Foreign bishops to attend Moscow Assembly of Hierarchs first time

24.06.2008, 12.28

MOSCOW, June 24 (Itar-Tass) - The Assembly of Hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church opened in Moscow on Tuesday. The supreme church body meets third time at the Christ Our Saviour Cathedral, restored in 2000, but bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad participate in it for the first time.

Twelve foreign bishops, led by Metropolitan Ilarion, have come for the assembly.

All in all, 197 bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, serving in regions of the Russian Federation, CIS and Baltic countries, in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and dozens of other countries, participate in the deliberations of the assembly. According to statistics, the number of parishes increased by 2,500 and topped 29,000 over the past four years.

The main topic of the present Assembly is church unity. Hierarchs will also examine the draft of “Foundations of the teaching of the Russian Orthodox Church on dignity, freedom and human rights” and will discuss the church’s information policy. They will pass decisions on a structure of the church court, on religious worship of new saints, including those, earlier canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.

The head of the Synod Abroad emphasised in a recent interview with Itar-Tass that the task of the Church abroad is “to preserve and to multiply the great heritage, transferred by our ancestors who turned to be in foreign countries and who founded the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad”.

“Under the new conditions of church unity, the live connection with Russia will consolidate our church life, and I’d like to hope that our experience will help Russia too,” Metropolitan Ilarion said.

The Divine Liturgy will be performed at the Christ Our Saviour Cathedral each day before the start of meetings. The opening of festivities, dedicated to the 1020th anniversary of Russia’s Baptism, will be held on the penultimate day of the assembly, June 28.

The patriarch will perform a thanks-giving service at the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, and then a Solemn Act and a concert will be held at the State Kremlin Palace. A reception will be held in the Kremlin on that day.

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