Representatives of the DECR participate in events marking the three-hundredth anniversary of the Kazan Theological Academy.
DECR Communication service, 23.11.2023.
On 20th and 21st November festivities were held in the city of Kazan to mark the three-hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Kazan Theological Academy.
On 20th November the twelfth international scholarly theological conference entitled ‘Theological and Secular Learning: Traditional and New Interaction’ took place and was attended by more than 180 people from around Russia and abroad. The plenary sessions, round tables and workshops on Orthodox theology, church history, Islamic studies and other humanitarian sciences were held at the Kazan Theological Academy, Kazan Federal University, the National Library of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Hazine Art Gallery. The organizer of the event was the metropolitanate of Kazan along with the Tatarstan ministry of culture, the department of religious studies at Kazan Federal University, the Timiryasov Institute for Philosophy under Kazan Federal University and the Tatarstan State Museum of Visual Arts.
With the blessing of the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate the metropolitan of Volokolamsk Anthony, taking part in the forum were the DECR secretary for interreligious relations deacon Iliya Kashitsyn and department consultant Father Dimitry Safonov.
Deacon Iliya Kashitsyn gave a paper at the Islamic studies and interreligious dialogue workshop on the problems and perspectives of interreligious dialogue by the Russian Orthodox Church as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and the fundamental changes in the international sphere in 2022 and 2023.
Attending the session were: the director of the missionary department of the metropolitanate of Novosibirsk, the vice-president of the Russian Association of Centres for the Study of Religions and Sects archpriest Alexander Novopashin; the deputy rector for theology and head of the department of theology at the Saratov Theological Seminary archpriest Dimitry Polokhov; the rector of the Churches of Saint Philip the Apostle in Sharjah and of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker in Teheran archimandrite Alexander (Zarkeshev); the chairman of the expert council under the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia for interaction with the Muslim world hieromonk Grigory (Matrusov); lecturer at the department for Islamic studies at the Kazan Theological Seminary and dean of the New Jerusalem episcopal metochion hieromonk Roman (Modin); professor of the Moscow State Linguistics University R. A. Silantiev; the head of the department for Islamic studies at Kazan Orthodox Theological Seminary, lecturer at the department for Islamic studies at the Rogatin Kazan Federal University, director general of the Katechon analytical centre and deputy director of the Tsargrad Institute M.I. Yakushev; the deputy head of the Centre for Interreligious Dialogue at the Bolgar Islamic Academy R.A. Fatkhullin, and other representatives of the clergy on teaching staff of the Kazan Theological Seminary and other specialists. Papers were given on the topics of Orthodox-Muslim relations, the history and doctrine of Islam at various historical periods in the Ottoman empire and Cordova caliphate, the work of the joint Russian-Iranian commission for dialogue between Orthodoxy and Islam, the theological interpretation of the relationship towards non-Muslims in Islam, and preventative measures and the resolution of conflicts with the participation of religion. As part of the workshop books published by the Ibn Siny Foundation were ceremoniously presented to the library of the Kazan Theological Seminary.
Father Dimitry Safonov spoke online at the ‘Kazan Theological Seminary of the Kazan Theological Academy in theological studies’ workshop. In his paper Father Dimitry spoke of the theological legacy of the renowned church figure Nikolai Lisovoi (1946-1019) and the general direction his studies took, which is to say, the Orthodox empire and its relationship with the Church, the history of Russian theology, the history of the Russian Church and the Russian saints. Using Lisovoi’s personal archive and his early publications, the author of the paper offered an analysis in the context of the period of his works written under Soviet rule and for the first time addressed the sources of his work.
On 21st November on the feast day of the Saint Michael the Archangel and the other bodiless powers of heaven the divine liturgy was celebrated at the Kazan Cathedral of the Monastery of the Virgin in Kazan by the representative of the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia the metropolitan of Philippopolis Niphon, the metropolitan of Kazan and Tatarstan Kirill, the auxiliary bishop of His Holiness the Patriarch of Serbia the bishop of Moravica Anthony, the bishop of Chistopol and Nizhnekamsk Pachomius, the bishop of Almetievsk and Bugulma Methodius, the deputy administrator of the Moscow Patriarchy the bishop of Zelenograd Sabbas and the rector of the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy the bishop of Peterhof Siluan. Concelebrating with them were the chairman of the study council of the Russian Orthodox Church and rector of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius Postgraduate Studies Institute archpriest Maxim Kozlov, the representative of the Patriarch of Bulgaria to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia archimandrite Theoctist (Dimitrov), the rector of the Minsk Theological Academy archimandrite Athanasius (Sokolov), the representative of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia archimandrite Seraphim (Shemyatovsky), the dean of the Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Teheran archimandrite Alexander (Zarkeshev), the representative of the Orthodox Church in America to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia archpriest Daniel Andrejuk, the rector of the Kazan Theological Academy archpriest Vladimir Samoilenko, and father superiors, rectors and clergy of the churches and monasteries of the Kazan diocese.
The Fifth Forum of the Orthodox Public of the Republic of Tatarstan took place on the same day, headed by the metropolitan of Kazan and Tatarstan Kirill and the head of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov. Attending the session were more than 700 people, including high representatives of the federal and regional organs of power, Orthodox bishops and priests, heads of church institutions, public figures, parish activists, charity organizers, the heads of state and regional authorities, and figures from the cultural and scientific world. Among the participants were representatives of the Local Orthodox Churches who had come to Kazan to celebrate the jubilee of the Kazan Theological Seminary. Representatives of the traditional religious communities of Tatarstan were also invited as guests to the forum.
The events concluded with a festive concert at which organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach were performed by the choral groups of the metropolitanate of Tatarstan.