President of St. Vladimir seminary visited the Moscow Theological Academy
On January 15 th Chad Hatfield, President of St. Vladimir seminary in New York and a
representative of the Orthodox church in America, visited the Moscow Theological Academy.
St. Vladimir seminary is one of the leading theological institutions in the Orthodox church in
America. Chad Hatfield’s visit took place within cooperation between local churches in the area of
theological education.
During their visit guests were able to look at pieces of Russian church art in a museum of the
Moscow Theological Academy and learn about rich history of the oldest educational center in
Russia and Russian church.
After an excursion round the museum, archpriest Chad Hatfield met with the bishop of Zvenigorod
Pitirim, Rector of the Moscow Theological Academy.
Bishop Pitirim told about a modern state of theological education in Russia and gave a historical
overview of theological academies work before revolution and in Soviet time.
Among numerous theological institutions around North America and Canada St. Vladimir seminary
is the only one which started a publishing activity. Archpriest Chad Hatfield donated to the MThA
library a translated work of St. Maxim the Confessor followed by St. Vladimir seminary
professors’ personal thoughts and their reflections on days of the Holy Week. Also Father Chad
presented an image of his patron saint - St. Chad.
In honour of the 150 th anniversary of the establishment of an academic church after the Intercession
of the Theotokos bishop Pitirim presented Academy’s guests a memorable photo album.
During the conversation some aspects of cooperation between the Moscow Theological Academy
and St. Vladimir seminary were discussed. Also the representatives of these two educational
centers outlined some perspectives of future co-working between their publishing houses.
Background information:
At the meeting with the president of St. Vladimir seminary there was present priest Alexander
Kuznetsov, Deputy-rector for representational activity, and hegumen Dionisiy (Schlenov), Head of
the MThA library.
