Biography

Father Georgy Kochetkov was born in 1950 in Moscow. In 1972 he graduated from the Faculty of General Economics at the Plekhanov Moscow Institute of the National Economy. In 1974 – 1978 Yuri Kochetkov did his postgraduate studies at the Institute of Economics, Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1980 – 1983 he studied at the Leningrad Theological Academy, having been a holder of the patriarch’s fellowship and sub-deacon under the rector of the Academy Archbishop Kirill (Gundyaev) of Vyborg. At the initiative of the Religious Affairs Commissioner at the USSR Council of Ministers, Yuri was expelled in his final year for his missionary and catechetical activities. In 1990, he graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy. In 1993, with the blessing of his Holiness Patriarch Alexius II, he defended his PhD thesis ‘Mystagogical Introduction to Orthodox Catechetics’ at St Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris.

In 1983 Archbishop of Vyborg Kirill ordained him deacon. Six years later, Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna consecrated him presbyter. Father Georgy served as parish priest in the Holy Trinity church in Elektrougli, Moscow region (1989–1990), in the Theotokos of Vladimir Cathedral in the former Sretensky monastery in Moscow (1990–1994) and in the Dormition of the Theotokos church in Pechatniki (1991–1997).

Since 1970, Father Georgy has practiced catechetical instruction. In 1988 he founded St Philaret’s Christian Orthodox Institute and became its rector. Two years later, he founded the Transfiguration Brotherhood (Fellowship of Minor Orthodox Brotherhoods), having been since then its spiritual director. Father Georgy‘s numerous books and articles cover missiology, catechetics, homiletics, ecclesiology and pastoral theology. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the seven-volume edition of Orthodox liturgical texts translated into Russian.