On March 5 of this year, Archpriest Arkady SHATOV, head of the Moscow Commission for Church Social Activities and the Moscow Orthodox service “Mercy,” was appointed chairman of the Synodal Department for Charity and Social Service.

The Synodal Department sees the goal of its work as combining effective modern technologies of charity with truly Christian service to one's neighbor. The task of church social institutions and all charitable activities of the Church is to multiply love, bring both those under their care and those who help them closer to God, restore the image of God in a person tormented by deprivations of various kinds, suffering, the consequences of sins (both his own and the whole society).

The task of church social work is not to duplicate the system of state social institutions, but to help the state transform this system, bring into society the spirit of love, active faith, sacrificial service to others, and offer new technologies and new forms of work. An initiative for active assistance should come from the Church, the goal of which is to return a person to society and give joy to life.

Social activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow

The most active social activities of the Church are carried out in the largest cities, especially in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.

The database of the Moscow Commission for Church Social Activities, available on the website, contains information about 327 church social facilities, divisions and services operating at Moscow churches.

Among them:

— 25 charity canteens

- 7 almshouses

— 66 charity groups

— 6 orphanages

— 12 patronage services

— 12 sisterhoods

— 9 family assistance services

— 14 rehabilitation centers for alcohol and drug addicts and victims of sects.

Moscow Orthodox Service "Mercy"

The Orthodox service “Mercy” is the largest social service of the Russian Orthodox Church, operating with the blessing of the Patriarch. The first projects were formed in 1991 - thus, the service has existed for almost 20 years. Today, the Orthodox Service “Mercy” has 11 of its own social projects.

St. Spiridon's almshouse. Created in 1999. There live 10 grandmothers and two paralyzed men, almost all of them are bedridden, all of them were abandoned by their relatives. They are looked after by 10 sisters. St. Dimitrievsky orphanage. Created in 2001. 26 girls now live here, including two disabled children. St. Sophia orphanage. Created in 1993. 9 boys live in it. Patronage service. Created in 1991. She cares at home for 47 lonely elderly and disabled people, as well as for HIV-infected patients in two Moscow hospitals. Bus "Mercy". During the cold season, the bus saves 10 to 30 homeless people from freezing every night, and in the summer it provides medical assistance to the homeless. Homeless assistance service in Moscow hospitals. Its employees restore documents to the homeless, place them in shelters, contact their relatives, and send them home. We help about 1,500 homeless people a year. Help for disabled children in 2 Moscow boarding schools and disabled adults in one psycho-neurological boarding school. Sisters of mercy constantly work with the most difficult patients. Help for abandoned patients in the First City Hospital and the Hospital of St. Alexis. 51 nursing sisters turn over, feed, and treat bedsores of abandoned patients in these hospitals. Dimitrievskaya school. A comprehensive school with 137 children, a quarter of whom are from orphanages, and almost all the rest are from large families. Helpline "Mercy" (972-97-02). It operates around the clock, provides reference information about church and secular social assistance in Moscow, accepts requests from those in need and transfers them to the appropriate departments. Every day the phone receives 50–60 calls. The website "Miloserdie.ru" (www.site) is a means of connecting those who need help with those who can provide it. A daily updated information resource about church and non-church charity. The website publishes monthly reports on the Friends of Charity program and on fundraising for specific requests for help.

Mass donation program “Friends of Charity”

All projects of the Orthodox Service “Mercy” are 90% supported by private benefactors. Due to the sharp reduction in donations during the crisis, all of them were under threat - large philanthropists reduced their funding significantly. In order to save orphanages, almshouses and other projects, the Friends of Charity Program was urgently created in October 2008. We encouraged everyone to donate a little to charitable causes: the slogan of the program is “A little from a lot - it saves lives.” As a result, ordinary people took over the funding of the Service’s social projects - they donate only 1% of their earnings, but they do it regularly. Thus, the Orthodox Service “Mercy” managed to survive. In this way, it is possible to attract up to 3 million rubles per month.

It is planned to extend this technology of collecting money for social work to other dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In April, with the organizational support of the Moscow Department of Social Protection, the “Month of Mercy” campaign is held. The essence of the action is the mass distribution of leaflets with receipts for donations in favor of the beneficiaries of the Mercy service. The distribution will be carried out by both social workers and volunteers, mainly young people. Places of distribution - educational institutions, clinics, crowded places, streets, entrances, churches, points near metro stations.

Institutions that His Holiness the Patriarch and his vicars will visit on Easter:

1. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill will visit Orphanage No. 15 (special correctional facility of the 8th type)

There are 410 children in the boarding school with mental retardation and accompanying diagnoses: cerebral palsy, epilepsy, metabolic disorders.

