Orthodox Missionary School
, an organization under the Synodal Missionary Department of the Russian Orthodox Church, preparing Orthodox Christians for missionary service
- Address (place of classes): Russia, Moscow
- 5th proezd Maryina Roshcha, 15a, building of the International Academy of Business and Management
- st. Dolgorukovskaya, 23
The idea of founding a special missionary institute was born to Father Daniil Sysoev and his associates no later than the end of the 1990s [1]. On October 15, 2008, after the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' was received, the School of Orthodox Missionary was founded by Father Daniel at the Church of the Apostle Thomas on Kantemirovskaya in Moscow. The curriculum was originally designed for a year; included an analysis of the main modern religions and ideologies, methods of reasoned defense of the true faith, and missionary practice. Initially, the school operated with the support of the diocesan commission for youth affairs of the city of Moscow. In the early years, the emphasis of the students' missionary activity was on street missions and disputes with heterodox and non-Orthodox people.
In August 2010, the new leaders of the School turned to Patriarch Kirill with a request to include the School in the structure of the Synodal Missionary Department as a faculty of the Belgorod Theological Seminary with a missionary orientation. No later than the beginning of 2011, the School became part of the Belgorod Seminary as a faculty. Within the framework of the Synodal Missionary Department, the chairman of the department became the rector of the School, and the vice-chairman became the vice-rector (curator/dean). The school was assigned to the Church of St. Nicholas in Otradnoye, where students were spiritually nourished and underwent mandatory missionary practice. The educational process was carried out for 4 years according to the programs of the Belgorod Theological Seminary modified for evening education.
At the same time, two directions took shape in the school, leading to its division into two. The part, led by Alexander Lyulka, remained part of the Synodal Department and carried out activities with the blessing of its chairman, with an emphasis on the external mission. The other part separated and remained active at the Church of the Apostle Thomas, emphasizing the street mission in their activities.
The school, run by the Synodal Department, soon switched to a two-year format of education using specially designed programs. Pupils, graduates and teachers began to participate in various missionary projects; the number of missionary trips to serve both in missionary camps on the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church and beyond its borders has increased. In the field of external mission, regular (usually on the twelve holidays) trips to Thailand and Cambodia were carried out [2]; actions for guests of Russia, similar to the one organized on February 16, 2013 for a group of Chinese students visiting the Trinity-Sergius Lavra [3]; ministry in dioceses with a low proportion of Orthodox population, such as in Kyzyl, including camps in the cities of Shagonar and Ak-Dovurak [4]. Lectures were held in monasteries, catechetical courses, and visits to orphanages. Collections of church utensils were carried out to be sent to those in need in missionary territories, including Africa, Asia, Latin America, and parts of Russia.
Statistics
- October 2008 – 35 students [5]
- February 2011 – 41 listeners [6]
- recruitment 2012/2013 - 35 people [7]
Teachers
- Daniil Sysoev (2008 - November 19, 2009)
- Oleg Stenyaev (2008 - no later than 2013)
- Georgy Maksimov (2008 - mentioned 2017)
- Alexander Vyacheslavovich Lyulka (mentioned 2010 - mentioned 2017)
- Dimitry Pakhomov (mentioned 2010 - no later than 2013)
- Alekseev Sergey Viktorovich (mentioned 2013 - mentioned 2017)
- Korshikov Alexander Alexandrovich (mentioned 2013 - mentioned 2017)
- Mahler Arkady Markovich (mentioned 2013 - mentioned 2017)
- Volodikhin Dmitry Mikhailovich (mentioned 2013 - mentioned 2017)
- Tigry Khachatryan (mentioned 2021 - mentioned 2017)
- Molev Ilya Alexandrovich (mentioned 2013 - mentioned 2017)
The Orthodox Missionary School announces a new intake of students!
The Orthodox Missionary School is holding a new intake of students in September 2021 for the 2020-2021 academic year.
You can enroll in the School by passing an interview, signing up by calling 8-985-412-76-85, or through the “Enter the School” course online.
