Council of Christian Education

Moscow Theological Seminary launched the Council of Christian Education in 2007 under the leadership of MTS President Peter Mitskevich. Russian Leadership Ministries partially subsidizes the annual program costs.

The purpose is to bring together the leaders of all of the evangelical seminaries and bible colleges in Russia for continuing education and leadership development, and in some cases cooperative ventures. 

In 2011, 15 schools were represented by more than 50 president, deans and faculty in attendance, including several from outside of the Russian Baptist Union. The first year there were only five schools in attendance. 

Our primary speaker in 2011 was Dr. Peter Penner.  Peter is a strong supporter of MTS and a highly regarded leader in theological education in the Russian-speaking world.  He is presently the Dean of a program based in Vienna called TCM.  He is a past president of St. Petersburg Christian University and formerly Dean at the International Baptist Theological School in Prague.  Over two days Dr. Penner gave a series of lectures on the theme Mission in Theological Education. 

There were two workshops from government representatives.  One spoke on religious freedom in Russian society and the other on emerging new standards for higher education.

We were fortunate to have Dr. Sannikov with us on the last day of the Council.  He gave a lecture on the Future Tendencies of Theological Education in Eurasia, then conducted a book signing for his new release, “A Popular History of Christianity.”