Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies

Description

The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies is the pan-Orthodox house for theological studies in the ancient university city of Cambridge functioning with the formal approval and blessing of the Pan-Orthodox Episcopal Assembly for Great Britain and Ireland.

The Institute is situated at a major crossroad for academic exchange and attracts students and scholars from across the world.

The Institute is a UK registered charity and its aim is ‘to provide facilities for students, especially members of the Orthodox Church, to be involved in theological education through the life of and educational opportunities afforded by The Cambridge Theological Federation and/or other educational institutions’. It also seeks ‘to arrange or provide direction of studies, lectures, classes, seminars, courses and conferences, exhibitions and meetings’.

The Institute is the sole Christian Orthodox institution for higher education in the United Kingdom, gathering together Christians from all the historical Orthodox Churches in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Russia and Greece, but also from the various Orthodox jurisdictions in the UK and the Western world. It aims to reach out to meet the needs of the developing Orthodox parishes in the United Kingdom, while simultaneously, through the internet, conveying the message by distance learning to the furthest corners of the world.

The Institute is a Member of the Cambridge Theological Federation and has close ties with the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Divinity. As a member of the Federation, the Institute also works in partnership with Anglia Ruskin University and Durham University (the Common Awards Programme). At the Institute, students study together with colleagues from other traditions in the Cambridge Theological Federation: Anglican, Methodist, Roman Catholic and Reformed.

Established in an ecumenical context, the Institute trains clergy and laity to cooperate, dialogue and share with other Churches in propagating the Christian message to an increasingly secular and pluralist world, while at the same time presenting the riches of the Orthodox tradition.