October 30, 2013
On October 29, 2013, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with students of an advanced course for the newly-installed bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, at the patriarchal residence in St. Daniel’s Monastery, Moscow.
The two-day course opened on October 21 at the Ss Cyril and Methodius Institute of Post-Graduate Studies. The short-term course of this kind was held for already the third time.
Addressing the bishops, the Primate of the Russian Church noted in particular, “I know that upon your arrival in your dioceses, many of you will confront difficulties. Properly speaking, this is how it should be, because such large-scale tasks as the Church sets the episcopate cannot be easily fulfilled. Following closely the developments in our new dioceses today, I can say that I see an obvious advantage in their establishment. It clearly points to the intensification of church life in them”.
His Holiness gave the bishops a number of recommendations for ordering the liturgical life in their dioceses and pointed to the importance of regular communication between archpastors and the clergy and parishioners. According to His Holiness, celebration of divine services in parish churches should be one of the priorities for a bishop.
In his talk with the newly-installed bishops, Patriarch Kirill spoke on various aspects of the arrangement of diocesan life including the construction of cathedrals. He focused particularly on the need for ruling bishops to cooperate with local departments of education, school directors and parents as regards the teaching Basic Orthodox Culture.
The bishop, he said, should pay attention to any socially significant events taking place in his region, both positive and negative. “A bishop cannot stand aside problems faced by people in his regions, be they social or economic difficulties. All this concerns each bishop”, he said.
His Holiness stressed that the whole work of a bishop should be adequately reflected in the information space. “It is important that society should receive valid and full information about various aspects of the episcopal ministry”, he said drawing the attention of the bishops to the need to create and support diocesan websites.
The bishops, on their part, shared their vision of diocesan life and spoke of the complications they had to confront during the first months of governance over the newly-established dioceses.
Source: DECR
