PATRIARCH
ORDERS
REDUCTION BY ONE QUARTER OF ASSESSMENTS OF PARISHES AND DIOCESES
IN MOSCOW
PATRIARCHATE BECAUSE OF EPIDEMIC
Interfax-Religiia,
14
May 2020
Patriarch
Kirill sent
to the bishops of Russia an order to reduce the assessments in
the Moscow
patriarchate for 2020 because of the financial difficulties that
the
coronavirus epidemic evoked.
"The
document
notes that in the circumstances of the epidemic being
experienced, in order to
preserve the life and health of citizens in many regions of the
Russian
Federation, restrictive measures were adopted, including the
suspension of
people's access to churches and monasteries," the press service
of the
patriarch reported on Thursday.
Because
of this, the
primate of the church blessed the reduction of assessments of
dioceses,
parishes of Moscow, and stavropegial monasteries within the
Moscow patriarchate
for 2020 by 25% in comparison with the year 2019, which, as the
press service
noted, corresponds to a three-month term of reductions.
The
reduction of
assessments applies to all Moscow parishes and those dioceses
where
restrictions on parishioners' attending churches were adopted,
which led to
substantial decline in income and where at the same time there
was no reduction
in the assessments of parishes for use in diocesan budgets.
The
deadline for
completing assessments for the 2020 year has been extended until
10 May 2021,
the patriarchal press service notes. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 May
2020)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.