How to call a priest and get volunteer help during the coronavirus epidemic?

Conversations with the priest. Answers on questions

Audio

In the Moscow studio of our TV channel, the acting vice-rector for licensing and accreditation of the Moscow Theological Academy, cleric of the Church of the Holy Martyrs and Passion-Bearers Princes Boris and Gleb in Degunin, priest Andrei Lysevich, answers questions from viewers. – The first question is dedicated to today’s holiday – Children’s Day.
I would like to ask, what do children need to be protected from today? – I believe that today we need to protect children, as well as ourselves, first of all from information. This is a strange thought. If we continue it, then, on the contrary, we are trying to give children the maximum amount of information, the maximum amount of knowledge, believing that this is what will make our children more developed. But, unfortunately, not all information gives a person personal growth, much less spiritual development. And that is why the information field that now surrounds our children must be filtered and limited in one way or another, so that there is nothing harmful.

After all, before, when people lived freely in nature, children had to be protected from harmful plants and evil animals. Why? A person eats food, and among the variety of different foods, there are healthy foods and some that are harmful. And if you suddenly put some very harmful product into the stomach, the stomach begins to hurt, rot, and the person may die. The human brain is like a stomach in that when we put information into our brain, that information becomes food for our consciousness. The information that enters a person’s consciousness can be either life-giving, nurturing and developing the personality, or destructive, provoking brain disease, rot and even death.

It seems to me that our children need to be protected from such evil, harmful information, which, unfortunately, very actively surrounds them today. These include bad videos, bad advertising, some programs, pictures, and various information. Unfortunately, in our time there is a huge amount of fake information, which a person also absorbs and sometimes becomes simply sick.

– Who should control what information the child absorbs, perceives, sees?

– Here I would like to draw a direct parallel with the simplest things that are necessary for the normal development of a child. Who is responsible for ensuring that there are no dangerous, harmful, toxic substances in the kindergarten, school, home or anywhere else around the child? Of course, parents are responsible, because, firstly, they are closest to the child, and secondly, they are associated with the child with kind parental love. Thirdly, they bear the greatest responsibility for the child because the consequences of his upbringing will affect them most: how the child grows up, so will be the future of the parents themselves.

But in addition to parents, I believe that responsibility should also be placed on society, on social institutions, since together we constitute a single people, a single country, a state, and together we must protect our children from harmful toxic substances and from harmful toxic information. In this sense, the state should control it. On YouTube, for example, there are marks indicating whether a video is for children or not for children. But, unfortunately, even in videos for children, advertising is inserted that I, for example, do not want to show to my child. And if we talk about videos that are not for children, then it’s scary to think about what you can see there.

I remember a moment that really stuck with me. We rarely watch movies at home. Firstly, we don’t have a TV at home for fundamental, rigoristic reasons. Secondly, in general there is simply no time to take a laptop and watch a movie. However, when the eldest child was three years old or even younger, we decided to watch the movie Noah, which had just been released at that time. Indeed, there is something useful in this film (although there is also something harmful). So, at the beginning of the film there is an episode when Noah and his sons enter into battle with one of the evil people and kill him. It shows a scene of a murder being committed; a little, but still shows blood. When we were watching the film, a child walked nearby and saw this scene of a man being killed. I noticed the reaction this caused in him: he fiercely tried to imitate the same thing that the man did on the television screen. I was just scared, to be honest. In a child with a still pure soul, this image provoked cruelty.

And what about those children who grow up next to the TV? I know many friends whose TV at home simply does not turn off, it works in the background incessantly. At best, parents turn on children's channels. Sometimes we come to visit these people and find ourselves next to the TV. Fortunately, I am burdened with spiritual education and cannot absorb information without some kind of theological analysis. When I see cartoons about witches, vampires, some fairies and witchcraft, it causes wild indignation in my heart, I cannot understand how this can be shown to children.

