Priests of Chisinau Church District meet to discuss important issues of Church Life
15/9/2011
Moldovan Orthodox Church
The church of St. Archangels Michael and Gabriel of Durleşti town hosted today the meeting of clergymen from Chişinau Church District. The meeting was chaired by Mitred Archpriest Zosima Toia, Dean of the Circumscription.
About 50 clergymen from Chisinau municipality, along with Mrs. Elena Bâtcă, lawyer of the Metropolitan Administration, participated in the event.
Father Dean informed the participants about the program of Patriarch Kirill’s canonical visit planned for this October, and insisted that the parishes from the Capital actively involve in the events planned in this regard.
Thus, clergymen from the municipal Church district will meet the Patriarch and accompany His Holiness while laying flowers and celebrating Divine Services in the Capital on the 9th of October.
Another important issue raised at the meeting was teaching Religion in schools. It was agreed that Sunday Schools are organized and teachers of Religion are delegated to work with pupils in schools.
A special point in the meeting agenda was Mrs. Elena Bâtcă’s presentation, highlighting important problems currently faced by the Church. Discussions followed, regarding recent declarations of Mr. Heiner Bielefeld, UN rapporteur on issues of religious freedom. The clergymen expressed profound indignation and concern about the UN expert’s declaration, and adopted a resolution addressed to the Dean of Chisinau Church District.
Generally, the resolution states that Mr. Bielefeld, prefers to ignore that constitutions or other legislative acts of many European states provide for special relations between the state and religious confessions, attributing a special role or status to one of the confessions. Thus, for example, in Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, Finland, Denmark, Portugal, Luxemburg, special legal norms are chartered to support one of the religious denominations.
Despite of that, Mr Bielefeld prefers to accuse the Orthodox Church of Moldova of having a special, excessive and predominating position and a privileged status, and feels appropriate to make certain “recommendations” to the Moldovan government, as to modify the law of cults and other legal stipulations “accordingly”.
The Resolution recommends to the representatives of international structures to get informed on the specific of the Republic of Moldova and the needs of its citizens, 93% of whom share Orthodox Faith.
At the same time, it appeals to Moldovan decision-makers not to take into account any “recommendations” that are destructing for our people’s national identity and come into contradiction with the tradition and rules of the Church of the majority.