The boarding school has a temple of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. The rector is Priest Dionysius Gudz, cleric of the Church of St. blgv. Tsarevich Dimitri at the City Clinical Hospital No. 1 named after. N.I. Pirogov. The institution is also cared for by: Priest Mark Soukup, cleric of the Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God in Kuzminki, Priest Alexy Mindrov, Priest Alexander Pyatugin, clergy of the Church-Chapel of St. Michael the Archangel at the Kutuzovskaya Izba.

Eight sisters of mercy from the Sisterhood of St. Demetrius help the staff of the orphanage to care for the most difficult children. 35 volunteers of the Orthodox service “Mercy” help during services in the home church and take children for walks.

2. His Grace Archbishop Arseny of Istra will visit Hospice No. 3.

There are 34 people in the hospice.

The institution is cared for by Archimandrite Gabriel (Zelenkin), Paraskeva Pyatnitsa Church of the VMC. in Kachalov. Volunteers from the Orthodox service “Mercy” conduct classical music concerts for patients.

3. His Grace Bishop Alexander of Dmitrov will visit psychoneurological boarding school No. 30

There are 1001 people in the boarding school.

At the institution there is a house church for the martyr. Tryphon. The institution is cared for by Priest Konstantin Sopelnikov, clergyman of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Chertanovo. During services, he is helped by 15 volunteers from among the parishioners of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Chertanovo.

4. His Grace Bishop Kirill of Pavlovo-Posad will visit the AIDS center at Infectious Diseases Hospital No. 2.

The center has a capacity of 150 places.

The institution is cared for by the clergy of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ at the former Semenovskoye cemetery. A temple was founded on the territory of the hospital.

Assistance in caring for the sick is provided by 5 sisters of mercy of the St. Demetrius Sisterhood, and 10 volunteers of the Orthodox service “Mercy” also help.

5. His Grace Bishop Irinarch of Krasnogorsk will visit the Moscow Scientific and Practical Center for Narcology.

400 people are being treated at the center.

The institution is cared for by Abbot Jonah (Zaimovsky) of the St. Daniel Stavropegic Monastery. It is planned to open a house church.

6. His Grace Bishop Ignatius of Bronnitsky will visit the Krasnoselsky social rehabilitation center.

There are 80 children at the center.

The institution is cared for by Archpriest Nikolai Skurat, cleric of the church, Prophet. Elijah in Obydenny Lane, priest Igor Filonenko, cleric of the Church of St. Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow in Meshchanskaya Sloboda. It is planned to open a house church.

Other Easter mass greetings in Moscow

Also on the evening of Holy Saturday, April 3, the Synordal Office and Orthodox volunteer organizations will organize congratulations to the homeless:

at Kursky station at 20.00, at Yaroslavsky, Kazansky and Leningradsky - at 21.00, at Paveletsky - at 22.00.

Main goals - coordination of church social initiatives in all dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church, creation of a church-wide mass volunteer charity movement.

Sisters of Mercy

(FLV file. Duration 9 min. Size 71 Mb)

Directions of our work:

Help for orphans, large and single-parent families;

- assistance to the elderly and disabled;

Help for drug addicts;

Help for alcohol addicts;

Emergency assistance;

Help for the homeless;

Creation of a church-wide database on social activities

Development of the Orthodox volunteer movement;

Information support for social service;

Publication of methodological manuals on social work;

Organization of distance learning;

Mercy.Ru

(FLV file. Duration 4 min. Size 68.6 Mb)

Today, the Synodal Department operates:

Coordination Center for Combating Drug Addiction;

Coordination Center for Combating Alcoholism and Promoting Sobriety;

Humanitarian Aid Center (volunteer-based project for collecting and distributing things, Dubninskaya St., 79);

Homeless Assistance Coordination Center;

Maternity Protection Coordination Center;

Official news of the Department can be viewed on the website www.diaconia.ru, the Database on the social ministry of the Church is also available there. A distance learning course for social service is being conducted on the Webinar.ru platform; methodological materials on social service are published (5 books have been published); The Synodal Department supports the Orthodox charity portal “Miloserdie.ru”

The most significant events in the activities of the Department over the past year:

Helping fire victims during the summer fires of 2010;

Help from the Church of Japan after the earthquake and tsunami in 2011;

The first regional conference on social service in St. Petersburg (for the North-West region)

Social ministry of the Church in post-Soviet Russia began to revive in the 90s with the activities of the brotherhood of St. Anastasia the Pattern Maker in St. Petersburg and the Sisterhood of St. Demetrius in Moscow. Today the social ministry of the Church is:

