Anthony (Sevryuk)

Sevryuk was baptised at the age of 11.[1] From 1991 to 1995 he studied at Secondary School Number 19 in his home city of Tver. In 1995, he entered the Tver Lyceum.[2]

In his youth, Sevryuk volunteered as an altar server at Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Tver.[1]

In 2002 he entered the St. Petersburg Theological Seminary. During his training he studied, and later was the teacher of an optional English course. He regularly represented the school at various Orthodox conferences and seminars. In 2006, he participated in a workshop of the Syndesmos youth organization in Brussels, Belgium. In 2004-2007 participated annually in the summer Orthodox youth camp in Potamitissa, Cyprus, as a translator and head of the Russian-speaking delegation.[2] In March 2007 he took an internship at the Orthodox religious department at the University of Joensuu, and at the same time worked on parish assignments for the Finnish Orthodox Church. In June 2007, upon returning to Saint Petersburg, he successfully defended his thesis for a seminary course on "Eschatology in World Religions", and on 17 June he graduated from Saint Petersburg Theological Seminary, and in 2010 graduated from the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy.[2] In September 2008, he was appointed teacher of the Smolensk Theological Seminary.[2]

Having spent most of his pastoral career in predominantly Roman Catholic areas, Anthony has stated that it is important for the two churches to have good relations, especially in sites where both Orthodox and Catholic faithful worship.[1] At the Roman Catholic Basilica di San Nicola, a shrine to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Bari, he would lead Divine Liturgy on Thursdays. He has thanked the Catholic Church in Italy for its tolerant view of the Orthodox population there, and for occasionally allowing Orthodox to pray in Catholic shrines dedicated to saints that both churches venerate. He did however say it is important that Orthodox worshippers do not pray together with Catholics or attend Mass, as the two churches are not in full communion with one another, and still have theological differences.[1]