Helping the Church During a Pandemic: Fact Sheet

Synodal Department for External Church Relations

Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Department for External Church Relations, DECR

Jurisdiction: Russian Orthodox Church

Year founded:
1946
Place:
Moscow, Russia
Leaders: Hilarion (Alfeev), Nikodim (Rotov), ​​Nikolai (Yarushevich), Filaret (Vakhromeev) Members of the organization: Avvakumov Georgy Petrovich, Ageev Dimitri Alexandrovich, Alexander (Zarkeshev), Alexy (Ridiger) , Balashov Nikolay Vladimirovich... see further Directions:
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Organizations

Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, until 2000 Department for External Church Relations; abbr. — DECR

(April 4, 1946) - department of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. “The most important Synodal institution of the Russian Orthodox Church” [1].

The DECR is accountable to the Patriarch of Moscow and the Holy Synod, which annually approve the program of its activities. The governing documents for the DECR are the resolutions of the Local and Bishops' Councils of the Russian Orthodox Church, the definitions of the Holy Synod, the instructions of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'. The DECR Chairman is appointed by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Content

• 1 story 1.1 treason case

story

The building of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations.
Moscow, st. Danilovsky Val, 22. On April 16, 1960, the Chairman of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of Ministers of the USSR Vladimir Kuroyedov and the Chairman of the State Security Committee of the USSR Alexander Shelepin sent a note to the CPSU Central Committee, which, with reference to information from KGB intelligence sources, said: “The KGB would consider it appropriate to appoint Archimandrite Nikodim Rotov to the post of chairman of the department for external church relations and nominate him as a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church to participate in the activities of the World Peace Council, the Soviet Peace Committee” [2].

Work to strengthen the Department in 1960-1961 was carried out by the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, “carrying out the decision of the CPSU Central Committee of July 25, 1960” [3].

The first concern of the new leader was the task of obtaining a building of sufficient volume to accommodate the Department, which by this time was literally suffocating in three small rooms in the courtyard of the Patriarchate in Chisty Lane. And Metropolitan Nikodim achieved this. The department was given a mansion on Ryleeva Street, near the residence of His Holiness the Patriarch and the Holy Synod [4].

— Metropolitan Kirill (Gundyaev)

According to the definition of the Holy Synod of December 16, 1961 (March 16, 1961 [4]), the chairman of the Department must be in the rank of bishop and have the status of a permanent member of the Holy Synod.

In October 1985, the Department moved to a new building on the territory of the Moscow Danilov Monastery.

On March 31, 2009, the Holy Synod, as part of the optimization of the activities of the Synodal institutions on the basis of the DECR, created the Department for Relations between the Church and Society and the Secretariat of the Moscow Patriarchate for Foreign Institutions (since 2010 - the Office for Foreign Institutions of the Moscow Patriarchate), to which part of the functions of the Department was transferred. The postgraduate branch of the Moscow Theological Academy, which operated under the DECR, was transformed into the All-Church Postgraduate and Doctoral School named after Saints Cyril and Methodius.

treason case

On June 5, 2014, Evgeniy Petrin, a DECR employee since 2013, was arrested and placed under arrest. He was accused of treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code) in favor of the United States. On June 14, 2021, the Moscow City Court, following a closed hearing, found E. Petrin guilty of treason and sentenced him to 12 years in prison to be served in a maximum security penal colony. In addition, the defendant was given an additional punishment in the form of a fine of 200 thousand rubles and restriction of freedom for two years. On October 5, 2021, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the verdict as legal [5].

Helping the Church During a Pandemic: Fact Sheet

In Russia and other countries, the Church provides comprehensive assistance to those in need during the quarantine period. 96 hotlines have been opened, more than 100 volunteer services operate, and almost 7 thousand church volunteers are involved in helping. Dioceses are creating special groups of priests to visit patients with coronavirus infection. Information about various areas of assistance from the Moscow Patriarchate during the quarantine period will be summarized in the regular information report of the Synodal Department for Charity. Dioceses and church social projects can send information about their services to the press service of the Synodal Department for Charity [email protected] . We are publishing the first summary.

Statistics

More than 6,800 Orthodox volunteers help those in need during the pandemic

More than 100 volunteer services work to help those in need

96 hotlines organized by the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia and other countries

Special groups of priests have been created in 55 dioceses to visit patients with coronavirus infection

Main trends

— Food packages are in demand in many dioceses - with the beginning of quarantine, the number of people in need has increased.

— More and more women are turning to church maternity protection centers due to housing problems amid the crisis.

