Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church meets for first time this year, sends delegation to Amman: communique

The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church held its first working session this year under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel at the Synodal Hall of the Patriarchal Residence in Bucharest on February 13, 2020.

During the meeting, an assistant bishop to the Archdiocese of Vad, Feleac and Cluj was elected.

The Holy Synod elected by secret vote the V. Rev. Archimandrite Benedict Vesa as assistant bishop to the Archdiocese of Vad, Feleac and Cluj.

The new assistant bishop will bear the title of His Grace Bishop Benedict of Bistrița. His ordination to the episcopacy will take place on Sunday, February 23, 2020, at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Cluj-Napoca.

During the meeting, the Holy Synod resolved to establish a new master’s degree program entitled ‘Economic management and administration of church units’ (full-time education) at the Patriarch Justinian Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Bucharest.

The Holy Synod also discussed organizing the seventh edition of the International Meeting of Orthodox Youth 2020 in Timișoara.

At the same time, the following were highlighted:

The publication in the Official Journal of Romania (no. 97 of February 10, 2020) of the Statute for the organization and functioning of the Romanian Orthodox Church as approved by the Holy Synod during its working session on December 16, 2019 (synodal decision no. 12.190 / 2019).

The numerous social-philanthropic activities carried out in the Romanian Patriarchate, actions amounting to 153,600,638 lei (over 32 million euros).

As regards the invitation of His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem addressed to the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church to attend the fraternal meeting in Amman, Jordan, on February 25-27, 2020, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church reiterated its decision no. 3668, reviewed in its decisions no. 9156/2018 and no. 180/2019, stating that the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Moscow Patriarchate resume the dialogue to reach, as soon as possible, a solution in the issue of the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, so as not to deepen the polarization of the two opposing sides: one of the Orthodox Churches in favour of Constantinople, and the other pro-Moscow Orthodox Churches.

Furthermore, the Holy Synod indicated its agreement with the granting of autocephaly for the entire Orthodox Church in Ukraine (not just a part of it), but this can only be achieved by the agreement between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Moscow Patriarchate and by pan-Orthodox consensus.

Since at the fraternal meeting in Amman the participants will discuss ways of reconciliation and restoring the Eucharistic communion between some sister autocephalous Orthodox Churches, and in order not to interpret the Amman meeting initiated by the Jerusalem Patriarchate as a Synaxis of the Primates of the Orthodox Church, the Holy Synod resolved that the Romanian Orthodox Church should not be represented by the Patriarch of Romania, but by a delegation of the Romanian Patriarchate.

This participation of the Romanian Orthodox Church in the fraternal meeting in Amman is motivated by the fact that all the autocephalous Orthodox Churches have the responsibility to work together for the maintenance, defence and promotion of the Orthodox dogmatic, canonical and Eucharistic unity, according to the Gospel of Christ and the Sacred Canons.

Press office of the Romanian Patriarchate | Photography courtesy of Mircea Florescu

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