There are, of course, some exceptions: the works of Clive Lewis, John Ronald Tolkien and other authors of Christian literature, where deep Christian meaning can be discerned behind the forms; it's interesting, and children understand it. But when there is no subtext, and there is just magic and they show how great it is when you can turn a frog into a person or a person into a frog, then, it seems to me, this has a very corrupting effect on the child. Especially when the cartoon characters are vampires, dead people - I don’t understand how this is possible.

– But anyway, sooner or later the child will encounter this and discover this world.

- Certainly.

– It turns out that there is no point in limiting.

- It's not pointless in any way. Let me give you an example. You have a small tree growing. If you expose it, when it is still very small, to a cold wind or rain or heat, it will simply die. But when this small tree grows into a large and spreading tree, it will be very difficult for it to live without heat, wind and rain.

In the same sense, I perceive the child’s personality as it grows. A child should grow up surrounded by kindness, purity, and holiness. Yes, at seven years old a child goes to school and sees other families, other approaches, other realities. At ten years of age, the child begins to integrate more widely into the turbulent society. At the age of seventeen he is faced with completely different cultural phenomena. At the age of twenty or a little later, he generally gains complete independence and says: if I want, I’ll go here and watch this. And so on. But he must have a certain foundation, he must receive love, care, affection, kindness, beauty in childhood, so that he then has something to build on, so that the core of his personality, his consciousness becomes stronger and the child, having this core, can evaluate those or other external factors adequately.

– Question from a TV viewer from the Belgorod region: “It is known that according to the Holy Scriptures, only parents are responsible for their children before God. Not grandmothers, not grandfathers, not uncles or aunts. Well, maybe the godparents are still answering. And all questions about what a child should watch on the Internet or somewhere else should be decided only by parents, and not uncles and aunts, especially not the state. If the state begins to engage in raising children, then in Russia it ends with Bolshevism, nothing else.”

– I cannot agree entirely. I think that any person, including you, recognizes that a certain social educational policy of the state will play a certain role in raising a child. Of course, the primary role is given to parents; the main edifications and instructions related to raising children are addressed to parents. Is it simply possible to compare the term “parent” only, roughly speaking, with a biological parent?

If we talk about the Old Testament, it is important to understand that, from the point of view of the Old Testament man, there was no “I” as a separate individual. For Old Testament man, “I” is my race; we who belong to this genus. Therefore, when we say that a father should raise his son, we are not talking about only the father and only the son. It turns out that the mother does not need to raise, the daughter does not need to be raised. Sorry, this is the wrong conclusion to draw from these statements. This is one moment.

Second point. State policy regarding the upbringing of children is of enormous importance. This was, is and will be, both in pre-revolutionary Russia, in Soviet Russia, and in modern Russia. In my opinion, the modern state, unfortunately, does too little of any kind of education and provides too few elements of education for modern youth. This is my subjective opinion, and I understand that the TV viewer will not completely agree with this, but it seems to me that general moral concepts, some fundamental things, should be worked out one way or another at the state level by large social institutions. At the same time, it is clear that responsibility cannot be completely shifted to social institutions, because, I repeat, parents bear the primary responsibility.

In my opinion, the big mistake of the educational system of the Soviet period (although, in general, it was at a high level) was the attempt to transfer the entire educational process from the family to some social institutions. This cannot be done. This was a consequence of the idea that a woman should work, should be like a man, that it was necessary to create a society of identical people who are similar to each other. And since a woman will work, who will raise her child? Must educate kindergarten.

Of course, the model of education in pre-revolutionary Russia says something completely different: a woman, along with her work responsibilities, bears the responsibility of raising the children she gives birth to. In this, the woman's personality is widely revealed. This gives a woman a flight of soul, opens her heart. It seems to me that a woman grows up with children, with the birth of each child a woman’s gaze becomes truly deeper, more serious, children make women adults, deep, serious, interesting. Works and achievements certainly add some depth to a woman, just like a man. But it is the birth of children for a woman that is a great gift from God.

