The Belgorod Orthodox Seminary held its 26th graduation: 42 new pastors and theologianstranslated

With the blessing of Metropolitan John of Belgorod and Stary Oskol

On June 29, a solemn Graduation Act took place at the Belgorod Orthodox Theological Seminary (with a missionary orientation). At the beginning of the holiday, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated, the service of which was led by Metropolitan John of Belgorod and Stary Oskol.

Concelebrating with the bishop was the rector of the seminary, Archpriest Alexey Kurenkov, the vice-rector for academic affairs, Archpriest Sergiy Dergalev, as well as other clergy - graduates of the seminary.

After reading the Holy Gospel, Metropolitan John addressed the worshipers with an archpastoral word. In his sermon, the Bishop recalled the deep meaning of the Gospel readings, calling not to reduce faith to the formal fulfillment of rules: “The law itself does not save. The source of life saves - God. And the law is a teacher to Christ.” Speaking about pastoral service, the bishop emphasized that “the law is for man, and not man for the law,” and called on us to always measure our actions with the love of Christ: “We will always ask ourselves, when rendering some kind of verdict, expressing some opinion or taking some kind of action against someone: what would Christ have done in my...