"The Patriarch will deliver a report on the Russian Orthodox Church's (ROC) activities over the past four years. The Assembly convenes every four years primarily to sum up the results of ROC's performance over the accounting period and chart out the course of its future development," archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy head of the Moscow Patriarchate's External Relations Department, said in his interview with RIA Novosti.
At his meeting with the Russian President in August, Patriarch Alexis II pointed out that the upcoming Hierarchs' Assembly would discuss the current demographic situation in the country as well as such vital issues of consolidation of family and moral values required for improvement of the former, including the "problem of saving lives of human embryos".
"The progress made to date at the ROC's ongoing negotiations with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad" (aimed to achieve unification of the two branches of Russian Orthodoxy) is going to be one of the top items on the Assembly's agenda".
Speaking to Russian media, the Patriarch pointed out that the Assembly plans to adopt "the first preliminary documents regarding establishment of the ROC's own judicial proceedings" as well as to consider inclusion in the ROC's sainthood of locally canonized saints.
ROC is a multinational Regional Autocephalous Church, which is acting in religious union and cooperation with other Regional Orthodox Churches. ROC's jurisdiction extends to Orthodox believers residing on the ROC's canonical territory, including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Estonia. Besides, ROC's jurisdiction extends to Orthodox believers residing in a number of other countries.
At present, ROC comprises more than 150 archpriests, over 130 dioceses in many countries, over 23,000 parishes, and 635 monasteries. In addition, ROC has five ecclesiastical academies, 33 seminaries, 44 religious colleges, a Theological Institute, 2 Orthodox Universities, 14 preparatory vicarial courses, 3 episcopal schools for women, a number of cantoral and icon painting schools, as well as Sunday schools affiliated with the majority of Orthodox parishes.
ROC's activities are governed by the Supreme Council, the Bishops' Assembly and the Holy Synod headed by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
The previous Hierarchs' Assembly took place in August 2000 and was unprecedented in terms of the number and significance of documents it adopted. The Assembly canonized more than 1,000 new martyrs of Russia of the 20th century, including the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra and their children Alexy, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia.
The Assembly adopted the Guidelines of the ROC's social concept, the first document of this kind in the Orthodox history. It outlines the basic principles of ROC's doctrine regarding the church's relations with the state and secular society in general, embracing a number of vital contemporary problems of social importance.
The Assembly also adopted such fundamental documents as ROC's new Charter, the Basic Principles of ROC's Relations with other Confessions, an Edict on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, an Edict on the situation of the Orthodox Church in Estonia, as well as a number of other documents regulating ROC's external and internal activities.
