Amendments formulated

Speaking at the opening of the XX Christmas educational readings in Moscow, Patriarch Kirill called for strengthening the participation of the Church in the training of teachers and the examination of textbooks and manuals for teaching the fundamentals of Orthodox culture in schools, and also stated the need to create a legal framework that guarantees budgetary funding for Orthodox educational organizations.

“Some work has been done in this direction; appropriate amendments to federal and regional legislation have been formulated, which are currently being considered by relevant government agencies. We hope the issue will be resolved positively,” the patriarch said.

In this regard, he emphasized that the joint task of the Church, society and the state is to increase the level of competence of all participants in the educational process, to form “spiritually strong and morally healthy youth who will create the future of our country, and today will not allow the collapse of the state, darkness social consciousness among young people."

Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko, who also spoke at the opening of the readings, which are held under the motto: “Enlightenment and morality: the concern of the church, society and state,” hopes that the opinion of the Russian Church will be taken into account when adopting the law on education. “It is now expected to be widely discussed in society and it is planned to adopt it during the spring session of the State Duma and the Federation Council,” said V. Matvienko. Version Law 3.02, in particular, contains a clause stating that the right of parents to spiritual and moral (read, religious) education in a municipal school must be enshrined in law. It also contains a provision that the programs of all religious modules that will be studied by children as part of the course “Fundamentals of Religious Culture and Secular Ethics” must be developed with the active participation of the relevant central religious organizations and approved by them.

The draft of the mentioned law provides for a separate article regulating the specifics of studying the foundations of spiritual and moral culture and obtaining theological education, said Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Maxim Dulinov.
He recalled that from September 1, 2012, this course will be introduced in all schools in the country and will be studied during the entire fourth grade, one hour a week.

The anniversary Christmas readings will be held in Gostiny Dvor, in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and at other venues in Moscow. About eight thousand specialists from different cities of Russia, near and far abroad will take part in the forum. Monks from Athos will also come to the Christmas readings.