A Student of the Central Sunday School Wins the 11th Season of the International Literary Competition “The Lord’s Summer”

From March 22 to 25, 2025, the final in-person stage of the 11th season of the International Children’s and Youth Literary Competition “The Lord’s Summer” named after I.S. Shmelev was held in Moscow.

The creative competition is held annually by the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in collaboration with the Center for Spiritual and Educational Programs named after Saint Philaret of Moscow and with the support of the Presidential Grants Foundation.

Participants of the competition included representatives from Russia, Belarus, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.

With the blessing of Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, students of the Central Sunday School at the St. Nicholas Cathedral of Almaty took part in the event. Five students participated in the remote (qualifying) round that launched the competition: Kira Vasilenko, Evgenia Kornienko, Daria Layurova, Diana Rusinova, and Anna Selina.

The works submitted for the remote stage were evaluated by literature teachers who are members of the expert council. The essays of Kira Vasilenko, Evgenia Kornienko, Diana Rusinova, and Anna Selina were included among the top 150 submissions. In February and March 2025, the students took part in literary workshops as part of the online writing studio “March Thaw.”

Following the results of all competition stages, Diana Rusinova and Evgenia Kornienko advanced to the final stage, which was held in Moscow from March 22 to 25.

The in-person writing assignment took place on March 23. Based on the decision of the competition jury, Diana Rusinova was declared the winner in the 8th–9th grade category.

On March 25, the awards ceremony for the competition laureates took place in the White Hall of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, presided over by Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk, Chairman of the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The winners were congratulated by honored guests: poet and colonel (ret.) Igor Vityuk, Secretary of the Union of Writers of Russia; poet and laureate of the Patriarchal Literary Prize Viktor Kiryushin; and poet, educator, publicist, and director of the Slavic Arts Forum “Golden Knight” Alexander Orlov.

The essays of the laureates will be published in two collections of the best creative works of the competition finalists – “Golden Sunbeam” and “Silver Ray.”