His Holiness Patriarch Kirill presides over regular session of the Supreme Church Council

DECR Communication Service, 27.04.2023. 

On April 27, a regular session of the Supreme Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church took place at the Supreme Church Council’s Hall of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour under the chairmanship of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’.

His Holiness opened the session and delivered a keynote speech, saying:

“Christ is Risen!

I wholeheartedly greet all members of the Supreme Church Council.

Our agenda includes issues pertaining to the ministry of the Church in the zone of the special military operation. It is gratifying to note that many church institutions have recently scaled up their assistance to refugees and civilians who have suffered fr om conflict. It is being done without any instructions from above, and I appreciate any initiative that helps solve important humanitarian problems.

Thanks to money raised for charity, in 2022 we managed to collect and deliver over 2,850 tons of humanitarian aid, including over 1,170 tons handed over to the dioceses of Berdyansk, Gorlovka, Donetsk, Zaporoje, Lugansk, Severodonetsk, Kharkov and Kherson.

St. Alexius church hospital in Moscow is running courses for nurses, and its Education Centre is training volunteers who work on a rotation basis in the hospital of intensive care in Mariupol and in municipal hospital No.2 in Gorlovka.

Also, over 200 construction workers have responded to the call of the Russian Church and are helping to restore residential units in Mariupol, which, as you know, suffered the worst. During a month these volunteers repaired eighteen private houses and are willing to continue their work.

Unfortunately, churches and monasteries also suffer from hostilities. Often enough, one can hear about deliberate shelling of churches. In Paschal night, a strike was carried out against an area in Donetsk wh ere the Transfiguration Cathedral is located. A subdeacon was injured, and an innocent man was killed. God rest his soul! The media and human rights advocacy groups fail to mention this outrageous fact of terror.

During the hostilities many parishes in Mariupol had lost their property completely or partially. I know that the St. Petersburg diocese has sent church utensils to the churches in Mariupol.

In February 2023, a regional branch of the World Russian People’s Council was opened in the Donetsk People’s Republic. This event testifies to the revival of social life and people’s willingness to take an active part in it and launch initiatives. Certainly, our priority is the revival of parish life, and we must attain positive results primarily through dialogue with local authorities.

In conclusion I would like to thank all those helping our brothers who undergo a terrible ordeal. We should continue and expand our work and be active on telling global community about it.”

His Holiness presented an agenda that includes issues relating to the activities of theological seminaries and to the intensification of work of the Synodal institutions in the Crimea, the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic, the Zaporoje and Kherson regions, as well as to the consideration of proposals concerning the theme of the 32^rd International Christmas Educational Reading to be held on January 24-27, 2024, Patriarchal Press Service reports.