Today, 26 February 2013, the annual meeting of the Church National Council was held in the Synodal Hall of the Patriarchal Residence, under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Besides His Beatitude, His Grace Ciprian Câmpineanul, Assistant Bishop to the Patriarch, was also present.
To start with the annual meeting, the Patriarch of Romania presented the synthesis of the activity of our Church in 2012, entitled Signs of hope in time of sufferance: “The year 2012 was dedicated, within the Romanian Patriarchate, to the Sacrament of the Holy Unction and taking care of the sick, wishing to emphasise the inner relationship between the pastoral-liturgical, cultural-missionary and social-philanthropic service, and to intensify in society the need to take care of the sick as an expression of the merciful love for any fellow being in spiritual and physical sufferance. The Church has always understood that life and good health are gifts of God which must be protected and cultivated for the glory of God and welfare of the people. Thus, in 2012, the work of the Romanian Orthodox Church in society was focused both on the pastoral – liturgical and on the cultural – missionary aspect, as well as on the social – philanthropic branch of the Christian mission formulated in the compassion and care taken of those in distress.”
His Beatitude has also shown that “767 projects and social programmes are developed within the eparchial structures, out of which: 22 with external finances, 24 with public finances, 561 subsidised from the Church’s own funds and 160 with joint finances. 895.350 social services were done to 211.495 beneficiaries both within the social settlements and through the social projects, as follows: 166.397 social series to 105,717 children from the social settlements of the Church and of the state, but mostly within the social families with no means of maintenance or with parents gone to work abroad; 40.987 social services to 19.143 disabled persons, with speaking, sight and hearing deficiencies, to drug addicts and to other kinds of addicts, to HIV infected persons; 640.694 social services to 74.752 aged persons in church social protection settlements, temporary social centres and night shelters, to single old people, not transportable, abandoned by families and seriously ill; 47.272 social services to 11.883 victims of the trafficking in persons, unemployed, victims of the family violence, released prisons, victims of the natural calamities. The philanthropic activity was implemented in: direct financial aids amounting to 5.773.412 lei, granted to 95.802 persons; material aids amounting to 13.518.335 lei, consisting in aliments, clothes, school supplies, sanitary hygienic products, medicines, appliances, etc., granted to 281.179 persons; collect for the persons affected by the heavy snowfalls during the first months of the year 2012 amounting to 1.505.323 lei and goods estimated to 492.350 lei. In general, 69.474.776 lei were spent at the level of the Romanian Patriarchate, for sustaining the social-philanthropic activity. Besides that, we can also add the social-philanthropic aids spontaneously granted to the poor people by the faithful”.
The Church National Council is the central executive body of the Holy Synod and of the Church National Assembly, made up of 12 members of the Church National Assembly, one clergy and one laic representing each metropolitanate of the county, assigned for 4 years and for two mandates at last.
