A regular board meeting of the Synodal department on monasteries and monasticism of the Russian Orthodox Church was held at Moscow’s Danilov monastery. Hegumenia Sergia, the abbess of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery, attended the meeting.

In the opening remarks, Metropolitan Theognost of Kashira, the head of the department, outlined the board’s priority goal: to fulfill the blessing by His Holiness the Patriarch of the revival and development of Russian monasticism. Vladyka Theognost emphasized that the activities of the board should support communication and interaction between monasteries.

Archimandrite Stephen (Tarakanov), deputy head of the department, briefed its members about the main areas of the department work.

Hegumenia Domenica (Korobeinikova), the abbess of the Alexander Nevsky Novo-Tikhvin monastery presented church documents related to monastic life developed by the Inter-Council Presence Commission on the organization of life of monasteries and the monastics.

Hegumenia Victorina (Perminova), the abbess of Moscow’s Nativity of the Mother of God monastery, and Hegumenia Elizabeth (Pozdnyakova), abbess of Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy reported about the monasteries’ inspection trips by the panel members. The main goal of these trips was to provide brotherly assistance to the monasteries and find solutions to the pressing issues.

Hegumen John (Ludischev), abbot of the Sretensky monastery in Moscow, outlining the focus areas of department’s work in the organization of monastic conferences, has listed various possible formats of these monastic forums. Father John noted that issues pivotal to the proper establishment of the monastic life were among those discussed during the meetings of the monastics.

In the presentation entitled “Regarding the organization of educational process in the monasteries,” Hegumen Peter (Yeremeev), the chairman of the Interdepartmental commission on education of monastics, shared with the participants of the board meeting the results of work of the commission he currently heads and spoke about his work as editor-in-chief at the journal titled “Monastery Messenger.”

Ekaterina P. Orlova, editor-in-chief of the “Monastery Messenger Online,” the website of the Synodal department for Monasteries and Monasticism, spoke about the work of the departmental information service. She urged the monasteries to work together and offered examples of high-quality information work of the monasteries.

At the end of the meeting, the board members expressed gratitude to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia for his care about the monasteries and monastics of the Russian Orthodox Church.