On May, 24 the Slavonic peoples celebrate the day of memory of Saints Methodius and Cyrill. The Republic of Belarus also participates in this celebration. Each year in May the cultural and orthodox public of Minsk solemnly celebrate the days of Slavonic literature and culture in honour of Saints Methodius and Cyrill, the first representatives of Enlightenment of Slavonic peoples.
A special Divine Service in the Minsk Cathedral of Holy Trinity opens the Holiday, then the solemn procession proceeds to the place, where the first Church in Minsk was constructed. Here a public prayer to Saints Methodius and Cyrill is celebrated.
After the public prayer the traditional international “Cyrill and Methodius Readings” start their work, during which scientists, teachers and students share their scientific research in the field of history, theology, literary criticism and arts.
The Faculty of Theology and the International Public Association «Christian Educational Center of Saints Methodius and Cyrill» organize the “Cyrill and Methodius Readings” for the sixth year already. In recent years the Byelorussian University of Culture has been cooperating with us.
The VI International “Cyrill and Methodius Readings” were devoted to the 2000-anniversary of Christianity. They were held on May 24-26, 2000. The theme of the Readings was: «Cyrill and Methodius Tradition and Christian witness today».
The Readings were opened by the inaugural report of His Eminence Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk Philaret, Patriarchal Exarch of all Belarus, the Dean of Theological Faculty. The Minister of Education of the Republic of Belarus Mr. Strazhev, representatives of Embassies of Greece, Bulgaria, France, Germany, the USA, Italy, Yugoslavia, Poland, Ukraine and Russia were present at the solemn opening of the Readings.
More than a hundred visitors and participants not only from Russia and the Baltic countries, but also from Germany, Italy, France, Poland, Bulgaria, Serbia and other countries participated in the VI “Cyrill and Methodius Readings”.
The participants of the Readings had a possibility to hear the reports of authoritative theologians and religious studies specialists.
Modern theological and philosophical literature was presented to the best students, who participated in the students competitive conference, which was part of the Readings, for the best reports in the field of theology, religious philosophy and culture-logy.
The work of Readings was subdivided into the following sections :
- Theological studies
- Church history studies
- Studies in religious philosophy
- Religion, culture and education in modern society
- Pan-Slavic heritage in development of written and oral language and literature
- Cyrill and Methodius’ traditions in book culture of the Slavic peoples
- Spirituality and enlightenment traditions of the Slavs
- Music, folklore and theatre in Slavic culture
- Architecture and fine arts in cultural heritage of the Slavs
Besides, a seminar was held on the theme: «The Church and democratic changes in the post-soviet area».
The readings are traditionally of ecumenical character. The leading theologians from Orthodox, Catholic, Evangelistic Churches from the USA, Eastern Europe are constantly invited to make the reports for the students and guests.
The readings were closed by a so-called “Round Table discussion”, the theme of which was "The Mission of the Church in the modern world".
