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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
of the Russian Orthodox Church

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:

1.1. Church hospital for 226 patients (till 2006 year);
1.2. Anti-alcoholic program worked out together with Trento diocese of the Catholic Church in Italy;
1.3. "Patronage service" (home visiting service for 180 aged people).
1.4. Project “Life” aimed at assisting women who refuse to have abortions.
1.5. “The Society of Orthodox Physicians of Russia” - a public organization established under the aegis of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2007 and consisting of orthodox physicians from 49 regions of the Russian Federation.
1.6. Support the church hospital in the city of Birobidzhan (2007) - USD5000.

2. Child care programs:

2.1. Boarding school for 80 children from difficult families;
2.2. Assistance to orphans and handicapped children through Charitable society of Saint Martyrs Kosma and Damian and International charitable center of Saint Serafim of Sarov;
2.3. Orthopedic workshop (ate Her) - production of artificial limbs and correction shoes for handicapped children;
2.4. Program "Chernobyl children" - diagnose and treatment of 837 children in Italy (1993-1998);
2.5. Project "Foot-wear for children" (shoes for orphans) in 11 regions of Russia (2000-2001) -USD24000;
2.6. Project "Hand of aid for children" (2004) - support of church orphanage and state Child Care homes in Saransk, Kostroma and Jaroslavl - USD17000;
2.7. Assistance to Children’s hospice in Saint Peterburg (2006) - USD10000.
2.8. Program “Children of Kola Peninsula” (the city of Murmansk) - support, professional training and teaching difficult teen-agers (2007) - USD30000.
2.9. Annual organization of Christmas and Easter parties in orphanages and Child Care homes.

3. Building of hospice for 24 persons.

4. Restoration of the church for handicapped persons.

5. Humanitarian aid to refugees, forced migrants and victims of natural disasters:

5.1 Joint project with International Orthodox Church Charities (IOCC) in Chechnya and
Ingushetia (1995-1997) of USD 1974000;
5.2 . Victims of the earthquake in Sakhalin island (1995);
5.3 Aid to forced migrants from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan, Moldova and Chechnya;
5.4. Aid to the victims of terrorist explosions in Moscow and Volgodonsk (1998) - USD3000;
5.5 Distribution of 60 tons of food among victims of the flood in Yakutia (2001) - USD67000;
5.6 Aid to the victims of the flood in Krasnodar region with the help of Renovabis(2002 r.) -
USD 25000;
5.7 Medical and material aid to the victims of the terroristic act in the Moscow subway (2004) -
USD7000.
5.8. Aid to victims of military actions in Lebanon (2006) - USD44900.
5.9. Project “Children of Beslan” (2006) - USD30000.

6. Distribution of the humanitarian aid - food, cloths, foot-wear, medicine.

Thus together with IOCC the following items were distributed:

6.1. 7500 tons of food in 11 regions of Russia among 1,5 million people (1993-1994);
6.2. 90 tons of goods in Chechnya (1995-1996);
6.3. 53000 tons of food in 19 regions of Russia (1999-2002).
Total cost of the projects 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 is exceed USD60 millions.
6.4. Project "Winter 2002" - distribution of blankets in social organizations of Barnaul,
Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Vologda, Saransk, Kostroma, Moscow and Chita regions. Department plan to
continue this project in Birobijan, Khabarovsk, Murmansk, Vladivostok, Sahalin Petropavlovsk-
Kamchatski regions. Total cost - USD200000.
6.5. Annual distribution of humanitarian aid (goods) among needy people - USD50-60000.

7. Projects of development:

7.1 Delivery of the equipment for mini-bakeries in Moscow and Kostroma regions and Mordovia republic (2002-2003) - USD 25000.
7.2 Equipment for workshops and computer-classes in Astrakhan and Velikiy Novgorod (2007) - USD30000.

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;
1999-2002).
Thus a number of the Department projects are supported by some Churches and ecumenical organizations from abroad - the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, International Orthodox Church Charities, Action Churches, Together Episcopal Church in the USA The Society of St. Apostle Paul (Denmark) and others.
Humanitarian aid received by the Department is distributed among needy people without any reference to their religion convictions.

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: 
Hegumen Seraphim (Kravchenko),
Executive Secretary
Department for Church Charity and Social Service
of the Russian Orthodox Church.

[May 2008]

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Pastoral health care activity of the Russian Orthodox Church
in medical institutions in Russia

Health care chaplaincy for in-patients is developed on a wide scale in the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia. This activity is represented in two forms.

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.
Orthodox medical-educational centers aimed at prophylaxis of abortions work with women in a critical situation.

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.

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[May 2006]


 

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