Sankt Ignatios Foundation

The story began in the 1990s when the Byzantine (Greek and Slavic) and the Syriac Orthodox Churches were invited to appoint a joint representative to the Christian Council in Sweden. They realized that they had to work together more closely than they had done before and that to do so they needed education to help them to learn about one another and to work together more effectively. They turned for help to the Swedish christian educational organization Bilda. Eventually the churches decided that they needed their own body to provide education and training and to stimulate inter-Orthodox cooperation and in 2012 they established the Sankt Ignatios Foundation. Soon after its inauguration, the Foundation established Sankt Ignatios Folkhögskola and then in 2018, through a collaboration with the Stockholm School of Theology (University College Stockholm) it established Sankt Ignatios College. The College took over the responsibility for providing education and training for ministers, priests and educators and is unique in Sweden in offering education at both Folkhögskola and University levels. The Foundation sponsors research and scholarship in the area of Eastern Christian Studies and was one of the founding members of the International Orthodox Theological Association. == Order of Sankt Ignatios ==

A fundamental part of the mission of Sankt Ignatios Foundation is to recognize outstanding contributions to Orthodoxy. Every year it awards the Order of Sankt Ignatios to those men and women who have made the most significant contributions through their leadership and scholarship. Recipients of the Order receive a medal and a diploma describing their contribution. List of recipients == Democracy Project ==

One of the aims of the Foundation is to contribute from a Christian Orthodox perspective to the development of democracy and civic participation in Sweden. As part of the fulfillment of that aim the Foundation sponsors a democracy project which involves the creation of educational materials for use in schools, colleges and community groups and the publication of a book. The present project is called the Space of Uncertainty and is focused on the contribution of Hannah Arendt to the understanding of how fascism undermines freedom and democracy. This project is being developed in collaboration with Paideia Folkhögskola in Stockholm. == Structure ==

The Foundation has a management board which includes representatives from the four Orthodox Traditions listed above. The day to day decisions about policy are made by the Executive Committee which makes decisions concerning the management of the Folkhögskla and college. == See also ==