– When we talk about the educational role of the state, we come very close to the issue of censorship, but I would like to ask this: You answered my previous question that restrictions and prohibitions are very helpful in education. Do you think that perhaps preparing a child to accept what he will encounter later in life is more important than restrictions?

- No, I do not think so. Maybe I’m not expressing my thoughts quite clearly, not completely. I don’t mean senseless and merciless prohibitions. Of course, I try (at least with my children) to make sure that these prohibitions are understood by the child. For example, we must say that this cartoon is not worth watching. Because he develops anger, rage, shows evil ideas, and forms the wrong worldview. Children understand this; it is quite possible to explain this to a child as early as three years of age. They are even more sensitive than us.

Here we are talking more about when the parent says: “Yes, look, all this is normal, you need to watch it.” And videos with half-naked people or films with scenes of murder, rage, anger, where daring, arrogant, obscene behavior patterns are shown. The child looks and feels uncomfortable. He feels that this is some kind of dirty trick, but his parents said that it seems good. “Parents are watching, and I will watch.” Seeing the authority of the parent, they begin to look at the impudent, dissolute woman and admire: “How funny she said it, how beautifully she plays in the film.” The child looks and thinks: “That means I need to behave this way so that my parents will also give me a standing ovation.” The man stole and killed. The child looks: “Parents like it; maybe I need to play gangsters too...” Maybe we shouldn’t make all these things absolute, but it’s clear: if we offer a child some kind of prohibition, we probably need to explain it to him. It is meaningful prohibitions that will nurture the child’s personality.

At the age of five or ten years, a child perceives the surrounding reality as instructions for action; he perceives images not as something external, but as coming from within. At a certain age, a child is formed and largely closes his personality from external influences. Not in everything, but to a greater extent it acquires a certain integrity, a certain filter appears for what it accepts from the outside. Until the age of ten, it seems to me, this filter simply does not exist, and everything that we show our children (various models of behavior) falls into their soul and begins to be realized there. They begin to try to somehow play it out, portray it, do it the way they saw it in the film. Children tend to imitate what they see. That is why I believe that they need to be meaningfully protected from unnecessary things.

– We talked about the state. What role should the Church play in raising children?

– The Church should play the role of a spiritual standard, a model, and also a prayerful role - this is also very important. Just the other day I was talking with one person who told me the story of his churching, it struck me to the core. From his earliest childhood, he really wanted to pray, although his family was not a believer. From a certain age, he began to go to a church that opened nearby. He had a friend, they went to church to see the priest, helped at the altar, at services. When this man grew up, he became a church-going, spiritual man, very worthy. And the priest with whom he was brought up at the altar became useless; ultimately, the diocesan bishop was even forced to defrock this priest. It is surprising that such a worthy child, without the participation of his parents, was brought up by a priest with a strange quality of behavior and was raised as a worthy person.

This is similar to the image from the Old Testament of the prophet Samuel, who was brought up near Hophni and Phinehas and nevertheless grew up to be a worthy man. Why? Where did this come from? The prayers of a loved one, apparently. There was a close, dear person who fervently and sincerely prayed for this child, and the child developed spiritually. In this sense, the spiritual assistance of the Church to children is of enormous importance. Offering prayers on Children's Day for our children and daily prayer for them, and for the younger generation in general, is of enormous importance.

We must raise our children simply with words, actions, and examples. But if we talk about what only the Church can give, then this is a special prayer, a special opportunity for children to participate in the sacraments of the Church. Thank God that in our Church the practice of infant baptism has been established, when we baptize infants. Thank God that, as part of this practice, our children partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ from a very early age. This is the greatest gift. The child gets the opportunity to participate in the sacraments, come to church, and receive the Church’s prayers for himself - this is very important.

