This fall, the members of the Board of Trustees were pleasantly surprised that last year the amount of offerings for the seminary collected by students exceeded for the first time the amount of offerings from local churches of the UMC in Eurasia. This shows that, despite what is happening in the country, in the world, and in the global United Methodist Church, seminary students want to invest their own money in the seminary’s future.
This testimony is also an invitation to all the seminary employees, teachers, trustees, and pastors and parishioners of our churches, both personally and by involving their churches and groups, to join the inspired action of students and include the seminary in their regular offerings. The stronger the seminary, the stronger our church will be. And we need a strong church, especially in the next few years.
This fall session began with a course by Katya Zubkova, DPhil, “The Old Testament: The Books of Kings and Kingdoms.” This course was the first course on zoom, which our professor taught fully live, and not from a recording. Prof. Zubkova did this perfectly well. Students were inspired and gained a deeper understanding of this material, especially its importance for their ministry and personal spiritual growth.
The second course of the session was “Systematic Theology.” It was based on a book by Professor William Abraham recently published by Oxford University Press, and this book is currently being translated into Russian at our seminary. The consistently deep, lively, and practical presentation of the material pleased seminarians in this course as well.
In conclusion, I would like to congratulate all the friends of the seminary on the coming Advent, New Year, and Christmas! May the Lord fill your lives and your homes with peace, joy, light, and love! We are honored that you have made the Moscow seminary a part of your life, and we thank God for you!
Sergei Nikolaev, PhD,
President, E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism