Clergy Meeting takes place in the Diocese of Sourozh

On 11 September 2010, the commemoration day of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated at the Cathedral of the Dormition in London by almost all clergymen of the Diocese of Sourozh serving on the territory of Great Britain and Ireland. Archbishop Yelisei of Sourozh officiated in concelebration with Archbishop Anatoly of Kerch, a suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Sourozh. In his sermon and his greetings to the clergy, Archbishop Yelisei called them to be courageous in their ministry to the Church and be faithful to God’s truth for which St. John the Baptist had suffered.

After the Divine Liturgy, a regular clergy meeting of the Diocese of Sourozh took place. Discussed were certain questions arising in pastoral practice concerning the sacraments of confession, Holy Communion, baptism, and marriage. Also discussed was the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church to modern liberal tendencies within the Anglican Community expressed by Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations.