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Communiqué No. 06-08 of the Council of the Archdiocese
Meeting of 26 March 2008
The Council of the Archdiocese met on 26 March 2008 with His Eminence Archbishop Gabriel in the chair. Among the topics discussed were:
1. Plans for the St Sergius Foundation
- The working group with responsibility to look at this project of the Diocesan Administration and the Orthodox Theological Institute of St Sergius, concerning the latter’s future, and to put forward all possible suggestions, met on 24 March 2008. It consisted of the priests Nicolas Cernokrak, Nicolas Ozoline, W. Yagello and J. Panev, and Ivan Cheret, Constantin Davydoff, Oleg Lavroff, Michel Stavrou, Michel Feuillebois, Jean de Tiesenhausen, and Michel and Pierre Sollogoub.
- A series of meetings between the Diocesan Administration and a commission of the Academic Council of the St Sergius Institute has been scheduled, in order to explore together different possible ways of functioning for the future foundation and their implications.
- There was a broad exchange of views on the project at the time of the meeting of the Council of the Archdiocese with Fr Nicolas Cernokrak, Dean of the Institute.
- The creation of the St Sergius Foundation will require, prior to its recognition as an organisation of public benefit, a capital contribution of a minimum of 1 million euros. Since neither the Archdiocese nor the St Sergius Institute has such a sum at its disposal, the Council has decided to propose transferring to the future Foundation part of its share in the ‘Société immobiliere Serguievksoié Podvorie (SISP), to which the property housing the Institute legally belongs, which would provide the future Foundation with the capital it needs. This transfer would be accompanied by a clause ensuring the return of the property to its previous owner if the project were rejected by the civil authorities or should the Foundation cease to exist.
- Since the transfer of around one third of the Archdiocese’s share of the SISP would involve more than 150,000 euros, the Council of the Archdiocese is unable to make such a decision without the approval of a General Assembly of the Archdiocese according to Articles 34 and 71 of the Archdiocesan Statutes.
2. Extraordinary General Assembly (EGA)
- Archbishop Gabriel, having listened to the views of the Council, has decided to convoke an Extraordinary General Assembly of the Archdiocese on the morning of Saturday, 31 May 2008, at the St Sergius Institute in Paris.
- This General Assembly will have on its agenda the approval of two motions, one giving authorisation to transfer part of the share of the Archdiocese in the SISP, in order to enable creation of the Foundation, and the other giving authority to sign a long term lease with the Foundation in order to enable the necessary work of reconstruction to be undertaken and to receive donations for this.
- At the same time as the Extraordinary General Assembly, a Pastoral Assembly will take place to which all the clergy of the Archdiocese will be invited. This Pastoral Assembly will have as its theme ‘Announcing the Gospel in today’s world’, and will being on Friday 30 May in the late afternoon. The second part of the conference will take place the following day, after the Extraordinary General Assembly.
- In conformity with Article 16-4 of the Statutes of the Archdiocese, the lay delegates called to the AGE on 31 May will be those who took part in the Ordinary General Assembly in May 2007.
3. Ordinations
- Deacon Bengt (Benoît) Hagström was ordained priest by Archbishop Gabriel on 23 March during the Divine Liturgy celebrated in the St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris. He will be assigned to the parish of St Nicholas in Oslo (Norway) and will serve the communities of Gothenburg and Elskilstuna (Sweden).
- Subdeacon Alexander Willis was ordained deacon by Bishop Basil on Sunday 2 March, during the Divine Liturgy celebrated in the parish of the Dormition, London (Holborn). He will be assigned to the same parish.
4. Conference on French liturgical music of Russian tradition
- This conference, which was organised by Archpriest Michael Fortounatto with a group of choir directors from various parishes of the Archdiocese, took place on 22-24 March 2008 in the premises of the St Sergius Institute in Paris, with Archbishop Gabriel in attendance. More than eighty people from France, Belgium and Switzerland, and from different dioceses (not just the Archdiocese, but also from dioceses of the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Moscow and Serbia, as well as ROCOR), took part in this meeting, which Archbishop Gabriel described as ‘a great success’.
- The opening of two websites for the dissemination French liturgical chant was announced, one the work of Jean Starynkevitch (http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/chant_liturgique/) and the other of Mathieu Malinine (http://ndjasg.free.fr/mm/). These were welcomed as excellent initiatives that should be made known to the parishes, who can find on these sites musical scores in the French language following the tradition of Russian liturgical chant.
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