The spring of 2010 was very fruitful for Moscow Theological Seminary.
Several students have finished their education and received certificates and diplomas. On Apr. 21 the tenth group of Christian Education Department graduated from the seminary. Seven students from Central Russia received the degree of Bachelor of Ministry. The ceremony took place in the hall of MTS. Veterans of the Baptist Union including its former presidents Y.Sipko and P.Konovalchik participated in it and they were awarding the graduates with the diplomas. The new element of that ceremony consisted in a special prayer of blessings over the graduates.
In the beginning of May new students entered the seminary. The new group of the Pastoral Department includes 18 people also 3 people are going to join the group next session. All the new students are active ministers of the Baptist Union: pastors (3), deacons, preachers, choir leaders and Sunday school directors. About one third of them have got undergraduate or postgraduate secular degrees.
Alongside with long-term degree programs the seminary runs a number of certificate programs: Youth leaders, Christian counseling, Church and Law. A new program for church accountants started in May. It is very important for Baptist churches in Russia because financial inaccuracies are a common ground for state activities against the churches. The training at MTS provides accountants with tools needed for irreproachable accounting and proper interaction with local authorities.
The fifth session of the master program for the superintendents of the Russian Union of the ECB took place at MTS from 15 to 20 March. This session was shortened because of the XXXIII Congress of the RUECB. Nevertheless the learning was very fruitful. The students attended such classes as in Leadership, Apologetics and Law. This time MTS proposed a very interesting course on the Orthodox Church . This course was led by Orthodox priest Igor Vazhenov from Moscow Patriarchy and Pavel Togobitsky, the academic dean of Novosibirsk Bible Seminary. In spite of their business all the superintendents showed great diligence in their studies. Many of them are going to write their dissertations. We plan that the program will be completed in 2011. After that superintendents will attend special seminars for one week every 6 months to raise their educational level.
Conference of the CCCE at MTS
On December 11-12 MBS hosted a conference of Consultative Council on Christian Education of the RUECB. The conference was devoted to strategic planning in management of Christian schools. President of the Union of the ECB Y.Sipko warmly greeted all the participants. Then P.Mitskevich the chief of CCCE presented his annual report.
The conference consisted of two parts. The formal part included reports and presentations of representatives of local schools. In the second part president of St.-Petersburg Christian University A.Negrov shared his vision of strategic planning in a series of lections and seminars. During the training every participant prepared his or her plan of development of the local schools which were by then discussed in groups.
On the second day of the conference O.Voskresensky the representative of the Department of Education of Russian Federation rendered some information about the controversial course on religion which is going to be compulsory in the high schools. Next conference was appointed to take place in Moscow on 9-10 December 2010..
The list of schools represented in the conference:
Moscow Theological Seminary (including heads of the regional centers)
Novosibirsk Bible Theological Seminary of the ECB
North-Caucasus Bible Institute
St.-Petersburg Christian University
Bryansk Bible College
West-Siberian Bible College
Volgograd Theological College
Kaliningrad Bible College
Krasnoyarsk Bible College
Far-East Bible College
Nizhniy Novgorod Bible School
Minister Training Bible Institute (Dedovsk, Moscow Province)
The conference expresses gratitude to members of Russian Leadership Ministries Dr.I.Chapman and Dr.T.Rodgers for their input to the training.
Graduation of the 10th pastoral group
Students of
the tenth group of the Pastoral department has completed their studies and graduated
from the seminary. The number of the graduates is 10. They all are active
ministers of local churches of Central Russia and Siberia.
One of them was recently elected to be a superintendent in Volgograd
(former Stalingrad). The graduation ceremony
took place on December 10. The graduates received congratulations from top
leaders of the Russian Baptist Union including its president and several
bishops and some members of the board of trustees.
A new training
program for Christian counselors started in the seminary. About 50 actual
counselors from different parts of Russia came to participate in it. The
program is divided to 3 one- week sessions which will take place every half a
year. It combines physiological and theological subjects. The idea of training
consists in making counseling in a Christian Bible-grounded way. After finishing
the program the participants will be awarded with a special certificate.
News 
session was shortened because of the XXXIII Congress of the RUECB. Nevertheless the learning was very fruitful. The students attended such classes as in Leadership, Apologetics and Law. This time MTS proposed a very interesting
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