Winners of Orthodox competition Unveiled

15/4/2010

45 thousand school students from 52 Russian regions have taken part in the Second All-Russian Competition “Basics of Orthodox Culture”. Patriarch Kirill summed up the results of the contest and gave prizes to the winners in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
The Russian Patriarch considers the knowledge of the principles of Orthodox culture to be of paramount importance in the present-day world, since it forms the world-view of teenagers, cultivates love for their Motherland, home cities, families and people. “Today, we have to start many things from the beginning. After spending many years in an unreligious society, our country is now becoming familiar with the great values of our cultural and spiritual traditions. The formation of our national idea will contribute to a stronger society. Studying the principles of Orthodox culture is necessary to recover our clear and definite system of values,” the Patriarch said. The four-stage competition among students was meant to check their knowledge of Orthodox traditions and ceremonies, as well as history of religion and our country. Teenagers participated in photo competitions and quizzes, wrote compositions, showed their knowledge in history of their home cities. Invited to take part in the contest was everyone, regardless the school and confession.

One of the prize winners, 11-year-old Nastya from Moscow, didn’t even expect that she could ever get such a result: “I study at the St. Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Gymnasium. It was a pleasure for me to participate in the competition with its interesting, although difficult questions. One of them was about the colors of priests’ clothing. I haven’t chosen my future profession yet, but I am eager to teach at an Orthodox gymnasium.”

Although winning one of the contests, senior high school student Ilya from the city of Tver was not satisfied with his performance. “I won the creative contest with my composition “Patron Saint’s Day of my Parish”. But it seems to me that I could hardly cope with other tasks, they were too difficult.” All the winners of this year’s contest gained the right to enter any Russian university. This is the main prize of the Second All-Russian Competition.

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