The school was founded by the famous preacher, theologian and missionary of our days, Priest Daniil Sysoev , who suffered martyrdom in 2009 in the Church of the Apostle Thomas on Kantemirovskaya. The head of the School is Archpriest Igor Fomin, Chairman of the Commission for Missionary and Catechesis of Moscow. The confessor of the School is Archpriest Artemy Vladimirov .
The school does everything possible to fulfill the commandment of Christ: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). The main task of the School is to provide students with a comprehensive Orthodox education, based on strict adherence to dogmatic doctrine and necessary for a full-fledged mission in the modern world.
In the curriculum: church disciplines - Dogmatic theology, Holy Scripture, Church history, Canonical structure of the Church, Liturgics; humanitarian disciplines - Logic, Rhetoric, Philosophy, Cultural Studies; detailed study of other religions in the courses Comparative Theology and Religious Studies - namely, Catholicism, Protestantism and modern Protestant sects, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism; as well as the study of atheism and anti-clericalism; missionary subjects - Apologetics, Missiology and Missionary Practice.
School students undergo mandatory missionary practice. Upon completion of training, it is possible to enter the Belgorod Orthodox Theological Seminary; work as teachers of theological disciplines, parish missionaries and catechists, work in missionary camps and parishes in Russia (Tyva, Yakutia) and abroad (Thailand, Cambodia, Kenya, Philippines, Taiwan, Mongolia, Latin America...).
The school has departments for full-time and distance learning.
Full-time: Full-time classes are held in the Church of the Great Martyr. Nikita (Staraya Basmannaya, 16) for two years, three days a week, in the evening.
Distance department: classes are broadcast for students of the distance department if the Internet is available at the place where the face-to-face classes are held; recordings of all classes, as well as tasks that must be completed, are posted on the School’s website; at the end of the semester, exams are conducted via Skype or other types of communication;
For those wishing to study remotely, you must register on the website, sign up for the “Interview” course (follow this link) and complete three steps in this course.
Those wishing to study must be Orthodox Christians, know the basics of Orthodox dogma in the scope of the Catechism of St. Metropolitan Philareta Moscow.
Contacts: t. 8-985-412-76-85 e-mail.
Daniel's childhood
The future clergyman spent his childhood in Moscow in the 70s. His childhood was a small prophetic chronicle of his entire subsequent adult life: the first attempts to talk about his faith in a state that treats faith with contempt, the ridicule of classmates and teachers, and the diligent, joyful singing of the Creed during the Liturgy, which delighted even adults.
A sincere freedom-loving child, ready to defend his views and not ashamed of them, he remained that way all his life.
Origin and birth
Sysoev was born in Moscow on January 12, 1974 in a family of two artists. As he himself said, he was half Tatar, half Russian. His father subsequently became a cleric of the Church of Peter and Paul in Yasenevo. My mother's great-grandfather was a mullah.
Family
The boy's family was churched, and both parents were baptized. But under pressure from grandparents who were categorically against religion, they were afraid to baptize the child for a long time. And only when the boy became seriously ill did they decide to take this step; this happened in 1977.
Afterwards, they and their parents began attending church services, mostly visiting the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Kuznetskaya Sloboda. Daniel's dad worked as an altar boy in Afineevo and at that time often took his son with him. The boy became familiar with the Orthodox faith, watching the service with pleasure, participating in singing in the choir, readings and prayer.
According to the recollections of his mother, Anna Midkhatovna Amirova, at the same time as their son walked towards faith and grew up, they followed the same path, also growing spiritually.
When he was 14, he participated in the restoration work of the Optina Hermitage, where the priest Artemy Vladimirov gave him his blessing to enter the Moscow Theological Seminary.
№31 (640) / August 15 '11
Interviewed by Anastasia Titova Education
A Missionary Institute opened in Yekaterinburg
Do modern people need missionaries? Asking about this is as strange as asking whether modern people can live without truth. Saint Philaret of Moscow wrote a century and a half ago: “Eject the truth of Christ from humanity - the same thing will happen to him as to a body without a heart and a world without the sun.” And therefore the appearance of the Missionary Institute in Yekaterinburg is a very significant event. We talk about what and how the Ural missionaries are taught with the rector of the Missionary Institute - Doctor of Philology, Professor Natalia Aleksandrovna Dyachkova.
