2 December 2018, after the divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, in the Red hall of the Cathedral Church met his Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill with the staff and wards of the Orthodox service of assistance “Mercy”, as well as members of the society of Friends of mercy,according to patriarhiei.
This year, the “Charity” celebrates the 10th anniversary of the society of Friends of mercy. The society was established in 2008, it includes those who regularly donates to the existence of a service of assistance “Mercy”. Today it is almost 18 thousand people. Their support is the Foundation on which to build the daily work of all 26 social service projects. Regular donations ensure that in difficult times the quality of care for patients will remain at a high level, and the projects will continue their work.
Today, the “Charity” is among the ten largest charity organizations of Russia. Here in a year receive a one-time assistance to an estimated 30 thousand people. In addition, a permanent care service is about 1500 people, among them — the elderly and the disabled, families with critically ill children, women in crisis situations.
Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church charity and social service, chaplain of the Orthodox service of assistance “Mercy” Bishop of Orekhovo-Zuevo Panteleimon presented the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church the meeting participants and spoke about the activities of the service. “There are representatives of 26 projects and four programs of the society of Friends charity, which was created by Your blessing. Our nurses and staff constantly patronize more than 1,500 people, 30 thousand people receive assistance annually. In total we have more than 500 employees,” — said, in particular, Bishop Panteleimon.
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill addressed the congregation:
“I would like to thank you all. Over the last 10 years has developed social service of the Russian Church, it was on a very solid Foundation. There are organizations that operate not just on a whim, and in which there is a clear understanding of what and how to do it. There is a collection of tools.
In other words, the social Ministry of the Russian Orthodox Church, good works, charity has become a very important factor in our Church life, not some side effect — that is, they say, the most basic and important, and charity and all that is connected with it, it’s somewhere on the periphery. Not so. You are in the heart of Church life. And I would like to thank you sincerely, because faith, which we preach without works is dead, according to the word of the Apostle (see Jas. 2:20, 26).
May the Lord bless you, retains your enthusiasm, to avoid fatigue good. Because sometimes the devil is tempting and even good deeds bored. I hope to God you haven’t had, and that was always a desire to work for the glory of God. And the Lord will be to you all a hundredfold return in this way and in a way that only He knows. God bless you! Congrats again and thank you for your work”.
Then there was the communication of his Holiness with the children — wards of service “Mercy”.
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill conveyed to the participants of the meeting gifts.
The meeting was attended by the mother superior of the stavropegic convent of the Marfo-Mariinsky convent of mercy abbess Elisabeth (Pozdnyakova); rector of Holy virgin intercession Church at the Russian children’s clinical hospital priest John Zakharov; senior nurse of the St. Dimitry Sisterhood Tatiana Filippova; Director nursing service “Mercy” Alena Davydova; the head of the charity programs for homeless service “Mercy”, head of the homeless of the Synodal Department for charity Irina Meshkova and social worker for homeless “Charity” Tatyana Zalesskaya, who accompanied two of the homeless involved in the project “Hostel”; Director of St. Dimitry’s school for large families priest Alexander Lavrukhin and large family Alexander Gypsy whose children are enrolled in school; children with severe disabilities from St. Sophia homes; the head of service of the volunteers of “Mercy” Olga Varganova; coordinator of volunteers at the hospital of St. Nicholas. Alexia Eugenia Dubova; coordinator of volunteers in the JSC and CJSC Moscow and Sergey Filippov; head of the center “Home for mom” service “Mercy” Maria studenikina and two moms, who now reside in the center; acting Director of St. Dimitry’s center Maria Moshkova watching kids; head of educational centre for children with cerebral palsy “Elizabethan garden” Tatiana Mishutina wards with two children; the elder sister of the Holy Spiridonievsky almshouses Olga Jordan, coordinator of volunteers in SBI Psychoneurological boarding school № 11 Sergey Arkhipov and two boys from this orphanage.