Resolution of the meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, 27 December 2005

New Rusian Orthodox parish and church in the United Arab Emirates

No. 113

Issue:

Report by Kiril, Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, on the establishment of a Russian Orthodox parish of Holy Apostle Philip in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates).

Information:

During Metropolitan Kiril's visit to the United Arab Emirates in April 2004, an agreement was reached that the Russian community of Sharjah should be provided with a plot of land on which to build a church. By decree of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church (August 17, 2004), the DECR MP was charged with co-ordinating the issue with the officials of the Patriarchate of Antioch.

In August 2005, the Russian Orthodox community of the UAE addressed the officials of the Russian Orthodox Church with an appeal for a Russian Orthodox parish in the name of Holy Apostle Philip to be established in that country. In his letter of 6 December 2005 to His Holiness Patriarch Alexii II, His Beatitude Ignatius IV Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, gave his assent to the establishment of the Saint Philip Russian Orthodox parish within the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Antioch and the construction of the church.

Decision:

1. To take into account the written assent of His Beatitude Ignatius, Patriarch of Antioch and all East, for the establishment of an Orthodox parish in the name of Holy Apostle Philip in Sharjah (UAE).

2. Hegumen Alexander (Zarkeshev), Rector of the Saint Nicholas cathedral in Tehran (Iran) be charged with taking pastoral care of the new parish.

3. To thank the Primate of the Antiochian Orthodox Church for his attention to the spiritual needs of Russian Orthodox believers residing in UAE.

Source: http://eng.sedmitza.ru/index.html?did=1623