Next come instructions and good examples. Regarding instructions: it seems to me that church parents should definitely read the Holy Scriptures to their children. I have an inner conviction that children need to read not only the children’s Bible, which they understand, but also be sure to read the Gospel in the Synodal translation (not in Church Slavonic, but in Russian). Some parents make a significant mistake: they try to read something to their children for the sake of reading; subtract, as we often do. We set a task: now we will read a chapter, preferably three (or maybe even ten), and the child should sit or even stand nearby. “Stop so you don’t move!” The child listens, but the child’s psyche is not ready for this. Why read so much? Read these ten chapters for yourself, and read one paragraph to your child, but discuss with him what you read, listen to his questions, answer them, don’t be lazy, try to explain something in your own words. If you can’t in your own words, first reveal the holy fathers, tell how the holy fathers interpret this passage, explain to the child what is written in the Gospel. Let it be a short reading, but meaningful. It seems to me that this will plant a good seed in the child’s soul.

– Question from a TV viewer: “I apologize in advance, because there is no answer anywhere, not even in the Holy Scriptures. There are ideal families, you can even see them, they are brought up with love, kindness, but the children turn out to be libertines, murderers, and so on - unlucky. And drunkards (the parents drank all their lives and fought right before our eyes) have good children. Even priests have drunken children. How to figure this out? Does he come from a distant family?”

– I think there are still answers in the Holy Scriptures. I'm not ready to give an answer right now. Firstly, the Holy Scriptures speak about various forms, about the mutual responsibility of parents and children. But a more accurate answer is given to us by Tradition, and not Scripture in this regard. When the Monk Anthony, the great ascetic, asked God for an answer to the question that you are actually asking now, God told him: “Anthony, it is not your business to understand the destinies of God.” This is the answer God gives us. Indeed, we simply cannot comprehend the totality of factors that influence the development of a child.

We cannot take all this into account with our human mind. There is a prayer of relatives and friends, a prayer of ancestors. It often happens that a person in an unbelieving family spontaneously comes to God and begins to pray. A person begins to remember the past, and it turns out that his grandparents were church people. They prayed for their children, and years later the Lord heard their prayer. Maybe even centuries later. But we cannot know exactly what the heart of that person, that ancestor was...

Or maybe it's the other way around. The other day I served at the Butovo training ground (Saturday was the day of remembrance of the Council of New Martyrs, victims of Butovo). At this service I got into a conversation with one priest, he told a very interesting story. As a child, his mother lived in the summer at the dacha near the Butovo training ground and was friends with the girl next door. And suddenly this girl dies, and then in a short period of time all the inhabitants of this house die. It was as if the entire family had been erased from the ranks of the living. This event attracted the attention of others; no one could understand such a coincidence of circumstances. After some time, they saw this girl’s grandfather in one of the old photographs; It turned out that he was an executioner at the Butovo training ground. He was given this dacha for his service. He lived to old age and died peacefully, but after him his entire family died out. And now we see: one suffers, the other rejoices. But the fact is that the Lord knows situations more deeply. The ways of God are not the ways of men, the thoughts of God are not the thoughts of men.

Being a priest and listening to people’s confessions, I come across people’s frank stories, and, unfortunately, I understand that in 90%–100% the external picture is not equal to the internal content; both in a good and a negative sense. It happens that outwardly a person seems bad, but there is some kind of inner kindness, repentance, and desire for good that he cannot realize. The child feels, sees and perceives this, despite external, seemingly negative factors. But it happens the other way around: everything is wonderful on the outside, but inside there is some kind of difficult situation. A child psychologist I knew told me how one day an honorable man came to her and asked to talk to his daughter. His family is a believer, Orthodox, but his daughter got away from the hands and became involved in Satanism. The woman found an approach to this girl through the children's room of the police, where she was already registered. It turned out that in this outwardly prosperous family there was terrible discord inside, the family fell apart. The child reacted this way to the fact that he saw in front of him hypocrisy, completely external piety and, in fact, malice that the two closest people have to each other. They hate each other. What can we say about sublime matters: “love your neighbor” and “turn your cheek to your enemy”...

