The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church met for a working session at Patriarch Teoctist Aula of the Patriarchal Palace on Thursday, February 29, 2024. The meeting was chaired by His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel.
The Holy Synod resolved the following:
- To declare 2025 as a Solemn Year of the Centennial of the Romanian Patriarchate and a Commemorative Year of the Romanian Orthodox spiritual fathers and confessors of the 20th century.
- To establish the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Great Britain, based in London, to serve the over 1 million Romanian Orthodox believers in this part of Western Europe.
- To establish the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Ireland and Iceland, based in Dublin.
- To recall the position of the Romanian Orthodox Church towards political life and electoral campaigns in the context of the 2024 election year, in the sense of the non-involvement of the Church in party politics, because, according to Article 7 paragraph 1 of Law no. 489/2006 on religious freedom and the general regime of religious denominations, the recognised religious denominations are factors of social peace and any attitude of public hostility in society, of political partisanship, of attacking the person or straining relations with the public authorities are contrary to the spiritual mission of the Church in society.
- To approve the volumes for December and January of the Synodal Synaxarion of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
- To approve the Akathist to the Holy Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian of Asia Minor (November 1).
- To approve the Akathist to Saint Gerasimos of Kefalonia (October 20).
- To approve the Akathist to the Holy Unmercenaries Cyrus and John (January 31, June 28).
- Organise a fundraising campaign between March 1 and March 1, 2024, to assist in the construction of housing for Nagorno-Karabagh-region Armenian refugees in Armenia.
- Recall that through the Financial Control and Audit Body of dioceses, metropolises, and the Romanian Patriarchate, the church authority verifies the financial and patrimonial statements of parishes, dioceses and metropolises. If deficiencies are found, it adopts measures to remedy them, for whose correct application the Metropolitan Synod and the Permanent Synod are responsible; the respective Financial Control and Audit Bodies must be staffed with experienced specialists (economists and financial auditors) who are characterised by fairness, professionalism and fidelity to the Church.
- To bless, encourage and support the initiatives of Romanian Orthodox communities in Ukraine to re-establish communion with the Mother Church – the Romanian Patriarchate – through their legal organisation in a religious structure called the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
- To reaffirm that all Romanian Orthodox clerics and their flocks from the Republic of Moldova who return to the Metropolis of Bessarabia are canonical clerics and blessed believers, and any disciplinary sanction directed against them on the grounds of their membership of the Romanian Orthodox Church is considered null and void, according to synod decision no—8090 of December 19, 1992.
- To express appreciation for the rich social-philanthropic activity of the Romanian Orthodox Church during the year 2023, which produced visible positive effects in Romanian society.
Chancellery of the Holy Synod
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro Files
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