Saturday, January 15, 2005

Session of the Hierarchical Synod of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church

(Suzdal Diocesan Herald--Vertograd: Suzdal)

The final session of the Hierarchical Synod of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church for 2004 took place on December 12/25 in the assembly hall of the Monastery of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Suzdal. Present were Metropolitan Valentine, the chairman of the Hierarchical Synod, Archbishop Theodore of Borisovsk and Otradnensk, Bishop Timothy of Orenburg and Bishop Irinarch of Tula and Bryansk. At the session, events of the life of the ROAC over the last year were considered. The Synod heard reports on diocesan life, considered the facts surrounding recent persecutions of ROAC parishes and clergymen in Zheleznovodsk, in the Stavropol Region and in Tver Region on the part of the Moscow Patriarchate with the assistance of local authorities, and determined candidates for episcopal consecration.