Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church completes its plenary session in Moscow

The Inter-Council Presence completed its work in plenary session on January 29, 2011. On their second day, the Presence members considered the following draft documents:

‘On measures to preserve the memory of new martyrs, confessors and all those who suffered at the hands of theomachists during the years of persecution’;

‘A temporary provision for the social and material support of clergy and church institutions staff and their families’;

‘On the ordination of celibates who are not monks’;

‘On the admission of those who return to the Church from schisms’;

Summing up the two-day meeting which gathered together archpastors, pastors, monastics and lay people for a plenary session for the first time, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia expressed satisfaction with the discussions.

‘It is the best we can do in helping our Church to cope with numerous problems facing her today’, he said.

‘I very much hope that this good experience of the conciliar thought will help us in the future to pose and tackle problems of church life’, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church said in conclusion and thanked the members of the Presence for their fruitful work and diocesan hierarchs and individuals who had prepared responses to the Presence’s draft documents for their great contribution for the elaboration of conciliar decisions.

In conclusion of the discussions, the Inter-Council Presence adopted a decision on the documents considered, the Patriarchal Press Service has reported.

DECR Communication Service

Photos by the Patriarchal Press Service