— Many social departments of dioceses have launched assistance in the form of home delivery of necessary products.

— Philanthropists are reducing aid due to the crisis

Volunteer services and hotlines

· More than 1,000 large and needy families, the elderly and people with disabilities have received food assistance from the social department of the Bishkek diocese since March 22, when the state of emergency was introduced in the country.

· Orthodox youth of the Siberian Federal District are actively collecting food packages for those in need; the volunteer movement “Siberians” in the Omsk diocese has already donated more than 1,500 food packages to needy and low-income families.

· On average, the hotline of the Moscow church assistance headquarters, organized on the basis of the Orthodox service “Mercy” and the Synodal Department for Charity, receives 1,500 calls a week.

· In Sochi, Kaluga, Armavir, Cheboksary and other dioceses, the number of volunteers has recently doubled.

· 526 new volunteers have signed up for the Moscow Orthodox service “Mercy” since the beginning of May.

· In Alapaevsk and the Alapaevsky district of the Sverdlovsk region, joint work was organized by the volunteer headquarters of the ONF and the youth department of the Alapaevsk diocese to help older people and people with limited mobility, 22 volunteers were involved.

· In the Kemerovo diocese, as part of a special campaign, 64 people in need were provided with assistance.

· Orthodox youth of the Krasnoyarsk diocese work on a mobile soup kitchen for homeless and needy people. Every day we manage to feed about 25 homeless people and 30 people from a crisis shelter.

· In the Youth Affairs Department of the Ufa Diocese, 378 volunteers participate daily in the delivery of food packages and the preparation of hospital premises to receive sick people. Volunteers have already provided assistance to over 28 thousand people, distributing more than 11 thousand bags of food.

· The head of the youth affairs department of the Biysk diocese, Priest Dimitry Shcherbakov, together with the Pokrov organization, provided food assistance to 50 needy families as part of the Save Life program.

· In the Shakhty diocese, volunteers of the Diocesan Center named after. St. John of Kronstadt organized the supply of hot meals to 80 people staying at the Center for Social Support of Persons Without a Fixed Place of Residence in the city of Shakhty. Volunteers also delivered food packages to the homes of 170 families in need in the cities of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky and Novoshakhtinsk.

· Parishioners of the Church of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga in the village of Kalachevo, Kemerovo diocese, organized hot lunches for doctors and medical staff of Hospital No. 22 in the city of Novokuznetsk, who are staying at the hospital for 2 weeks.

· In the Kuban Metropolis, 87 parishioners from different parishes visited and helped more than 1,000 people in need.

· In the Chelyabinsk diocese, volunteers from the charity service of the St. George's Church in Chelyabinsk sent help to rural areas - to Varna, Etkul, Uyskoye and other nearby villages.

· Volunteers from the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the city of Ussuriysk in the Vladivostok diocese provided about 20 families from remote areas of the region and villages with clothing and food essentials.

· More than 400 sanitary and hygienic masks for subsequent distribution to those in need were sewn by volunteers of the “Orthodox Volunteer Service” of the Urzhum diocese.

· In the Ekaterinodar diocese, about 320 people provide assistance as part of the work of the Unified Regional Volunteer Headquarters for Assistance to Elderly People. Over the entire period of work of Orthodox volunteers, 586 applications were implemented.

· Through the “Time of Caring” project of the Yekaterinburg Orthodox Service “Mercy”, assistance was provided to more than 800 wards in Yekaterinburg and several thousand in the region. The Humanitarian Aid Center donated 6.5 tons of food to those in need.

· “Bus of Mercy” and “Social Patrol” of the Diakonia charitable foundation (St. Petersburg) now helps not only the homeless, but also provides targeted assistance to large families, single pensioners, disabled people and poor people. 130 families are constantly supported by the foundation's social workers.

· In Kaliningrad, volunteers have established round-the-clock duty on the diocesan hotline: requests for assistance delivery are accepted both day and night.

Sisterhoods of Charity

· The Sisterhood of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Rostov-on-Don in honor of the Holy Martyr Elisaveta Feodorovna reports a twofold reduction in the number of requests to the sisterhood. At the same time, new appeals appeared in connection with the closure of a large charitable foundation in Rostov.

· Sisterhood in the name of prmts. Elizabeth in Lakhta, St. Petersburg diocese was forced to temporarily close its children's projects due to quarantine.

Family Protection Centers

· Center employees note an increase in the number of requests by 50-200%. Many centers closed warehouses and switched to home delivery; some projects had to be completely closed for quarantine.

