ABSTRACT
The church provides an array of institutions and arrangements to train priests. At the exalted heights, the theological academies provide a university-level degree and are home to the scholars of the church. The long hiatus in institutional theological education made recovery very difficult. In 1943 Orthodox leaders spoke optimistically of establishing seminaries throughout the dioceses, as had been the case with the fifty-eight seminaries operating prior to the revolution. In 1948, the Leningrad seminary and academy established correspondence programs to upgrade the education of priests unable to commute to their studies. In those early postwar years, Orthodox leaders encountered many additional obstacles as they tried to organize theological education. Although the number of theological school graduates is one measure of success in the creation of an educated clergy, the adequacy of professorial staff and the quality of instruction are also crucial factors.
