Department for External Church Relations
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The Holy Synod adopts a number resolutions concerning the external activities of the Russian Orthodox Church
DECR Communication service, 29.12.2022.
On 29th December at the Patriarchal and Synodal residence of St. Daniel’s Monastery in Moscow under the chairmanship of the His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill there took place a session of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, the last of this outgoing year.
At the session the Holy Synod adopted a number of resolutions concerning the external activities of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Upon hearing a report by the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations the metropolitan of Volokolamsk Anthony on the work of the commission for Old Believer parishes and interaction with the Old Believer community in 2022, the Synod approved the account of the commission on its work.
The participants in the session of the Holy Synod heard a report by the metropolitan of Volokolamsk on his visits to the Greek Orthodox Church of the Jerusalem Patriarchate, the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, as well as his visits to Egypt and Italy. The chairman of the DECR also reported on the visit to Russia by the Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East Mar Aba III. The Synod expressed satisfaction at the visit by the Assyrian Patriarch to Russia and noted the importance of further developing relations betweenn the Russian Orthodox Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, including the implementation of joint projects as part of the bilateral commission on dialogue between the two Churches.
Having listened to the report by the metropolitan of Volokolamsk Anthony on the preparations for a routine session of the join Russian and Iranian commission on Orthodox-Islamic dialogue, the Holy Synod confirmed the list of members of the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church to take part in the twelfth session of the aforementioned commission from 19th to 22nd February 2023 in Moscow. These will be: the metropolitan of Kazan Kirill as head of the delegation; archimandrite Alexander Zarkeshev, rector of the Church of Saint Nicholas in Teheran; archpriest Nikolai Yemelyanov, deputy director for strategic development and educational work, docent of the department for systematic theology and patrology at the Saint Tikhon Orthodox Humanitarian University; hieromonk Gregory (Matusov), chairman of the council of experts under the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia for relations with the Islamic world; Father Dimitry Safonov, secretary for interreligious affairs of the Department for External Church Relations; deacon Ilya Kashitsyn, colleague of the Department of External Church Relations and teacher at the Saint Nicholas in Ugresh theological seminary; Ye. V. Dunaeva, senior specialist at the Institute for Eastern Affairs at the Russian Academy of Sciences and docent of the Institute of Asia and Africa at Moscow State University; M. B. Nelyubova, colleague of the Department for External Church Relations; and V. N. Rogatin, head of the department for the study of Islam at the Kazan theological seminary.
Upon hearing a report by the DECR chairman the metropolitan of Volokolamsk Anthony on the request by a cleric to transfer to another Local Orthodox Church, the Holy Synod blessed the cleric of the diocese of Grodno Father Timofei Nozdrin to transfer to the jurisdiction of the Polish Orthodox Church. A letter of release of the aforementioned priest was sent to His Beatitude the Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland Savva.
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