· The Moscow Patriarchate will provide additional financial support to crisis centers for women during the pandemic. With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', funds will be transferred to diocesan humanitarian aid centers and support centers for pregnant women in crisis situations that are under threat of closure.

· The Voronezh diocese notes that due to the crisis, the number of benefactors of the Pokrov shelter (in the village of Otradnoye) has decreased; women are more often seeking psychological help.

· Participants in the “Mom’s House 2020” project of the Life Line organization in Novosibirsk continue to attend classes – now in an online format.

Homeless services

· Among the needs of church shelters for the homeless, in addition to food, there are also additional problems with paying for electricity or completing repair work planned before quarantine.

· Since April 20, the Moscow “Hangar of Salvation” of the Orthodox help service “Mercy” has recorded more than 14 thousand calls from homeless people for help.

· An additional help point has been deployed at the “Mercy” homeless shelter in Tyumen.

Other news from church social activities during the pandemic:

· His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' ordered the transfer of targeted funds to the Moscow Patriarchate to the Central Clinical Hospital of St. Alexis for the purchase of additional equipment and test systems for determining antibodies to COVID-19.

· The Church appealed to those who have already recovered from coronavirus infection to donate blood for the treatment of patients who have not yet recovered from coronavirus. A special hotline on plasma donation issues has been opened at the St. Alexis Hospital of the Moscow Patriarchate. As part of a joint initiative of the St. Alexy Central Clinical Hospital and the 52nd City Clinical Hospital, plasma can be donated at the transfusiology department of the 52nd hospital.

· On May 17, the Youtube channel and social networks of the Spas TV channel began broadcasting online meetings of priests with hospital patients, including those undergoing treatment for coronavirus. The Synodal Department of Charity organized such meetings with patients on its Youtube channel to support sick people and their relatives throughout the country.

· The “House of the Deaf-Blind” in Puchkovo faced the problem of issuing passes for volunteers. Work - seminars, trainings, consultations on legal issues - employees transferred to online mode.

· On May 15, the parish of the Church of the Great Martyr George the Victorious in Kupchin (St. Petersburg) transferred to the children's city clinical hospital No. 5 named after. Nila Filatova 3000 pairs of disposable gloves.

· Dioceses of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church continue to provide assistance in purchasing protective equipment, disinfection, as well as medicines and food. The Alexandria, Zaporozhye, Kiev, Boryspil, Zhytomyr, Nizhyn, Chernivtsi-Bukovina, and Khmelnytsky dioceses donated personal protective equipment to doctors. The Rivne diocese collected assistance to hospitals in the amount of about 1 million hryvnia.

· The Odessa diocese donated 500 protective suits, 300 FP2 type protective respirators, 50 reusable protective respirators, 5 thousand rubber gloves, and disinfectants for the ambulance teams of the Odessa Regional Center for Disaster Medicine. With the end of strict quarantine on May 13, the diocese completed a social project to provide complex meals to ambulance crews, which lasted 41 days.

· Since May 1, representatives of the Simferopol diocese have been preparing and delivering free hot meals for medical workers. Parishioners of the Catherine Church in Simferopol and crisis workers are helping the ambulance substations and the infectious diseases department of the 7th city hospital. More than 1,000 meals were delivered to medical institutions.

· At the beginning of May, the Assumption Svyatogorsk Lavra donated about 1.5 tons of food to a psychiatric hospital in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region.

· The Assumption Pochaev Lavra provided significant support to the infectious diseases department of the hospital in the city of Pochaev, Ternopil region, with products; the residents also helped to complete the infectious diseases department and make repairs in the laboratory.

· The Krasnodar Cathedral began conducting distance courses for prisoners.

The Moscow church assistance headquarters is deployed on the basis of the Orthodox service “Mercy” and the Synodal Department for Charity. Hotline phone number: +7-495-542-00-00.

Contacts of hotlines in other cities can be found on a special page on the website of the Synodal Department for Charity.

Dioceses and church social projects can send information about their services to the press service of the Synodal Department for Charity