— Usually, when a new institute appears, it is not taken too seriously. It has been earning a reputation as a reputable institution for many years. And the Missionary Institute seems to have been born as an adult: strong traditions, a proven program, carefully selected teaching staff, a good name... How and when did you acquire all this?
— Thank you for your kind words addressed to us. Indeed, the Missionary Institute was not created out of nowhere: its predecessor was the Missionary Courses at the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery, which spent ten years preparing Orthodox people for missionary service. I could name a parish in which all the choristers and all the Sunday school teachers are our graduates. Over the years, residents of not only Yekaterinburg, but also Pervouralsk, Sredneuralsk, Polevsky and even Miass - and this is the Chelyabinsk region - have studied with us and continue to study.
For the last three years we have been working as Higher Missionary Courses. The higher ones - because they began to master the state standard “Bachelor of Theology”, increased the duration of the courses from three to five years, and assembled a team of highly qualified specialists: theologians, priests, university professors. Some special courses were taught by famous scientists from Moscow and other cities, we specially invited them. In a word, we taught our students the same way they teach in the evening departments of any university: we had sessions with exams and tests, our students wrote coursework and dissertations, there was a graduate seminar, scientific conferences, methodological seminars were held, the Faculty Academic Council met... But we couldn’t issue a document on education. We were registered specifically as courses at the monastery. But we dreamed of transforming them into an institute for a long time, so we tried, so to speak, to prepare the ground. And when Rosobrnadzor granted us a license in July of this year, we had already fully tested the university model. All these three years, our students even went to pedagogical practice!
— But why was it necessary to create the institute? After all, the Missionary Courses coped with their task quite successfully?
- Yes it is. But we still felt sorry for our listeners. Agree, it’s a shame to study for five years, like in college, defend a qualifying thesis, and not receive a diploma of higher education. However, this is not even the main thing. In our diocese, almost every church has a parochial school, and today theologians with higher education should teach there, and not just pious laymen. In addition, teachers will soon be needed in regular secondary schools to teach disciplines with an Orthodox component. It would be good if these subjects were also taught by qualified theologians.
In general, we underestimate the real need for such specialists. Remember how de-churched modern society is, even baptized Orthodox Christians. People crossed themselves, put a cross around their necks, and that’s it. And never set foot in the temple again. They continue to live their old lives. Unfortunately, there are a majority of these around us. There are so many people around who call themselves Orthodox, but who have never been to Confession and have never taken communion. They didn’t hold the Gospel in their hands! In the spring of 2010, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' visited our institute. Addressing listeners and teachers, he said that “the main task today is internal missionary work, the re-Christianization of our de-churched compatriots.”
— Why does the institute operate at the monastery? It seems that these organizations have completely different tasks...
— Monasteries have always been centers of education and culture, centers of enlightenment in the original, original sense of the word. Today we believe that an enlightened person is an educated, erudite, knowledgeable intellectual with a diploma of higher education, or even better - with an academic degree, but once upon a time our ancestors understood enlightenment as something else: knowledge of the truth and even the sacrament that introduces us to the kingdom of eternal light - Baptism. Thousands of people were spiritually enlightened in monasteries; here they strengthened their faith and found solace in their sorrows.
And the pre-revolutionary Novo-Tikhvin Monastery was also a center not only of spiritual enlightenment, but also of enlightenment in the modern sense of the word. There was a women's school at the monastery, which was the first in the Perm province. Imagine, nine thousand girls studied there! And we, with the blessing of the monastery’s confessor and our institute, Schema-Archimandrite Abraham and the abbess of the monastery, Abbess Domniki, are only trying to revive this tradition.
—What do you think a modern missionary should be like?