More than 500 charity groups and volunteer services;

More than 150 sisterhoods of mercy in Russia and about 60 sisterhoods in Belarus and Ukraine;

More than 100 orphanages;

More than 30 almshouses;

More than 80 temporary homes and social hotels;

More than 30 rehabilitation centers for drug addicts;

11 homeless shelters and 3 mobile homeless services;

More than 30 maternity protection centers

Photo gallery

  • At the hospital of St. Alexia

    At the hospital of St. Alexia

  • Wheelchair

  • Homeless Help Bus

    Homeless Help Bus

  • House of Industriousness in Brooklyn

    House of Industriousness in Brooklyn

  • House of Industriousness in Brooklyn

    House of Industriousness in Brooklyn

  • In the monastery

    In the monastery

  • Street children

    Street children

  • St. George's shelter for drug addicts

  • St. George's shelter for drug addicts

The most striking examples of social projects of the Church:

- Central Clinical Hospital of the Moscow Patriarchate of St. Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow (Moscow)

Built in 1903. For today it is the only medical institution of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the last decade, new divisions have been organized and operating in the hospital: two neurological departments and a consultative and diagnostic center. Sisters of mercy, volunteers, priests serve in the hospital, and students of the St. Demetrius School of Sisters of Mercy undergo internships. A training and methodological center for palliative care has been organized at the hospital, and a missionary radio operates.

- House of Mercy (Minsk)

The House of Mercy operates a charity canteen (about 50 people receive food daily), a rehabilitation center for the disabled, a warehouse for humanitarian aid, a sisterhood, an icon-painting and sewing workshop (for orphans and disabled children), a Sunday school, and assistance is provided to 262 orphans from PNI .

Rehabilitation center of St. Vasily the Great for suspended sentences and teenagers under investigation (St. Petersburg)

Established in 2004. The center works with youths aged 14 to 18 who are on probation or under investigation. Up to 7 teenagers can live in the center at the same time. They are brought to the center by referrals from inspectors for work with minors and district commissions on juvenile affairs. Pupils participate in trainings, educational conversations, and joint trips to theaters and museums. The center employs social educators, social work specialists, psychologists, and deviantologists. Over 5 years, 59 people completed the rehabilitation program, 11 committed repeated crimes. In 2009, a social hotel with 5 beds was created in the center for pupils who had undergone inpatient rehabilitation and did not have the opportunity to live with a family. The Center’s employees are also involved in the rehabilitation of teenagers in the Kolpino educational colony.

- The first children's hospice in Russia (St. Petersburg)

Created in 2003 on the initiative of the Russian Orthodox Church. It is the only state medical institution in Russia headed by a priest - Archpriest Alexander Tkachenko. Currently, more than 150 children aged from six months to 18 years are in hospice care. All hospice services are provided free of charge. Doctors, nurses, psychologists and social educators work with children.

- St. Demetrius School of Sisters of Mercy (Moscow)

The first Orthodox medical educational institution in modern Russia, established in 1992. The nursing training program at the school is based on state standards; upon completion of the school, state diplomas are issued.
Students undergo internships at the St. Alexis Hospital and the 1st City Hospital.

- Monastic orphanage in Bancheny (Ukraine)

The Banchen orphanage is a family-type orphanage. All children are adopted or are under the guardianship of Father Longin (Zhara), the rector of the Holy Vozn-Yesensky Monastery and confessor of the Boyana Convent. There are 253 children in the shelter, 46 of them are diagnosed with HIV. A quarter of all children are disabled. The children are cared for by nuns from the Boyana Convent, professional teachers and educators. There is an almshouse at the monastery (for 45 grandmothers, of which 12 were tonsured), and 8 grandfathers live in the monastery building. In the fall, a home for the disabled should be opened at the monastery (for 100 people)

-Homeless assistance bus “Mercy” (Moscow)

In the summer it provides medical assistance, in the winter it saves people from freezing. Every night the service saves from 10 to 30 people from freezing. Since 2004, more than 22,000 people have received assistance. There are 3 teams of 5 people working. The team consists of a doctor or paramedic, a nurse, two assistant nurses and a driver. Over the past two years, a night bus has saved 4,633 people from hypothermia in winter, 74 people were hospitalized by ambulance, and 132 people were sent to a permanent place of residence. 5,525 people were taken by day bus, 31 people were hospitalized by ambulance, 629 people were sent to a health center for the homeless, 82 people were sent for permanent residence.

