Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Parish of the London Russian Orthodox Cathedral

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Parish of the London Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God and the Holy Royal Martyrs of Russia, London, 13 May 2012

Attendees: H.E. Archbishop Mark, Archpriests Peter Baulk, Vladimir Vilgerts, hieromonk Gorazd and 41 parish members with the right to vote

Confirmation of eligible voters and opening

Initially, of 102 parish members who had the right to vote at the AGM, much fewer than the required quorum (⅔ of 102, i.e. 68) were present. Therefore, in compliance with the Parish Constitution, a new Regular AGM was called for one hour later. It was opened by H.E. Archbishop Mark at 14:22 on the same day, without the need for a quorum.

Chairman’s report (H.E. Archbishop Mark)

H.E. Archbishop Mark informed that regular services were performed in our parish during the last year. He mentioned that it was difficult for Frs. Peter and Thomas to serve many services because of their poor health and busyness. He asked the new Church council to find an opportunity to employ another permanent priest. H.E. Archbishop Mark thanked Frs. Vladimir and Peter, Churchwarden Vera McClenaghan and Assistant Treasurer Galina Shirokova.

H.E. Archbishop Mark noted that the visit by Kursk Root Icon of Mother of god became an important event in the life of the parish. The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad is going to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the communion with the Moscow Patriarchate. Initial worries about keeping autonomy of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad proved unjustified. For example, in February this year we proclaimed martyr Alexander a saint. He was beheaded by the fascist regime and buried 300 meters from our cathedral in Munich. We keep our traditions, although they naturally change. There are still differences between our and Moscow cathedrals, because our fathers grew up during the time when the Orthodox Church was leading, while theirs - under a godless regime. We can feel ourselves more Russian and we should value this.

H.E. Archbishop Mark thanked Head Sister Sofia Michailidou for excellent work of the Sisterhood and expressed condolences on the death of her father.

H.E. Archbishop Mark noted that there are more young families, and this was very encouraging, especially compared to the situation 26 years ago, when then Bishop Mark became our ruling bishop.

H.E. Archbishop Mark requested that Fr. Vladimir have a driver and that he drive the car himself only in exceptional cases, because if he had a traffic accident with a lethal outcome he would not be allowed to serve as a priest any more.

With the influx of new people, the level of knowledge of church practice had become more diverse, many people wasted Fr. Vladimir's time discussing with him not very important issues, and often people demanded baptism without proper catechetesis, which is totally unacceptable. H.E. Archbishop Mark asked active parishioners to help priests, for example, by answering some of telephone calls. Finally, H.E. Archbishop Mark asked to pay more attention to the church school, in order to preserve the Russian culture.

Fr. Vladimir’s report

Fr. Vladimir started his report by expressing thanks to H.E. Archbishop Mark for attention and frequent visits, to the clergy - for services, and to the Churchwarden, Sisterhood and all parishioners.

Fr. Vladimir noted that the parish had been growing quantitatively and expressed a hope that new parishioners already felt shoots of the parish life. 2011 there were 120 baptisms, including those of adults who had gone through catechisation and had already become active parish members. Because of the catechisation requirement some people went to other parishes with looser requirements for baptism. Also because of the stricter requirements, there were fewer weddings at our church. There were 5 funerals; 4 people partook in the Holy Communion before the death and some, for example, Trustee Nicholas Yellachich, participated in the Extreme Unction.

The Sisterhood is the most active part of the parish. Fr. Vladimir informed that Head Sister Sofia Michailidou wanted to have a temporary rest and urged more parishioners to participate in Sisterhood activities in preparing meals, cleaning and organising events.

Fr. Vladimir reported that our expenses had been lower than a year before and asked parishioners to continue saving more.

Fr. Vladimir asked the new Church Council to make decisions quicker and suggested that every Church Council member cover a certain field (electrical equipment, construction, accounting, relationships with authorities) in order to improve responsibility.

The weaker spot in our parish life is the youth. Although we organised a few evening events, the youth did not respond very actively. Fr. Vladimir appealed to the youth to come up with new proposals and ensured that he would support them and add the church character to them.

The connection between the church school and the parish is also weak. Fr. Vladimir tried to change this at the beginning of the school year, but did not receive support.

Fr. Vladimir finished his report by asking parishioners to help him in his endeavours.

Fr. Peter’s report

Fr. Peter thanked H.E. Archbishop Mark for approachability and Fr. Vladimir for his work that made the parish a family, Churchwarden Vera McClenaghan for spending more time at the church than at home, Sisterhood, Choir and Church Council members.

Fr. Peter asked everyone to pray for Nicholas Yellachich who passed away recently and for Daphne Perott who was in frail health.

Fr. Peter mentioned that construction of the church fence and the belfry, and fresco painting of the upper church would somewhat disrupt the church services.

The church school had been growing; more students attended the law of God classes. Thanks to the efforts of Svetlana Zaychenko the school had been becoming closer to the church.

