2. Having listened to the report by His Holiness Alexii II, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, the Council approved of the activity of His Holiness, the Holy Synod and the Synodal institutions carried out in the period between the Councils. The Council expressed its gratitude to His Holiness the Patriarch for his numerous visits to the dioceses, for his immediate archpastoral care taken of the stavropegial monasteries and the parishes of Moscow, for his constant attention to church life.
3. The decisions of the Holy Synod on creating the dioceses of Birobidzhan, Voronezh and Lipetsk have been ratified, as well as the changes to the boundaries of the dioceses of Maykop, Yekaterinodar, Baku and Stavropol.
4. The Archpastors Council charges the Holy Synod to prepare recommendations for the introduction of a section on inter-diocese unification into the Statute of the Russian Orthodox Church in connection with the decision to form a Metropolitan area of the Russian Orthodox Church in the republic of Kazakhstan, aimed at co-ordinating the religious, educational, publishing, social and other activities of the Churhc.
5. The Council has approved of the Educational committee’s activity in organising the education and upbringing in the Ecclesiastic schools of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Council believes it expedient that the Ecclesiastic schools should receive state accreditation as soon as possible, with the traditions of church education taken into account.
6. The Council believes it necessary that the level of scholarly work in ecclesiastic educational institutions be improved. In this connection, the all-Church co-ordination of the scholarly and research work, the technical support and funding of the church scholarship is considered an important task.
7. The Council points out once again that it is necessary for the persons being ordained as priests to have seminary or corresponding education, or to be students of Ecclesiastic schools.
8. For the development of Church testimonial in the modern world, for its worthy position in society and the improvement of its standing, as well as for the development of theology and education, it is necessary to make the dialogue and interaction between the Church and the lay culture, science and scholarship more active.
9. The works in the sphere of religious education should bring about real changes in the society. The Church’s educational activity cannot be confined to the internal life of the Church. The co-operation between the Church and the lay schools and higher education institutions ought to be developed, otherwise, as the Church school system was almost totally destroyed during the years of persecution, religious education will still remain unattainable for many citizens for a long time. The Council addressed Orthodox parents with an appeal to struggle for enabling their children to study the curse of the Foundations of the Orthodox Culture in lay schools.
10. The number and quality if Orthodox schools in most dioceses leave much to be desired. It has to be remembered that joining the general school education with Orthodox upbringing forms a harmonious individual from a very early age. The work of Sunday schools for adults and children has to be considerably improved. With this objective in mind, assistants on religious education have to be appointed to the deans in the deaneries and to the rectors in parishes. It is necessary to improve the qualification of Sunday school teachers and attest these schools regularly.
11. The Council believes that the spiritual enlightenment of all social groups, in particular, of parentless children in orphanages and boarding schools should be improved. Special stress should be laid on establishing Orthodox pre-school institutions.
12. The spiritual state of the younger generation causes the Church’s concern and worry. The Council points out that working with the young should be a priority for all church structures and every member of the Church individually. The Council believes it necessary to co-ordinate activities of the Educational committee, the Missionary department and the corresponding diocese structures in the area of working with young people. To achieve stable success in perfecting the youth-oriented work, the informational and publishing activity of the Youth Department has to be improved.
13. It is necessary to develop actively various forms of free time activities for the young, including concerts, exhibitions, summer camps, construction brigades etc. In the spheres not immediately connected to Divine services, cultural styles and forms that the young people are accustomed to can be used, if filled with Christian contents.
14. The Council once again stresses the necessity of adhering strictly to the existing rules of consecrating saints: all materials for consecration must be carefully prepared and considered by the diocese consecration committees. The diocese archpastors must prevent the appearance of icons of non-canonised persons and icons not approved by the dignitaries in the churches of their dioceses. Prayers to non-canonised persons are unacceptable in public Divine services.
15. The Divine Services commission is charged to encourage the development of liturgical creative process that would reflect the urgent needs of Orthodox Christians. The diocese Divine services commissions must improve the control over the quality of texts presented to the Synodal commission. While confirming the pious attitude to the liturgical texts sanctified by the centuries of the Russian Orthodox Church’s prayer practice, we believe it necessary to charge the Divine Services commission, together with Ecclesiastic schools, to continue adjusting them to make them more easy for the comprehension of the people, on the condition of careful and circumspect attitude to the Church legacy.
