Final Documents: The decision of the Bishops’ Council on Questions Concerning the Internal Life of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Final Documents: The decision of the Bishops’ Council on Questions Concerning the Internal Life of the Russian Orthodox Church
The Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church3-8 October 2004

1. The Blessed Bishops’ Council offers up praise to the Lord for the ongoing revival of all aspects of the life of the Russian Orthodox Church on its canonical territory. The Council notes with satisfaction the general tendency to the development of all components of the diocesan and parish life.

2. Having heard the report by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, the Council approved the activities of His Holiness, the Holy Synod and the Synodal institutions in the period between the Councils. Gratitude was expressed to the Patriarch for his numerous visits to the dioceses, for his direct pastoral care for the stavropegic monasteries and parishes of Moscow and for his constant care for the life of the Church.

3. The decisions of the Holy Synod to establish the Birobidzhan diocese and the Voronezh and Lipetsk diocese and to change the boundaries of the Maikop, Yekaterinodar, Baku and Stavropol dioceses were approved.

4. The Bishops’ Council instructed the Holy Synod to prepare recommendations for inserting into the Statute of the Russian Orthodox Church a section on the interdiocesan association in connection with the decision to establish the Metropolitan district of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Republic of Kazakhstan for the purpose of coordinating religious educational, publishing, social and other kinds of the socially important activities.

5. The Council approved the activities of the Education Committee for organizing the processes of education and upbringing in the Theological schools of the Russian Orthodox Church. The instant granting of state accreditation to the Theological schools with taking into account the traditions of church education was considered expedient.

6. The enhancing of the level of scholarly work in the Theological educational institutions was considered necessary. In this regard the general church coordination of the scholarly and research activity and organizational and material support of ecclesiastical academic knowledge become an important task.

7. The Council again pointed out that it is necessary to ordain only those persons who have got seminary education or the one corresponding to it, or those who study in the Theological schools.

8. The dialogue and cooperation of the Church with secular culture and science should be enlivened for the sake of developing the witness of the Church to the modern world, acquiring a worthy status in society and strengthening the authority of the Church, as well as for the sake of helping theology and education to develop.

9. The work in the field of religious education should bring about real changes in the life of society at present. The educational work of the Church cannot be confined within the church fold. Cooperation of the Church with secular secondary schools and universities should be developed. As the ecclesiastical school was nearly totally ruined in the years of persecution, religious education will be unavailable to the majority of our compatriots for a long time without this cooperation. The Council calls Orthodox parents to strive for the teaching of the ‘Bases of Orthodox Culture’ to their children in secular schools.

10. The number of the Orthodox gymnasia and their being up to quality in the most part of the dioceses leave much to be desired. It should be remembered that combination of the general secondary education with Orthodox education shapes harmonious individuals from their young days. It is necessary to enhance the quality of the work of Sunday schools for children and adults. For this purpose the assistants of the deans for religious education should be appointed in the deaneries, and assistants of the rectors – in the parishes. It is necessary to enhance qualification of the teachers in Sunday schools and hold regular certification of these schools.

11. The Council considers the strengthening of religious and educational activity within all social groups of our society to be necessary, in particular among children deprived of paternal care in orphanages and children’s homes. Special attention should be given to the setting up of children’s preschool institutions.

12. The situation with the younger generation causes worry and concern of the Church. The Council points to the priority of the work with young people in the activities of all church structures and of each member of the Church. The Council considers it necessary to coordinate the efforts of the Education Committee, the Department for Mission and the corresponding diocesan structures in the work with young people. It is necessary to intensify the information and publication activity of the Department for Youth Affairs for the attainment of consistent success in the improvement of the work with young people.

13. Different kinds of youth leisure, such as concerts, exhibitions, summer camps, construction brigades, etc. should be developed more actively. Cultural styles and forms familiar to the modern youth, but filled with Christian contents, could be used outside of the context of liturgical worship.

14. The Council once again confirms the necessity of the strict observance of the present order of canonization: all materials should be thoroughly prepared and considered by the diocesan commissions on canonization. The diocesan bishops should diligently see to that in the churches of the dioceses entrusted to their care no icons of the uncanonized persons appear or iconic representations, which were not approved by the church authorities. Prayers to the uncanonized persons are not permissible in public divine services.

