Meeting of the Joint Doctoral Dissertation Council Held at St. Andrew's Monastery

On December 22, 2025, the last meeting of the year of the Joint Doctoral Dissertation Council of the Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk, and Sretensk Theological Academies was held in the assembly hall of the postgraduate studies of the Moscow Theological Academy at St. Andrew's Monastery.

The meeting was chaired by the Chairman of the Joint Doctoral Dissertation Council and the Synodal Department for Youth Affairs, Doctor of Theology, Professor, Bishop Seraphim of Istra. 

The Scientific Secretary was Associate Professor of the Department of Church History at MThA, Candidate of Theology Hierodeacon Georgy (Ramazyan). 

Fourteen permanent members of the Dissertation Council participated in the work.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Chairman of the Dissertation Council presented the diploma and breastplate of Doctor of Theology to Associate Professor of the Departments of Theology and Biblical Studies at MThA, R.M. Rupova, who successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on the topic "The Theological Understanding of the Modern Natural-Scientific Paradigm" (at the Dissertation Council meeting on May 12, 2025).

Then, the members of the Dissertation Council reviewed the motivated conclusion of the expert commission regarding the correspondence of the content of the dissertation by Priest Dmitry Ponomarev, "Problems of a Comprehensive Church-Historical Study of Small Monasteries of the Russian North (13th–18th Centuries)", to the criteria established by the "Regulations on the Joint Doctoral Dissertation Council of the Moscow Theological Academy, St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Minsk Theological Academy, and Sretensk Theological Academy".

A decision was made to admit Priest Dmitry Ponomarev's dissertation for defense, appoint official opponents, set the date for the defense as March 30, 2026, and approve the theological higher education institution "Yekaterinburg Theological Seminary" as the lead organization.

The announcement of the defense, the full text of the dissertation, the author's abstract, and other necessary documents will be published on the website in the near future.

The meeting also reviewed and accepted the reports from applicants on the progress of their work on doctoral dissertations. Applicants whose deadline for submission according to the "Regulations on the Joint Doctoral Dissertation Council" is expiring were advised to intensify work on their dissertations and strive to defend them in 2026.

A petition from the Vicar of St. Andrew's Monastery, Professor of the Department of Theology at MThA, Associate Professor, Candidate of Theology Hegumen Dionysius (Shlenov), for the acceptance of his dissertation for the defense of the academic degree of Doctor of Theology was considered. It was decided to accept the dissertation by Hegumen Dionysius (Shlenov) on the topic "In Defense of the Conciliar Structure of the Orthodox Church: The Theory of Primacy of the Patriarch of Constantinople and Its Criticism" for preliminary consideration and to create an expert commission to prepare a motivated conclusion on the correspondence of the dissertation's content to the criteria established by the "Regulations on the Joint Doctoral Dissertation Council".

Other issues related to the activities of the Joint Doctoral Dissertation Council were also considered.

The meeting was held in a hybrid (in-person and remote) format.

MThA Press Office