– Is it possible to understand the phrase in this sense: “the sin of the parents is passed on to the children”? Does hostility between parents affect the child?

– In 95-99%, the condition of the parents has a tremendous impact on the upbringing of the child, these are also the words of a child psychologist. I see this from my own experience: if the mother and father are in peace, love and harmony, if there is love and tenderness between them, then the child, even if he finds himself in outwardly negative circumstances, will strive for a life of love. The son will try to imitate his father in everything good, the daughter will try to imitate her mother in everything good, and so on. The son sees that mom loves dad, and this love is automatically transferred to the child, he copies this model of behavior, begins to learn to love, there is no need to show him a bunch of videos, declare something, or conduct trainings. The child has already learned to love, because every day good, good, holy training takes place at his home. This is, of course, very important.

In general, the phrase that the sin of the parents is passed on to the children is quite peculiar. Of course, there is a mystical component here, however, you need to understand what this means. Let's say dad had an apartment, he began to sin with alcoholism and drank the apartment away. My son doesn't have an apartment. Is it his fault that dad is an alcoholic? No. This is where we, parents, must refrain from sin that can affect our children.

– How to prepare a child for the fact that when he grows up and goes out into the world (even if it is a gradual process), he will see a lot of evil in this world, from which parents are very often not entirely able to protect the child?

- Only with love. Love your child and show him an example of love. The most terrible thing about the evil that surrounds us throughout life is the illusion: that the world is only evil and hatred. When a person has love in himself, the fullness of love, then even the entire assembly of hellish forces will not be able to overcome him. The most striking example is our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the embodiment of love, and all the forces of hell have turned against Him. We know what came of it. Resurrection of Christ. We see the same thing in the example of the martyrs who had love in themselves; The worst spirits and the worst people took up arms against them, embodying the will of these demons. And what came of it? A host of saints. Like our wonderful saints Boris and Gleb. They had love, which was nurtured in them by the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir. And it couldn’t have been otherwise, because holy children come only from holy parents. Thanks to the fact that they accepted this love, they were able to resist the evil that this world, the devil, brought upon them, embodying their will through their older brother.

The only, in my opinion, and most important means of protecting a child from the evil of the world around him is love. We need to put so much love into a child so that when he goes out into this world and gets dirty with this dirt, falls and gets up, he remembers: “In my father’s house the mercenaries eat better than they feed here; I’ll go to my father and ask him to at least become a mercenary. Yes, I am not worthy to return to God again, but I will at least be close to Him.” This will be much better than living in depravity, spiritual poverty, living among evil and violence.

“It seems to me that no parent would wish his child to suffer, even if after the torture he becomes a saint.” How to accept this?

- That's not entirely true. We see examples from ancient patericons and martyrologies that there were parents who suffered torment together with their children. The same saints - Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia. Of course, this is a difficult grief, and we know that Sofia died the next day from the sight of her daughters’ torment. Of course, as a human being, experiencing this torment is terrible. Nevertheless, faith and experience of communication with God show a person that God can give him much more than his tormentors can take from him. God is much greater than the tormentors and much stronger than the insignificant devil and all his minions. This is the experience of the Church and the personal experience of every Christian who truly believes in God. In this sense, the parent, of course, always chooses what is more important. Here you have to choose the good first of all spiritual, rather than physical.

– Father Andrey, please summarize our program and give instructions to our viewers.

– Our dear TV viewers, I really wish that your children are protected, like armor, like a stone wall, by your love, tenderness, and participation. So that this love embraces them, caresses them, educates them. So that they grow, strengthen as individuals, as people, as good creatures of God, as people of the Church, and ultimately, imbued with Divine love revealed through you, become saints. I sincerely wish this for you.

