Pre-Council Committee Teleconference 15 Aug 2018
Attendees: Archbishop Andronik, Archbishop Sofroniy, Bishop Andrei, Hegumen Ignatiy (Krutkov), Archpriest Sergey Klestov, Archpriest Sergey Kondakov, Archpriest Georgiy Titov, Archpriest Nikita Grigoriev, Priest John Trepatschko, George Lukin, Mark Kotlaroff, Aleksey Klestov.
Also attending: Archimandrite Ilya (Empulev), Archpriest Mikhail Karpeev, Priest Aleksandr Malykh.
Absent: Bishop Stefan, Bishop Iriney, Priest Sergey Televinov, Priest Kirill Ignatiev, Dimitri Gontscharow.
The teleconference began at 9:00 PM New York time with the prayer “O Heavenly Father.”
Agenda for the 15 August 2018 Teleconference
The only item on the agenda was the question of how to organize the future work of the Pre-Council Committee.
In order to enhance the productivity of the committee’s work, the following steps were proposed:
- The creation of a joint Theological Commission. This commission will consist of all of the ruling bishops and one to two representatives from each diocese who have the appropriate education and qualifications. The bishops will appoint the members of the Theological Commission and the Commission is needed to focus on theological issues.
- Bishops and priests in Russia will continue preparations for a meeting of Russian parishes with the goal of establishing the Russian Church District. For this purpose, a Pre-Council Committee consisting of Russian clergy will be appointed. Among the tasks of this Committee, besides the formation of the Russian District, will be to establish contacts with other Russian church groups.
- Questions concerning the ecclesiastical life of the Diaspora District make it necessary to continue the work of a Pre-Conciliar Committee consisting of representatives of the Diaspora District. The Diaspora Pre-Council Committee will conduct negotiations with church groups in the abroad.
- The Joint Pre-Council Committee, which will include members from both Russia and the Diaspora, will hold meetings as issues arise that require joint discussion, for example, the discussion of materials submitted by the Joint Theological Commission.
- As Bp. Iriney was unable to participate in this teleconference, it was suggested that we withhold issuing a final resolution until a teleconference of all of the bishops can be conducted.
The teleconference was concluded at 11:30 PM with the prayer “It is truly meet.”