- Rehabilitation center for the homeless "Derzhava" (Sredneuralsk, Sverdlovsk region)

Operating since 2006, it accepts the homeless, provides accommodation, food, clothing and work. Rehabilitation takes place within the Cossack community. Currently, more than 50 people live in the center.

- Pokrovskaya almshouse (Sergievo village, Leningrad region)

It was opened at the beginning of the 20th century with the blessing of St. John of Kronstadt. In post-Soviet history, it has been operating since 1996. The inhabitants are lonely old women and disabled people. It also provides assistance to homeless people in restoring documents and rights to receive government benefits. A search has been organized for relatives and friends of the homeless. Through the efforts of almshouse workers, the homeless are placed in shelters and boarding schools.

- Kovalevsky orphanage (Nerekhta, Kostroma region)

Operating since 1996. Orphans and children left without parental care (social orphans) live here. Pupils are educated in secondary schools in the city and region and are provided with food and clothing. There is its own subsidiary farm: a dairy farm, a pigsty for 100 heads, an apiary and 300 hectares of farmland. The director of the orphanage, Archpriest Andrei Voronin, arranges for the children to climb mountains (for example, Elbrus).

- Rehabilitation center for drug addicts at St. George's parish (Ivanovo region)

Has been involved in the rehabilitation of drug addicts since 1998. Seven or eight young people are undergoing rehabilitation here at the same time. Since 2002, assistance has been provided to HIV-infected people. In total, more than 80 HIV-infected people underwent rehabilitation. The parish is visited by specialists professionally involved in helping drug addicts. Rehabilitation of patients is free.

- House of Industriousness in Brooklyn (New York)

Began its work in 2003, accommodation is free. Organized by a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. The shelter accepts both those legally living in the United States and illegal immigrants. The main rule is not to drink alcohol or use drugs. During the existence of the House of Diligence, more than 50 Russian-speaking homeless people addicted to alcohol and drugs passed through it. Many find work, rent apartments and return to normal life.

Date of creation: 1991 Description:

Established in 1991. The main tasks are the coordination of church social initiatives in all dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church, the creation of a church-wide mass volunteer charity movement, the development and implementation of methods of assistance to all categories of those in need, the organization of the exchange of experience and training of church social workers.

Areas of work of the Department:

  • assistance to orphans, large and single-parent families;
  • assistance to the elderly and disabled;
  • assistance to drug addicts;
  • help for alcoholics;
  • assistance in emergency situations;
  • assistance to the homeless;
  • creation of a church-wide database on social activities;
  • development of the Orthodox volunteer movement;
  • information support for social services;
  • publication of methodological manuals on social work;
  • organization of distance learning.

The Department operates:

  • Coordination Center for Combating Alcoholism and Promoting Sobriety;
  • Society of Orthodox Doctors;
  • Coordination Center for Combating Drug Addiction;
  • Coordination Center for Work with the Deaf, Deaf-Blind and Hard of Hearing;
  • Church Emergency Assistance Team (CER);
  • Homeless Assistance Coordination Center;
  • Legal service of the Synodal Department for Charity.

A distance learning course in social service is conducted, at least 5 teaching materials on social service are published annually, the Department maintains the Orthodox portal about charity Mercy.ru.

The social ministry of the Church in post-Soviet Russia began to revive in the 90s of the 20th century with the activities of the brotherhood of St. Anastasia the Pattern Maker in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Today the social ministry of the Church is (data as of May 2019):

  • more than 4,500 church social institutions, projects and initiatives in the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia;
  • about 400 sisterhoods of mercy that are members of the Association of Sisterhoods of Mercy;
  • more than 500 charity groups in Russia;
  • 60 crisis centers with shelters for women in difficult life situations in Russia;
  • over 180 humanitarian centers (warehouses) providing clothing and food assistance to pregnant women and mothers with children;
  • 65 orphanages in Russia, where about 1.3 thousand children live;
  • more than 60 almshouses;
  • more than 400 projects to help people with disabilities;
  • about 300 drug addiction assistance centers, including more than 70 rehabilitation centers;
  • more than 500 Orthodox organizations and parishes that help alcoholics and their relatives;
  • 95 Orthodox shelters for the homeless and 10 mercy buses (mobile aid stations).

In 71 Orthodox churches in 45 metropolises, work is carried out with deaf and hard of hearing people.

The department is subordinated to the Moscow Patriarchate of St. Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow.

By the decision of the Holy Synod of March 5, 2010 (), the cleric of the Moscow diocese, Archpriest Arkady Shatov (now Bishop Panteleimon of Orekhovo-Zuevsky), was appointed chairman of the Department.