About this college
St. Cyril’s Coptic Orthodox Theological College exists for the Glory of God the Father, as a witness to Christ His Son, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. This is actualised through the theological education and spiritual formation of the faithful, who are called to serve the Church of Christ either as clergy or laity.
St. Cyril‘s aspires to be an educational institution which is faithful to the Orthodox Christian faith as lived and experienced by the Coptic Orthodox Church throughout her history spanning two millennia. Witnessing to the Orthodox faith entrusted once for all to the saints, St. Cyril‘s aims to explore and present this faith within a rigorous educational framework, in harmony with our modern Australian context, without losing sight of the spiritual dimension of authentic Orthodox theology and education.
Choosing St Cyril’s
St. Cyril‘s embraces the notion that the official role of any Theological college is the educational formation of the students enrolled. However, they also have a deeper and more nuanced understanding of their function, which is informed by their Orthodox theology.
The College is an intrinsic part of the Coptic Orthodox Church. As such, they don‘t view their service in isolation from the rest of the Church, but rather as a service which has significance for the whole of the Church. St. Cyril’s endeavours to nourish the hearts, souls and minds of the whole community. Whilst not the whole of the community will be directly associated with the college, they are deeply aware of the fact that their service will reach out, via their graduates, to the whole community. And so they also view their mission as that of spiritual formation. From an Orthodox perspective, academic excellence and spiritual formation are two sides of the same task. In this, St. Cyril‘s are informed by the Evagrian maxim, “The one who prays is a theologian; the one who is a theologian, prays.” Accordingly, at St. Cyril‘s, the Chapel is just as integral as the lecture room. The transformation of the heart is as significant as the illumination of the mind. In short, St. Cyril‘s are dedicated to the edification of the whole person, and the whole Church.
Please note that some courses may not be available for enrolment every year, please refer to the college’s website to see their offering for the current year.