16. The Council is satisfied to state that the recent years have seen the continuing successful development of Orthodox publishing. At the same time, the quality of editorial preparation and the technical level of certain publishing houses remains unsatisfactory. Not infrequently, such editions have the blessing of the archpastor of another diocese. In this connection, the Council point out that the official expert analysis of books is carried out by the Expert council of the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, which grants the seal of approval accordingly.
17. The strict expert analysis of theological literature and church calendars and the right of the Publishing Council to provide them with the seal of approval, ’Approved by the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church’, is especially important. The Council reminds that the official calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church is the one published by the Publishing Council. All other church calendars have to be in accordance with the official one.
18. The Publishing Council should consider creating a more effective system of church periodicals circulation.
19. The Council believes it necessary to pay more attention to the local social service. The Department of Charity and Social Service is charged to improve the co-ordination of the projects, with a special stress on the establishment of almshouses, orphanages, boarding schools, charity canteens, as well as the organisation of medical help to orphanages, hospitals and hospices, to the elderly, the condemned, drug and alcohol addicts, immigrants, victims of natural disasters and terrorist acts.
20. Monasteries are advised to take active part in the educational and social programmes organised by the dioceses. The monastic charity service should be realised through opening almshouses for the elderly and the feeble, providing free medical help, assistance in buying the necessary medication. The monasteries which have subsidiary farms should provide as many placements as they can to the unemployed.
21. The Council points out the necessity of taking care of retired clergymen, as well as the clergymen’s widows and poor members of their families. Creating an all-church rest home appears expedient.
22. In the sphere of co-operating with the Armed Forces and the law-enforcement agencies, acquiring a new level in the partnership between the Church and the state is necessary. For this, new legislation is required, particularly the laws regulating the status of chaplains, which would be in keeping with the historical traditions and the world practice. It is recommended that the law and agreement basis be worked out in dioceses that would guarantee stable good relations of the Church and the military structures in cases when, for instance, the commanders or the attitude of military authorities is changed.
23. The Council states that the modern situation requires that the Church should have new ways of organising diocese and parish activity, as well as improve considerably the co-ordination between all Church structures.
24. We point out specially that the monks and nuns must obey their ruling bishop, because otherwise the pride, incompatible with the meaning and aim of monastic deed, is shown. It is considered necessary that the practice of spiritual counselling being given to the monks and nuns by counsellors from other dioceses be stopped. The monks and nuns should turn to experienced counsellors outside their monasteries only to solve single complicated spiritual questions.
25. Now when there is a satisfactory number of working monasteries, there is a possibility to return to the sensible limitations that existed before, on the parish service of the monks and nuns. The growing number of monasteries also requires better control and co-ordination of their work. In this conneciton, we consider it necessary to improve the activity and broaden the line-up of the Synodal Monastic Affairs commission.
26. In connection with the remaining confusion on the existing and projected systems of electronic registration of citizens, still existing among the faithful, the Department of External Church Relations and the Synodal Theological commission are charged to continue studying this problem. It should be specially pointed out that it is unacceptable for the archpastors to take the floor though the mass media that encourage extremist attitudes in the Church and slander the dignitaries of the Russian Orthodox Church.
27. The Council charges the Holy Synod to work out a document reflecting the Russian Orthodox Church’s position on the problems of globalisation.
28. Having listened to the recommendations and suggestions contained in the reports by the workshops, the Council charged the Holy Synod to use these documents in its future work.
His Holiness Alexii II, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia
Members of the Holy Synod:
Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine
Vladimir, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga
Philaret, Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk, the Patriarch’s Exarch in Byelorussia
Juvenalius, Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomenskoye
Cyril, Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate
Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kishinev and all Moldova
Vladimir, Metropolitan of Tashkent and Central Asia
Anastasius, Archbishop of Kazan and Tatarstan
Sergius, Archbishop of Samara and Syzran
Demetrius, Archbishop of Vitebsk and Orshansk
Daniel, Bishop of South Sakhalin and the Kuril islands
Clement, Metropolitan of Kaluga and Borovsk, Chief of Administration of the Moscow Patriarchate
