This morning, the working session of the Holy Synod began at the Patriarchal Residence, under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel. To open with the session, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church delivered a spiritual meditation entitled “Episcopal Dignity and Responsibility in the Church”.

While referring to the dignity of the Episcopal service, His Beatitude said: “The dignity of the Episcopal service is holy and great, and its responsibility and difficulties are multiple. In a world in which the sense of holiness and communion are being lost quite fast, the numerous difficulties of the Episcopal service urge us to come close to Christ, the Head of the Church, through prayer, thought and work”.

During the same meditation, the Patriarch of Romania said: “The time of crisis urge us to repentance for everything that was mistake or absent mindedness in our personal life, in the Christian life in general, in the community to which we belong and in the society in which we live. At the same time, any time of crisis urges us to a new beginning, to a renewal of the thought and deed, of the way of thinking and working.”

The Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church showed that the renewal cannot be done in the Romanian Orthodox Church but through the spiritual deepening of the Holy Scripture and of the writings of the Holy Fathers: “In the Orthodox Church no renewal can be genuine and efficient on a long term, unless the renewal of thought and work is based on the spiritual deepening of the Holy Scripture and of the Saints’ lives”, informs TRINITAS Radio station.

The Holy Synod session is being held from 6 – 7 July 2010, at the Patriarchal Residence of Bucharest.