Presenter Alexander Cherepenin

Recorded by Nina Kirsanova and Lyudmila Kedys

How to address a clergyman according to church etiquette

According to the rules of etiquette:

We use neutral words in our speech.
We conduct the conversation only in “you”, even if it is a close person.
The names are called in Church Slavonic; for example, "Father Sergius" instead of "Sergei".
Ask for a blessing by bowing and saying: “Honest Fathers”; Orthodox Christians do not call clergy “Holy Fathers.”
We ask for the blessing of a priest who is senior in rank if we are among the company of clergy; The rank is distinguished by the cross of the clergyman - for the archpriest it is decorated with precious stones or gilded, silver ones are worn by priests.
Be respectful and show respect to the mentor of believers, the bearer of grace; in conversation, do not allow familiarity or indecency, rude, abusive or slang words.
Control your habits: do not touch or smile.

A layman shows his meekness, lowers his eyes in front of a clergyman. He is not supposed to sit if a clergyman is standing nearby.

Orthodox priests answer the helpline

More than 20 Moscow priests have recently been on duty at the helpline 8-800-100-0191. According to the plan, the service is designed to help cancer patients and their relatives, but people often have a need to talk not only about their illness, but in general about the meaning of suffering and everyday troubles, and therefore about faith and God. Four years after the creation of the CO-Action hotline, psychologists called priests for help: it was difficult to maintain dialogues about spiritual life. Moreover, today the helpline is called not only by patients of oncology clinics and their loved ones, but also by people with a variety of problems.

Priest Igor Palkin, one of the “Helpline” volunteers, told Izvestia that calls from unchurched people and little familiar with Orthodoxy are most often transferred to him. Before connecting the subscriber to the priest, the dispatcher finds out who is calling and from where. Residents of different cities are contacting me - Irkutsk, Ulyanovsk, Voronezh (by the way, the Voronezh diocese has a local helpline where priests answer).

For example, the daughter of a deceased woman asks: Mom was a believer, went to church, prayed for recovery - why did she die anyway? The priest will try to explain that the Orthodox believe: God calls everyone at the best time for a person, and one day everyone will have to cross this threshold. The main thing for the priest is not to alienate the person who called with unnecessary edification or awkward words.

Recently, father Igor Palkin was talking with a 12-year-old boy, and he mentioned that he had recently come to his mother from a boarding school.

— How did you end up in a boarding school?

“Mom was sick, and her husband took only my brother to live with him, because I have a different father. My grandmother was deprived of parental rights, so I was sent to a boarding school,” the boy explained.

“These two phrases contain a whole life,” says the priest. “We talked for 40 minutes.”

The boy's mother is undergoing difficult treatment, and he decided to call the priest to find out how to pray so that she does not die. But it’s difficult to start right away with such a serious question, and first the boy asked if the priest knew anything about his hometown - Ulyanovsk.

“Yes,” answered the priest, “my car, a UAZ, was made in your city.”

“And I thought that priests have a lot of everything and they don’t ride like that,” the boy was surprised.

“But I really have a lot of things, for example, five children,” the priest consoled him.

They actively use the helpline in Voronezh. Sometimes there are several dozen calls a day. Priests are approached for advice, and sometimes even asked for financial assistance. Educated people, old people, and teenagers call. For example, one woman made a successful career, but missed out on her son, Archpriest Pyotr Petrov from Voronezh told Izvestia. The teenager became a drug addict, and the mother unsuccessfully turned to all the doctors and even sorcerers until she called the priest. Together with the church, she managed to “get her son off the needle.”

In St. Petersburg, you can talk to a priest using the Orthodox helpline. The center's main clients are pregnant women in crisis situations who are considering an abortion. Here, a telephone call becomes only the first contact, and then the expectant mother can be provided with a variety of assistance - both psychological and material, as long as she keeps the child. They help all women, regardless of their religious affiliation.

In Ivanovo, a helpline operates at the monastery. You can ask questions, including about the problems of HIV and AIDS. In Kazan they say that Muslims and atheists call Orthodox priests no less often.