— First of all, believers and churchgoers. And besides this, he, of course, must have a disposition towards people, be responsive, tactful, kind, and friendly. And joyful. A dull missionary will not only inspire no one, but will not even interest anyone. In addition, a modern missionary, undoubtedly, must be able to speak competently and beautifully and generally be a cultured person.
— Teachers of the institute – who are they? How do you find them? After all, there seem to be very few believers, and even churchgoers, in science...
- Only religious teachers teach here. You are right, unfortunately, these are not the majority in our universities, but they still exist. We are taught by professors and associate professors of UrFU, the Ural Academy of Civil Service, priests with an academic degree, as well as graduates of PSTGU, MDA, EPDS, Belgorod Missionary Seminary... Each teacher is a unique personality, an interesting scientist, an excellent teacher. I don’t know why we are so happy?
— Who are your listeners?
“These are different people: young, elderly, girls, grandmothers, mathematicians, historians, military men, entrepreneurs, pensioners, poets... But there are no random people among them: the Lord brought everyone to us in their own ways.” Some had already been in a sect, some were interested in esotericism, some had recently become a believer and immediately decided to study theology in order to “believe wisely”...
And the courses, and now the institute, one might say, unite so many different people into one big family. Many people find friends here. Graduates continue to communicate, make friends, go on pilgrimage trips together, and celebrate Orthodox holidays together. Moreover: some find here... a spouse. During the years that the Missionary Courses operated, before our eyes several Orthodox families were formed and children were born. We don’t just have an educational institution, there is no indifference here, here everyone is each other’s brothers and sisters in Christ.
In other rooms:
Missionary courses - Christians and missionaries, Russian Orthodox Church
Father Daniil Sysoev The example of missionary work that was shown by the holy apostles, confessors, and missionaries of the past is now shown in the 21st century by Father Daniil Sysoev.
He tried to take as a guide to use the experience already gained in our Church, but trying to use all the opportunities of our time. After all, if the holy apostles did not even have a loudspeaker, now there are a huge number of opportunities for preaching. Father Daniil Sysoev: “If a person is drawn to any passions - drunkenness, fornication, one must in every possible way avoid the reasons that cause them. And even if one of the priests blesses you to drink a little wine, you should not listen to him, but abstain, because the salvation of the soul is most important" (Conversations on the Passion, Priest Daniil Sysoev), "Remember that there are things that with the knowledge of the will God's will is completely incompatible: the will of God is never revealed to a drunken person, because the person has darkened his mind. The will of God is never revealed to a person in a state of drug intoxication, in a state of exaltation, like the priests of Baal. The will of God is never revealed to a person who justifies obvious evil. The will of God is revealed to a person with a sober mind, because a person’s mind becomes stronger when approaching the mind of God” (transcript of a conversation by Priest Daniil Sysoev), “The will of God is never revealed: 1) to a drunken person, because a person’s mind is darkened; 2) to a person in a state of drug intoxication or exaltation (when a person has “twisted himself”); 3) a person who justifies evil” (How to know the will of God? Priest Daniil Sysoev).
Father Daniil Sysoev: “If a person is drawn to any passions - drunkenness, fornication, one must in every possible way avoid the reasons that cause them. And even if one of the priests blesses you to drink a little wine, you should not listen to him, but abstain, because the salvation of the soul is most important" (Conversations on the Passion, Priest Daniil Sysoev), "Remember that there are things that with the knowledge of the will God's will is completely incompatible: the will of God is never revealed to a drunken person, because the person has darkened his mind. The will of God is never revealed to a person in a state of drug intoxication, in a state of exaltation, like the priests of Baal. The will of God is never revealed to a person who justifies obvious evil. The will of God is revealed to a person with a sober mind, because a person’s mind becomes stronger when approaching the mind of God” (transcript of a conversation by Priest Daniil Sysoev), “The will of God is never revealed: 1) to a drunken person, because a person’s mind is darkened; 2) to a person in a state of drug intoxication or exaltation (when a person has “twisted himself”); 3) a person who justifies evil” (How to know the will of God? Priest Daniil Sysoev).
vk.com/missioneru
Orthodox teetotalers for prohibition