tasks

According to the Charter, approved by the Holy Synod on August 12, 1992, “The Department for External Church Relations is a Synodal institution - an executive body of the Holy Patriarch and the Holy Synod. Within the framework of its statutory functions, the Department carries out relations of the Russian Orthodox Church with Local Orthodox Churches, non-Orthodox churches and Christian associations, non-Christian religions, governmental, parliamentary, public organizations and institutions, intergovernmental, religious and public international organizations, secular media, cultural, economic , financial and tourism organizations. The DECR MP exercises, within the limits of its canonical powers, the hierarchical, administrative, financial and economic management of dioceses, missions, monasteries, parishes, representative offices and farmsteads of the Russian Orthodox Church in the far abroad, as well as the care of the farmsteads of the Local Orthodox Churches on the canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchate. Within the framework of the DECR MP, there is an Orthodox Pilgrimage Service, which carries out trips of bishops, pastors and children of the Russian Church to shrines far abroad. The department represents the Russian Orthodox Church in its relations with the outside world. The responsibilities of the Department for External Church Relations include informing His Holiness the Patriarch and the Holy Synod about events and activities taking place outside the Russian Orthodox Church and affecting its interests, preparing draft church-wide documents and decisions affecting the sphere of inter-Orthodox, inter-Christian, inter-religious, church-state and church-public relations, as well as other issues within the competence of the Department” [6].

History of changes in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities for 2009–2018

2018

• 30.08.2018
• GRN
  2187700490602
• SPVZ code

  13801

• Code NO

  7700

  Department of the Federal Tax Service for Moscow

Submission of information on the issuance or replacement of identity documents of a citizen of the Russian Federation on the territory of the Russian Federation

2016

• 22.07.2016
• GRN
  2167700260671
• SPVZ code

  12101

• Code NO

  7700

  Department of the Federal Tax Service for Moscow

State registration of changes made to the constituent documents of a legal entity related to changes to information about a legal entity contained in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, based on an application

Documentation:

• (р13001) application for changes in information included in the accounting document
• Charter of the legal entity in the new edition dated June 22, 2016
• Extract from the journal dated 04/16/2016
• Order of the Ministry of Justice of Russia dated July 18, 2016

2009

• 17.09.2009
• GRN
  2097799264946
• SPVZ code

  13300

• Code NO

  7700

  Department of the Federal Tax Service for Moscow

Submission of information on registration of a legal entity as an insurer in the territorial body of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation

• 16.09.2009
• GRN
  2097799264209
• SPVZ code

  13400

• Code NO

  7700

  Department of the Federal Tax Service for Moscow

Submission of information on registration of a legal entity as an insurer in the executive body of the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation

• 04.09.2009
• GRN
  2097799256542
• SPVZ code

  13200

• Code NO

  7700

  Department of the Federal Tax Service for Moscow

Submission of information on registration of a legal entity with the tax authority

• 28.08.2009
• GRN
  1097799015930
• SPVZ code

  11201

• Code NO

  7700

  Department of the Federal Tax Service for Moscow

Creation of a legal entity

Documentation:

• Рн0001 application for creation but
• The decision on registration adopted by the Russian Ministry of Justice on August 24, 2009
• Extract from the journal dated 05/07/2009
• Decree of 04/09/2009
• Extract from the journal dated 08/17/2009
• Legal entity charter
• Appendix to the charter dated 08/07/2009
• Certificate of state registration of rights from 06/01/1999
• Letter of guarantee
• Document confirming payment of state duty dated 08/03/2009

divisions

Secretariats:

• on inter-Orthodox relations (on inter-Orthodox relations and foreign institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church) (since August 21, 1997[7]);
• on inter-Christian relations (on inter-Christian relations) (since August 21, 1997[7]);
• on interreligious relations (until March 17, 2021 Sector of Interreligious Contacts [8];
• for foreign affairs;
• on relations between the Church and society (since August 21, 1997[7]);
• administrative and economic.

Commission for the Affairs of Old Believer Parishes and for Interaction with the Old Believers (2005)[9].

Headquarters for humanitarian assistance under the DECR.

Sectors:

• economic;
• protocol;
• publications (since August 21, 1997);
• foreign institutions (since August 21, 1997).

Services:

• legal;
• communications (since August 21, 1997);
• Orthodox pilgrimage (also sector) (since August 21, 1997).

Auxiliary units:

• a group of translators;
• archive;
• office;
• stock;
• typing bureau;
• expedition.

branches

• World Russian People's Council;
• Round table on religious education and diakonia;
• Branch in Kyiv (since 1969), now the Department of External Church Relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church;
• Branch in Leningrad (since 1979). Head - I. N. Sudosa.

In the second half. In the 1990s, a Synodal working group worked on the basis of the DECR, which developed the draft Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In 1999, on the basis of the Universitetskaya Hotel, the Department established the Pilgrimage Center ANO.

