"I was in prison and you visited me. ...I tell you whenever
you did this for one of the least important of these brothers
and sisters of mine, you did it for me!" - Matthew 25.36, 40
St.
Ephrem of Syrina’s Centre for Spiritual Support
of the Orthodox Communities in Confinement
St
Ephrem’s Centre was established in 2000 by the Missionary
Faculty at the Orthodox Theological University of Saint Tikhon
the Confessor (Moscow). Since then, it has acquired considerable
experience in its missionary work with the Orthodox communities
in Russian prisons.
The
Centre’s main mission is its correspondence with Orthodox
prisoners all over Russia. Russian Orthodox communities in
confinement are supervised in their spiritual life by local
diocese’s authorities. Russian Orthodox priests of each diocese
visit the prisons of their area administering Sacraments,
counselling inmates and distributing religious literature. St
Ephrem’s Centre provides support and information to those who
wish to take part in this important area of the Church’s social
work. The Centre’s activities are oriented towards the following
principles laid out in The Social Concepts of the Russian
Orthodox Church:
In
her ministry in penitentiaries, the Church should arrange
churches and prayer rooms in them, administer Sacraments and
celebrate, hold pastoral talks with inmates and distribute
religious literature. Especially important is the personal
contact with inmates including visiting them in cells. Every
encouragement should be given to correspondence with convicts
and collection and distribution of clothes, medicines and other
necessities. These efforts should be aimed not only to
relieve the heavy lot of prisoners, but also to help in the
moral healing of their crippled souls. Their pain is the pain of
the whole Mother Church who rejoices with heavenly joy when even
'one sinner repentieth' (Lk. 15:10). The revival of the care for
prisoners has become an important field of pastoral and
missionary work, which needs to be supported and developed.
(http://www.mospat.ru/text/e_conception/id/4050.html)
Here is the description of how the
Centre works by one of its members:
Though our centre is an official
organization, there is no official procedure for becoming its
member. Those who want to help the Centre in its correspondence
with prisoners can take two or three letters out of those dozens
which we receive every week and start a correspondence
with their new brothers and sisters in Christ. We reply to
personal letters, as well as the letters coming from the
communities, trying to encourage our correspondents by reminding
them about God and His love. We write to our pen-friends about
the Church’s festive days and answer their questions on
Christian traditions. Many prayer rooms in Russian prisons are
still short of Christian literature, so we try to supply the
Orthodox communities in confinement with the books they need.
Some of our members help to collect necessary books by telling
about our Centre at their local churches and asking people to
donate the books or money to purchase them. Our Centre also
sends prisoners video and audio materials, such as films on the
history of the Church and recordings of the Church music.
If you wish to help St.
Ephrem’s Centre in any way or find out more about its
activities, please contact the Head of the Centre, Natalia
Vladimirovna Ponomariova:
Email:
nponom@gmail.com;
Telephone (in Russia): 8-916-932-83-64
The Centre’s address is:
Tsentr Podderzhki Pravoslavnih Obshin v
Zakluchenii, PSTBI, Novokuznetskaya Str. 23 B, Moscow 115184,
Russia
E-mail:
forprison@yandex.ru
The Centre's Bank Details:
ИНН 7705010635
р/с 40703810038310100668 в Люблинском ОСБ
7977
Банк: Сбербанк России г.Москва
К/сч. 30101810400000000225
Other links:
The official server of the Moscow
Patriarchate (English version):
http://www.mospat.ru/e_startpage/index.html;
The official website of the Orthodox
University of Saint Tikhon (Russian version):
http://pstbi.ru;
The life of Saint Tikhon the Confessor,
Patriarch of Moscow (English version):
http://www.holy-transfiguration.org/library_en/saints_tikhon.html. |