New Decisions Of The Holy Synod Of The Romanian Orthodox Church

The Press Office of the Romanian Patriarchate informs us: From 16 – 17 February 2011, the first working session of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church of this year was held in the Synodal Room of the Patriarchal Residence, under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel. We mention some of the decisions taken: - Following the proposal of the Romanian Patriarchate, the Holy Synod declared the year 2012 as Homage Year of the Extreme Unction and looking after the sick people; - The procedure of national fund raising for continuing the construction of the Cathedral for the Nation’s Salvation in the parishes and monasteries within the eparchies of the Romanian Patriarchate was approved; - The hierarchs who will be members of the Preparatory Commission for establishing the principles, thematic and methodology of work of the Joint Commission of Dialogue between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Romanian Church United with Rome (Greek-Catholic) were appointed as a result of the positive answer of the Greek-Catholic hierarchs to the Appeal of the Holy Synod for resuming the bilateral dialogue of 7 July 2010; - The delegation of the Romanian Orthodox Church for the dialogue with the Serb Orthodox Church was established; - The course for serving the alcohol addicts will be introduced in the curricula of the Pastoral Theology discipline, which is taught in the pre-academic educational system and in the theological academic system; The hierarchs of the Holy Synod estimated the results of the fund raising and of material goods organised in the Romanian Orthodox parishes and monasteries in the country and abroad as a result of the Appeal of the Romanian Patriarchate to prayer and Christian solidarity with the families affected by the floods in the North-West of the country in the summer of 2010. So, the Romanian Orthodox Church helped the victims of the floods in the areas affected with about 6.000.000 lei, as well as with food, cereals, clothes, construction materials, medicines and other material goods amounting to about 5.400.000 lei