Appeal of the inter -religious council of Russia

The Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate extended the appeal of the inter -religious council of Russia, the meeting of which took place in Moscow.

“Participants in the inter -religious council of Russia, uniting communities of followers of Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism,” the document says, ”they apply to the Government of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation with a request to accelerate the practice of training in the specialty of“ theology ”in higher secular educational institutions and the adoption of the relevant state educational standard.

The promotion of this process, which has already received the right to life in a number of Russian universities, will help the training of teachers for religious and other educational institutions, specialists who could work in various fields, having proper knowledge about world religions, but not being burdened by the skeptical approach to them, which is unacceptable for a believer and cannot be the basis for the preparation of people who intend to work in the field of teaching religion. In no way, we do not deny the right to skeptical religious scholars to continue the training of those who want to, in the usual spirit for them, but do not agree with their attempt to approve the monopoly on the interpretation of religion within the framework of higher education.

At the same time, we believe that when developing more detailed curricula, one should more flexibly modify them in order to take into account the requests of followers of each of the traditional Russian religions.

We hope that consolidating the teaching of theology in secular universities in the voluntary choice of students will help not only religious communities, but also the state to acquire new specialists who can bring tangible benefits to the Fatherland and its peoples. ”