On July 2, 2016, in Munich, on the premises of the Cathedral of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia and St. Nicholas, we held the Second Day of the Orthodox volunteers timed to the commemoration of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco.
The event has been attended by about 50 volunteers from Germany, Switzerland and Austria, and has proceeded under the guidance and with active participation of archpriests Ilya Limberger (Stuttgart), Nikolay Artemov (Munich), Nikolay Zabelich (Munich), and archbishop Pateleimon (Shatov) from Moscow.

The summary

The participants of the Orthodox Volunteer Day 2016 have met each other, exchanged experience and discussed the following topics:

• The spiritual life of volunteers and the pastoral care of volunteers by the clergy
• The role of volunteers in the preparation of a care-receiver for meeting a priest
• The importance of participation in the liturgical life
• Cooperation and exchange of experience with other organizations
• The needs of local volunteer groups of the Diaconia with respect to support and exchange of experience
• The importance of prayers for care-receivers
• Orthodox christian literature for the sick in hospitals
• Love, compassion, and personal space in volunteer work with care-receivers
• The responsibilities of the volunteer and the care-receiver
• Psychological characteristics of care-receives in view of the theory of five stages of grief
• The directions of development of the Diakonia work in the areas of
  • volunteer service
  • providing medical equipment
  • cooperation with hospitals and funds
  • efficient charity actions

The resolutions:

we constate the success of the Orthodox Volunteer Day 2016 and express our gratitude to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill for his prayerful support and blessing of Bishop Panteleimon of Orekhovo-Zuyevo, head of the Division of charity and social service of the Russian Orthodox Curch, to participate in the congress. We also express gratitude to the Archbishop of Berlin, Germany and Great Britain Mark (ROCOR). We express our special gratitude and love to His Grace Bishop Panteleimon of an active part in the congress, and spiritual guidance.

We intend:

• to develop a catechetical Orthodox brochure for distribution in European hospitals
• to exchange information and best practices with the volunteer groups from other countries
• to organize regular training and information sessions, and webinars for volunteers
• to pray for the care-receivers in church and at home
• to report regularly to the parishes about our volunteer activities
• to disseminate information on the work of the Diakomia and to cooperate with the pilgrimage service
• to held regularly the volunteer meetings and to involve priests in the training of volunteers
• to provide to volunteers a CD with The Rite Chanted During the Departure of the Soul from the Body

We also call on the volunteers to fulfill spiritually their voluntary service and to participate actively in liturgical life.

July 3, 2016, Munich

Alina Titova,
Head of the Russian Orthodox Diakonia in Europe “Good Deed”