The organizer of the Summer theological institute (STI) is the International Voluntary Association «The Christian Educational Center of Saints Methodius and Cyrill» alongside with the Bible-theological institute of Saint Apostle Andrei (BTI) (Moscow, Russia) and the Theological Faculty of European Humanities university (Minsk, Belarus).

The mission of the STI is the support of post-graduate education and improvement of professional skills in theological and religious studies areas for priests and secular people as well.

The STI works in ecumenical context: it is open not only for the Orthodox, but also for the students of other denominations; among the teachers there are representatives of different confessions, including Catholics and Protestants.

The STI works annually in summer. During two weeks the best teachers from Moscow and St. Petersburg read intensive courses of lectures on Biblical studies, theology, the history of the Church, liturgy, the history of Christian art, Bible archaeology, the history of religions and other subjects. Part of teaching time is devoted to seminars. On graduating the students receive certificates of Summer theological institute signed by the representatives from BTI and Theological Faculty. The best students are offered to take a year course of training at the BTI on individual program as scholarship students.

As a rule, the representatives from BTI bring the necessary textbooks, which are distributed among the students free-of-charge, part of the books are sold at discount prices. Church Services and different cultural meetings are also included in the program.

During two weeks of intensive academic courses the students acquire good foundation, which helps them to organize and train independently and give lessons at a good level in Sunday and high schools and Catechism groups. The teachers of religious disciplines in the STI have a possibility to upgrade their qualification and to receive consultations from experts. The priests establish contacts with the leading theological centers of Russia and Belarus.

The STI courses are conducted in one of most beautiful places of Belarus and an ecologically clean region, the national park "Naroch". Due to this the unique atmosphere both for training and dialogue between the students and teachers of the STI is created.

The first course of training was conducted in 1999, the second – in 2000. The Summer Theological Institute has existed 2 years already, and in future we plan to develop this form of post-graduate education and improvement of professional skills in theological and religious sciences of both priests and secular people.