Work in the RO "SYNODAL INFORMATION DEPARTMENT OF THE ROC" vacancies, internship, internship, career

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Accountant-cashier

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Assistant kindergarten teacher

Directional Driller Engineer

Cafe employee

Industrial cleaner

Valve stacker

Production packer

Merchandiser

Head of sales department for children's play equipment

management

chairmen

• Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) (April 4, 1946 - June 1960);
• Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) (June 1960 - May 1972);
• Metropolitan Yuvenaly (Poyarkov) (May 1972 - April 14, 1981);
• Metropolitan Filaret (Vakhromeev) (April 14, 1981 - November 13, 1989);
• Metropolitan Kirill (Gundyaev) (November 13, 1989 - 2009); And. O. Chairman - Bishop. Mark (Golovkov);

deputy chairmen

Ep. Feofan (Galinsky) (from February 7, 1986), Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov).

The curator from the KGB (until 1993) was Aleksey Alekseevich Pogodin [10].

heads of secretariats

• DECR Secretariat for Inter-Orthodox Relations and Foreign Institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church - Archimandrite Elisha (Ganaba);
• DECR Secretariat for Inter-Christian Relations - Hieromonk Hilarion (Alfeev);
• DECR Secretariat for Relations between Church and Society - priest Vsevolod Chaplin;
• DECR Administrative and Financial Secretariat - A.A. Tyshchuk.

employees

O. Vitaly Borovoy, Mikhail Dobrynin, Fr. Georgy Zyablitsev, Alexander Shushpanov [11], N.P. Anfinogenov, head of the DECR translation bureau.

RO "SYNODAL INFORMATION DEPARTMENT OF THE ROC" details: inn, checkpoint, okopf, okogu, okpo, ogrn, okato

OGRN: 1097799015930

Taxpayer Identification Number: 7736121208

Checkpoint: 773601001

OKPO: 62843660

OKATO: 45293558000

Get an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities about the RO "SYNODAL INFORMATION DEPARTMENT OF THE ROC"

The organization RO "SINODAL INFORMATION DEPARTMENT OF THE ROC" was registered on August 28, 2009. Registrar – Department of the Federal Tax Service for Moscow.

Public and religious organizations (associations)

Property of religious associations

OKOGU: Religious organizations

Types of activities according to OKVED: Activities of public associations Activities of religious organizations

Additionally: Activities of religious organizations Publishing books, brochures, booklets and similar publications, including for the blind Publishing newspapers

ecumenism

DECR directs the cooperation of the Russian Orthodox Church with ecumenical organizations: the World Council of Churches, the Conference of European Churches, the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, the Ecumenical Youth Council of Europe, the Christian Conference of Asia, the Middle Eastern Council of Churches, the All African Conference of Churches, the Caribbean Conference of Churches, the Latin American Council churches, Ecumenical Women's Forum in Europe, World Student Christian Federation, Christian Peace Conference, World Fellowship of Reconciliation, British Council of Churches, National Council of Churches in Korea, Churches in Action Together, German Diaconal Service, Hungarian Interchurch Aid, Finnish Church Aid and so on.

• Orthodox-Monophysite dialogue;
• Orthodox-Catholic dialogue;
• Orthodox-Nestorian dialogue;
• dialogue with representatives of Protestantism: dialogue with the Evangelical Church in Germany (FRG);
• dialogue with the Union of Evangelical Churches in the GDR;
• dialogue with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.

cooperation with globalist organizations

The DECR is the body that organizes cooperation of the Russian Orthodox Church with international and regional globalist organizations: the UN, UNICEF, the Population Fund, the European Union, etc.

During the Soviet years, the DECR collaborated with communist organizations: the Soviet Committee for the Defense of Peace, the Soviet Committee for European Security and Cooperation, the Soviet Committee for Solidarity of Asian and African Countries, the Union of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, the Soviet Society for Cultural Relations with Compatriots Abroad .

events

• Founding Congress of the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods (October 12, 1990)
• Orthodox Rus' (exhibition-fair) 1995 (October 10, 1995)
• II Interfaith exhibition “With faith, hope, love in the third millennium” (May 15, 2002)
• The relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the authorities in the 20-30s (seminar) (May 27, 2002)
• III Interfaith exhibition “With faith, hope, love - into the third millennium” (May 22, 2003)
• Give soul to Europe. Mission and Responsibility of the Churches (conference) (May 3, 2006)
• International conference “Christianity in the Far East”. 2006 (September 19, 2006)
• Ethical aspects of banking and the social role of banks: the experience of Russia and Italy (symposium) (October 11, 2010)
• 1st meeting of the Commission for Dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Assyrian Church of the East 2021 (May 18, 2016)
• Meeting of the Interreligious Council of Russia (November 25, 2019)
• Social service of religious communities - interfaith exchange of experience (round table) (January 27, 2020)