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Department for Church Charity and Social Service of the of the Russian
Orthodox Church
The Department for Church Charity and Social
Service The Department on Church Charity and Social Service of the Moscow Patriarchate was set up by the decision of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. One of the main tasks of the DCCSS is to organize and develop diaconia service at a parish, diocesan and church level in general. The Department carries on its activity on the territory of the former Soviet Union (with the exception of Georgia). The Department is actively involved in a number of programs and projects, such as: 1. Medical program:
2. Child care programs:
3. Building of hospice for 24 persons. 4. Restoration of the church for handicapped persons.
6. Distribution of the humanitarian aid - food, cloths, foot-wear, medicine. Thus together with IOCC the following items were distributed:
7. Projects of development:
8. During 8 years, within the framework of these long-term projects,
more than 90 people in 30 regions of the Russian Federation have been
provided for working and stable salary (1993-1996; Administration of the Department Head of the Department on Church Charity and Social Service of the Russian Orthodox Church : Sergei Metropolitan of Voronezh and Borisiglebsk. Person in charge: [May 2008]
The first form consists in the following - priests visit patients in the hospitals appertained to the state. There are many Orthodox churches at the hospitals; some of them are in hospital premises, some are near hospitals. All regular orthodox services including the central one - Divine Liturgy are conducted in such churches. Furthermore the Sacraments of Baptism, Chrismation, Extreme Unction, Confession and the Eucharist are conducted as well. Priests conduct molebens (prayer services) for health and perform funeral services. There are chapels or prayer-rooms in some hospitals. If there is neither church nor chapel a sick believer can invite a priest to his home. In concordance with a hospital administration a priest visits in-patients, talks to them, renders spiritual and psychological support. Together with priests volunteers come to hospitals and help in-patients to be ready to take Sacraments. Orthodox sisterhoods of charity (community of sisters of charity) are set up at some hospitals. Under the guidance of a priest and in concordance with a hospital administration sisters visit in-patient believers, carry on catechetical and social work. In some hospitals sisters of charity act as hospital nurses. Such activity is set up in the best way in big cities. Thus in Moscow, the capital of Russia, there are about 40 hospital churches, 20 chapels and prayer-rooms in hospitals, about 10 sisterhoods of charity. As a whole 673 health care institutions of 25 dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church are involved in such activity. Besides that priests have the wardship of 244 institutions for aged and invalids. Pastoral care in hospitals embraces practically all medical spheres: therapy, surgery, oncology, neurology, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, hospice service and others. It is characteristic for the first form of pastoral activity in hospitals that there is not enough finance to ensure this work, as it is been doing on a charitable basis and much depended on a hospital administration. The second form of pastoral work with in-patients represents medical institutions established and financed by the Church. In Russia there are several church hospitals and the most large-scale of them are: The Central Clinic Hospital in the name of St. Alexiy, Metropolitan of Moscow, in Moscow and the Hospital in the name of Beatific Ksenia of Peterburg in the city of Saint Peterburg. These institutions are of a diversified type where believers (priests, monks and nuns among them) as well as non-believers (ordinary city-dwellers) can receive any free medical help. Obviously priests have more freedom in their pastoral activity with in-patients in such institutions. Furthermore there are some orthodox institutions destined to give help
to people with drug or alcohol addiction. They are usually named
medical-social centers or brotherhoods of soberness. Charity societies, patronage service, alms-houses are set up by the Church to render assistance to aged and invalids. Among 537 church social institutions there are: 5 hospitals, 4 hospices, 21 social-medical stations, 21 alms-houses, 51 rehabilitation centers for addictions, 316 centers to help the deaf and blind, 15 centers to help AIDS infected, 70 medical advisory centers at some parishes, 34 charge nurse courses. Thus, pastoral health care activity of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia is been carried on widely and intensive. It is presented in different practical forms but it has essentially common substance - effective spiritual, psychological and social aid to suffering people.
[May 2006] |