15. The Liturgical Commission is ordered to promote the development of liturgical creativity, which will fully reflect the urgent needs of the Orthodox Christians. The Diocesan Liturgical Commissions should increase their control over the quality of the texts presented to the Synodal commission. The Council confirms reverential attitude to the liturgical texts sanctified by the centuries-long practice of prayer in the Russian Orthodox Church and considers it necessary to instruct the Liturgical commission together with the Theological schools to continue the editing of these texts for the sake of making them easier to the worshippers to perceive provided that the heritage of the Church is treated with thoughtfulness and care.

16. The Council states with satisfaction that the Orthodox publishing has continued to develop dynamically for the last years. At the same time the quality of editorial preparatory work and the level of printing remains unsatisfactory in certain publishing houses. Quite often these publications contain the blessing of a bishop of another diocese. In this regard the Council notes that official evaluation with granting a proper imprint is done by the Council of Experts at the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.

17. Particular importance is attached to the strict evaluation of theological literature and church calendars and granting the right to the Publishing Council to put on these publications the imprint ‘Permitted for publication by the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church’. The Council reminds that the calendar issued by the Publishing Council is the official calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church, and that other church calendars ought to be checked in accordance with it.

18. The Publishing Council should take care for establishing a more effective system of dissemination of the church periodicals.

19. The Council considers it necessary to give more attention to the social ministry in provinces. The Department for Charity and Social Ministry is instructed to intensify coordination of the diaconical projects, paying special attention to the opening of almshouses, orphanages, boarding schools, soup kitchens, as well as to the organization of visiting of district nurses to the children’s homes, hospitals and hospices and help to the aged, convicts, drug-addicts and alcoholics, migrants and victims of the natural disasters and terrorist acts.

20. The monasteries are recommended to take part in the educational and social programmes carried out by the dioceses. The monastic charity ministry should include the opening of almshouses for the ailing and aged persons, free medical care, and assistance in purchasing medicine necessary for the aged. Monasteries, which have subsidiary economic means, should give possible assistance in placement to people needing employment.

21. The Council draws attention to the necessity to care for the supernumerary clergy, widows of clergymen and deprived members of their families. The general church rest house seems expedient.

22. In the field of cooperation with the Armed Forces and law enforcement structures it is necessary to bring partnership between the Church and the State to a qualitatively new level. For this purpose it is necessary to develop the legislation, including the legitimization of chaplainship, which conforms to the historical and international practice. It is recommended to form the legally agreed base on the diocesan level, which would guarantee the Church stability of relations, for instance, in case of the change of leadership or position of the bodies of military governance.

23. The Council states that the situation at present demands that the Church finds new means of organizing the diocesan and parish activities and considerable improvement of cooperation among all church structures.

24. The Council notes in particular the necessity of the obedience of the monastics to the ruling bishop. Otherwise, pride is shown, which is incompatible with the meaning and purpose of monastic life. It is considered necessary to overcome the practice of caring for the inhabitants of the monasteries and convents by spiritual fathers from other dioceses. It is permissible to the monastics to turn to the experienced spiritual fathers outside their abodes only for help in solving certain difficult spiritual problems.

25. As there is a sufficient number of the working monasteries at present, it is possible to come back to the reasonable limitations, which existed earlier, in the ministry of the monastics at parishes. The increased number of monasteries dictates the necessity of greater control over the work of the monasteries and its coordination. In this regard we consider it necessary to intensify the activity of the Synodal Commission for Monasteries and to enlarge its composition.

26. In connection with the still existing in church milieu consternation with regard to the planned system of electronic accounting and control over citizens, the Department for External Church Relations and the Synodal Theological Commission are instructed to continue the study of this problem. It should be noted in particular that it is not permissible to the bishops to make presentations in the mass media, which provoke extremist feelings in the church milieu and defame the authorities of the Russian Orthodox Church.

27. The Council instructed the Holy Synod to work out a document, which will convey the position of the Russian Orthodox Church on the problems of globalization.

28. Having heard the recommendations and proposals contained in the reports of the working groups, the Council instructed the Holy Synod to use these documents in further work for ordering the life of the Church.