vital, positive creativity testifies to the processes of renewal and development that are taking place in the theological school, which was once one of the four academies of the Russian Church and is now dynamically developing again.

Fifthly, the key to success is normal atmosphere in relations between the educational part of the administration and students. For example, the hostel system in seminaries is a very important educational beginning: can I live with other people together, not the way I want, as I am used to with my mom and dad, but build relationships on my own after 4-5 years of study? Seminarians are students living in a dormitory, performing certain duties, but at the same time being open to modern society.

–Can you tell us more about the educational component in a church educational institution, what is its significance?

– Church educational institutions are called upon to provide not only education, but also upbringing. No matter how lofty these words may sound, we all understand that priesthood is not a job, but a lifelong service. Of course, there are comparable vocations in society: physician, teacher, military man. We all want to see in a doctor not only a specialist, but also a sympathetic person; a teacher is not only a teacher, but also an educator; in a priest not only a person who can serve the required service, but also a mentor, a comforter. And such a skill for a priest is impossible without acquiring a certain internal experience of Christian life, the education of the soul.

It cannot be said that all approaches have already been found here, but it is also impossible to abandon this part of the work in church educational institutions. A new and good example of the educational principle in church educational institutions is the institute of individual mentors. In the system of the Educational Committee and in the MDA, this work is headed by Oleg Sukhanov, a man with a higher military education, a former naval sailor, exceptionally loved by students and able to find a common language with them. The most interesting materials on a specially created website for individual mentors, programs on “Theologian” and the live communication that takes place between him and other mentors within the framework of this portal show how much this institute is in demand.

A mentor is a person who occupies a borderline position between students and the administration. Most often, this is a young teacher or a recent graduate who can help students in practical life, in educational activities, and in solving some problems that arise during their studies with high-ranking members of the administration.

MDA: statistics

– Do you have statistics specifically on the Moscow Theological Academy? To compare over the years and identify trends.

– This year, several times more young people entered the MDA than usual – more than 150 people enrolled in the bachelor’s program. Moreover, this year there are more stringent requirements and the Unified State Exam is mandatory. Of these 150 people, more than 80 were accepted into the preparatory department, and about 10 people immediately entered the first year.

The new unified curriculum implies a mandatory four-year bachelor's degree for all and the presence of a preparatory department. At the preparatory department, church disciplines are taught, which are absent in secondary school; the situation with ordinary subjects is also normalized - Russian language, foreign language, general humanities, historical disciplines. But the best students from high school, and especially young people with a higher secular education, can immediately enter the first year.

Most students graduating from MDA are ordained. The task of the seminary is, first of all, the training of clergy. But there cannot be a formal mechanistic approach here: “Please decide during your graduation year whether you will become a monk or get married. And if you don’t decide, you won’t get a diploma.” If something like this ever happened, we are now monitoring this kind of pressure and suppressing it in every possible way.

– Father Maxim, what are your feelings and intermediate conclusions from observing the development of the MDA during the period of your work in the Academic Committee?

– MDA is a unique institution, an ancient theological educational school. The forced “Soviet” break in the MDA and SPbPDA was minimal; the Moscow and Leningrad theological schools, resumed in the mid-40s, could rely on the teaching staff and graduates of pre-revolutionary theological educational institutions that survived the years of persecution. Therefore, these academies are not comparable in scale to other church educational institutions. These are institutions that have a very large margin of safety and that depend little on the personality of the leader or a particular teacher. This is stability and conservatism in the best sense.

Crisis or not crisis?

–One of the main problems of provincial seminaries is the personnel crisis. How is this problem solved?

– I would not call the situation today a crisis: the problem is not so much with the lack of personnel, but with meeting the necessary parameters for staffing positions – teachers, for whom work at the seminary is the main one. And here, indeed, the local diocesan authorities are often faced with the task of combining moral and material factors so that the teacher agrees to make the seminary the main place of work.

There has been tremendous progress here over the past 3-4 years. The situation of so-called volunteer contracts for the provision of charitable services by teachers is almost one hundred percent a thing of the past. The level of teacher pay is not yet satisfactory, but we hope the situation will improve. Namely, because of the low level of wages, teachers are forced to work simultaneously in several universities and cannot devote the necessary time, attention and effort to students.

Also, graduates of central academies and master's programs are filling up the staff - in those regions where self-reproduction of the teaching force is not yet possible. In recent years, another form of support for teachers has become advanced training courses, which are both legally required and essentially important for keeping teachers on their toes. In general, I see an obvious trend towards improvement in the situation with the teaching staff.

–Are distance lectures still in demand for provincial seminaries?

– Time has shown that simply broadcasting lectures or classes from central religious educational institutions as a form of education is of little demand.

Educational Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church established in 1867, recreated in 1945. It is a department under the Holy Synod, designed to provide general management and coordinate the activities of theological schools, provide them with methodological assistance, and perform administrative functions together with the ruling bishops. The committee constantly operates a group to develop a new concept of education. Over the past 10 years, the committee has been holding rector's meetings, seminars for teachers of theological schools in individual disciplines, and collaborating with secular institutions and organizations. Chairman of the Academic Committee: Evgeniy, Archbishop of Vereisky, vicar of the Moscow diocese.

First Deputy Chairman: Archpriest Maxim Kozlov . Appointed to the position by the decision of the Holy Synod of March 15, 2012. Also by the decision of the Holy Synod of June 6, 2012, he was appointed secretary of the Commission of the Inter-Council Presence on Issues of Spiritual Education and Religious Education. Rector of the Patriarchal Metochion - the Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment in Moscow.