TO THE QUESTION ON THE ORGANIZATION OF MISSIONARY SERVICE IN A NEWLY FORMED EPARCHY: A PRACTICAL ASPECT
The process of organizing some missionary service in a newly formed diocese is aimed at achieving two interrelated goals which are considered in this article. On the one hand, creation of full-fledged eparchial structures, including the diocesan missionary department, as well as their effective functioning is the most important factors in the development of church life in a newly-founded eparchy. On the other hand, the very creation of a new eparchy is a missionary event by its very nature, and any newly formed diocese is missionary, which requires a high degree of responsibility for organizing missionary service. On the basis of the author's developments carried out as part of the activities of the Synodal Missionary Department of the Russian Orthodox Church, a special program for the creation of missionary infrastructure in the newly formed diocese is proposed. These recommendations are based on the principles and methods of missionary activity, as reflected in church-wide regulatory documents governing missionary service. The specification of this normative guidance is to be carried out on the basis of an analysis of empirical data characterizing the state of an addressee of mission in a newly formed eparchy. The proposed program is advisory in nature.