The Pastoral Ministry Development Fund named after Vasyl Y. Logvinenko

The Fund exists on voluntary donations from churches, religious and public organisations, foundations, and individuals. The income from the sale of publications supported by the Fund should be used to replenish the fund for future projects.

Given the Fund’s openness to donations from individuals and organisations, the Supervisory Board of the Fund must publish an annual report on the receipt of funds and their use. The report is posted on the official OTS website.

The Fund and its finances are managed by the Supervisory Board. The authority of the Supervisory Board include decision-making on assigning scholarships, approval of projects, activities and reports on their implementation, as well as organisational issues of the Supervisory Board.

Meetings of the Supervisory Board are held at least twice a year online or offline. Decisions are made by a simple majority of votes in the presence of at least 60% of the members (3 members). The decision of the Supervisory Board may be appealed on the Board of Trustees of OTS.

Consideration of candidates for scholarships, decisions on granting scholarships, annual reports of scholarship holders, reports on the receipt and use of funds should be recorded and stored in the OTS archive in accordance with the Regulations on archiving.

The Fund’s Supervisory Board considers the submitted projects during its meetings at least twice a year – in December and June in a off-line or online format. If necessary, the Supervisory Board members may schedule additional meetings to consider urgent issues.

Applications for scholarships are submitted twice a year – by 1 November and 1 May. The list of the Foundation’s scholarship holders is reviewed twice a year – in December and June.

Non-scholarship projects are reviewed in two stages: a) a preliminary long list of projects is submitted by 1 November; b) revised projects are submitted no later than 1 May for further approval.

The scholarship is awarded to students of the pastoral programme of 2-4 years of study on the basis of a petition from the head of the department, a personal application and a decision of the Foundation’s Supervisory Board. A candidate for the getting the scholarship should be a member of the church for at least (3) years, with some experience and serious intentions to serve in the local church, good academic standing, and strong recommendations from local ministers.

At the preliminary stage, the head of the church ministry department draws up a long list of potential candidates for the scholarship. The long list is preliminarily discussed with two members of the Supervisory Board.

An applicant should present a personal application from the candidate to the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, a recommendation from the pastor of his church, a written testimony of conversion and ministry (250 to 500 words). The package of documents should be submitted in person or electronically by 1 May and/or 1 November of each year to the Secretary of the Supervisory Board.

Only current students of the OTS can apply, regardless of the type of study. Exceptions are students who are already ministers at the time of applying for the OTS and have strong recommendations from other ministers. The decisions of the Supervisory Board regarding scholarship holders in this category may be reviewed after the first year on the basis of a report from the Academic department on the academic performance of a student.

Once a year, at the end of the academic year, a scholarship holder should write a report on his/her ministry, at the same time the OTS Academic department provides data on his/her performance. The head of the Chair of Church Ministry approves the scholarship holder’s personal report and provides comments and requests, if necessary. On the basis of the scholarship holder’s personal report, academic performance data, and the request of the head of the Chair of Church Ministry, the Supervisory Board makes a decision on the further granting of the scholarship.