Interconfessional Christmas charity action

INTERCONFESSIONAL CHRISTMAS CHARITY ACTION

The Round Table for Religious Education and Diakonia of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations carried out a charity action from December 25, 2000, to January 3, 2001, to distribute Christmas gifts to children. The gifts provided by the Samaritan’s Purse charity were collected by British families for children in Russia. Toys and sweets, warm mittens and crayons, carefully packed in colourful boxes pleased children no less then the attached Christmas cards and pictures of little Britishers who put up the gifts. They were of special value for inmates of orphanages who seldom receive letters.

Some 3000 gifts were distributed to Orthodox parishes, monasteries, brotherhoods and sisterhoods which run their own orphanages and take care of orphans and children from low-income families in Moscow, Klin, Kostroma, Domodedovo, Sergiyev Posad, Stavropol and Tver (in total 29 recipient organizations).

This action was held in continuation of the annual Christmas program of the Round Table. This program is significant as not only offering concrete aid to the children’s charitable programs in the Russian Orthodox Church, but also making a contribution to the education of both benefactors and beneficiaries. Thus, some Russian communities, which received aid in the past, have themselves started putting up gifts for their charges in orphanages.

See also:

The Official site of the Round Table for Religious Education and Diakonia of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (http://www.rondtb.msk.ru)