As for calls to muftis, a helpline for Muslim women opened in Moscow three years ago, but lasted only a few months. As Galina, moderator of the women's Muslim forum, told Izvestia, there is simply no money to operate the hotline. But as soon as they appear, not just one phone will be in demand, but an entire consultation center. In May of this year, it was announced that a Muslim helpline would begin operating in North Ossetia-Alania, but today the specified number is also unavailable.

How to address a metropolitan, archbishop and bishop in an official letter

The address in the letter must be in the dative case.

Example of writing address - title:

To the bishop: “His Eminence” or “The Most Reverend Vladyka...bishop...”;
Archbishop or metropolitan - “His Eminence”, “Very Reverend Vladyka ... archbishop (metropolitan) ...”.

The written text of a letter or petition contains a greeting such as:

"Honorable" or "Honorable";
“Dear and venerable Master”;
“To the dear Father or Father...”;
“To the God-loving servant of Christ, Mother Superior”, etc.

What types of priests are there?

Secular clergy:

The first level is considered deacons and protodeacons.
The second level is called persons in the rank of priest, priest, senior priest - archpriests, mitred archpriests and protopresbyters.

In the black clergy:

Persons of the first degree: deacons, hierodeacons and archdeacons.
The second level includes ranks from priest to archimandrite.
To the third highest level - bishops (bishops), archbishops, metropolitans and patriarchs.

You can learn more about the ranks thanks to the “Church Protocol” created by Bishop Mark (Golovkov).

How to call a priest and get volunteer help during the coronavirus epidemic?

The Moscow church aid headquarters will be deployed on the basis of the Orthodox help service “Mercy” and the Synodal Department for Charity.

Hotline number: +7 (24 hours a day).

Help is provided to everyone in need, regardless of religion, citizenship and nationality. You can call a priest, get help, or sign up as a volunteer using this number.

You can leave a request for help by phone if:

you are over 65 years old and you have no one to deliver food and essentials;
you are in another emergency situation due to the coronavirus epidemic;
if you are a representative of a hospital in need of volunteers or other assistance due to the epidemic.

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If a person is in self-isolation, he can leave a request for the sacrament to be performed by calling a nearby church. Requests for urgent communion for a dying person can be left by calling the hotline +7.

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If a person has a confirmed diagnosis of coronavirus, then he can leave a request to perform the sacraments by calling the Hospital Commission at the Diocesan Council of Moscow: +7 (903) 660-30-40 . The telephone works 24 hours a day. This number also accepts applications from seriously ill people with suspected coronavirus.

Priests strictly follow the rules for visiting people in self-isolation due to the risk of contracting coronavirus infection. These rules were drawn up by the Synodal Department for Charity in cooperation with the sanitary authorities.

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To ease the living conditions of the elderly and people at risk during quarantine, Orthodox volunteers from Moscow churches will purchase and deliver food, medicine, personal hygiene products to them, and help solve other urgent needs. You can call a volunteer by calling the hotline +7 (495) 542-00-00.

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a priest can be in a special group on Odnoklassniki.

In a situation where many believers cannot visit the temple due to self-isolation or quarantine, in Odnoklassniki you can contact the priest with your questions, seek advice, or simply chat about what is bothering you. You can call from the special “Talk to a Priest” group. To do this, you need to click on the “Call” button in the group on the website or in the social network application.

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The church appeals to those who have recovered from coronavirus to donate blood for the treatment of patients who have not yet recovered.

A special hotline for plasma donation issues has been opened at St. Alexis Hospital : +7 (495) 952-05-77 . By calling this number, as well as by email at [email protected], you can get the necessary advice and sign up for plasma donation.

A person aged 18 to 55 years who has recovered from coronavirus infection and does not have chronic diseases can become a blood plasma donor. The donor must also have negative tests for HIV, hepatitis B and C.

As part of a joint initiative of the St. Alexy Central Clinical Hospital and City Clinical Hospital No. 52, plasma can be donated at the transfusiology department of Hospital No. 52.

Moscow City Diocese