Fr. Peter asked people to pay church dues and contact Deputy Treasurer Galina Shirokova and Secretary Oleksiy Danylenko on this matter.

We are going to set up CCTV because of a few recent thefts and burglaries. We also need to finalise Health & Safety policy and delegate responsibilities.

In conclusion, Fr. Peter thanked everyone for prayers.

Churchwarden’s report

Churchwarden Vera McClenaghan thanked H.E. Archbishop Mark, Fr. Vladimir, Fr. Peter, Nicolas Mabin for setting up archives, Maria Shadrina for preparing maps of cemeteries with graves of Orthodox Christians, and Church Council for the work.

The year had been active, new parishioners and whole families offered their help. The parish had become snugger, the floor in the Church House had been replaced free of charge. Now we need to set up a playground for children and refine the church yard. We had been collecting donations for the new fence, which is necessary for our safety and security.

Elena Grigorieva started conducting lessons of the law of God at the ChurchSchool. Children had been participating in concerts. Although there were school fees, there was not enough money. The youth organised a few interesting evening events.

The Churchwarden appealed to everyone to offer help and asked for forgiveness for possibly not having done everything she had promised.

Treasurer’s report

As Treasurer Maxim Skachko could not attend the AGM, Assistant Treasurer Galina Shirokova presented the 2011 financial report.

The year had been good; the expenses stayed roughly as they had been, but the revenues (candle sales, plate collections, donations) had grown up. Our regular revenues had exceeded our regular expense for the first time in many years (but only by GBP 6,000 per year, which was not enough to support another priest).

As part of our irregular revenues, the previous year we collected GBP 44,000 for the fence construction, i.e. approx. half of the required amount. The largest irregular expense item was the GBP 5,000 wiring and kitchen refurbishment.

Our assets had grown. Total revenues had been larger than total expenses by GBP 50,000.

The ordinary expenses were mainly priest expenses, Choir Director's salary, electricity, gas, keeping the church running, repair of lanterns.

We had conservative expenses. Every month, the Church Council reviewed the current financial report. Treasurer Maxim Skachko had helped set up the budget so that we could plan 2012 financial year better.

We had restricted accounts, for example, for fresco painting of the upper church, purchase of reliquary.

The collected church dues had grown primarily because of the increased number of those who pay them. Some 50 people paid church dues which, together with one-off donations, amounted to GBP 18,600.

A detailed financial report would be put on our website.

In conclusion, Galina Shirokova thanked Felix Sagitov for his work to count donations every week.

Audit Commission statement

Alexei Bykov presented the statement of the Audit Commission, which consisted of Alexei Bykov, Elena Grigorieva, Natalia Zacharonko and Daria Asadullaeva. The Audit Commission met 3 times during the year and used the statute in its work.

The current revenues exceeded current expenses. The financial documentation was confirmed within 4% error margin, which was a significant progress compared to previous years.

Suggestions for the future Audit Commission:

•Setting up the reporting policy, for example, the requirement for two signatures if there is not receipt, and the requirement for the recipient rather than the treasurer to sign when receiving the money.

•More active feedback from the parishioners on the work of the Audit Commission; one of such suggestions was extending the audit to the ChurchSchool.

•Confirming assets and liabilities of the parish.

•Conducting audit twice a year.

Alexei Bykov proposed to accept the financial report and thanked Galina Shirokova and Marina Gutsalo for their work.

Elena Grigorieva deplored that the Commission could not conduct a regular audit and thanked all who donated to the Kiosk, as it was the main source of revenues for the Sisterhood.

H.E. Archbishop Mark supported the proposal to accept the financial report, but asked to separate current revenues and expenses from the total in the financial report next year.

Appointment of tellers

Maria Shadrina, Daria Asadullaeva and Yulia Nikolaeva were unanimously appointed tellers.

Vote to accept the Accounts

37 people voted for accepting the financial report, with no one against nor abstaining.

Sisterhood Report

Head Sister Sofia Michailidou thanked Fr. Vladimir for supporting the work of the Sisterhood and pointed out that no one in the Sisterhood was paid for the work. In the Sisterhood there were 28 people who participated in its activities to a different extent. Overall, the parish had become cleaner and snugger. The Sisterhood organised Christmas bazaar and Cheesefare celebration. The floor in the church House had been replaced; the Sisterhood had paid only for the materials. The Sisterhood had bought new chairs, ordered new vestments and set up work of the Kiosk.

The Church Hall had become too small; we needed an architect to plan its extension. There were already some 40 students at the ChurchSchool. In the Sunday School, there was also too little space; there was need to build a conservatory (veranda). Some time before there had been a project to build another floor on top of the Church Hall. We need people with building experience for such work. A new cupboard would be installed thanks to benefactors.

At the end, Sofia invited people to comment on the work of the Sisterhood, asked for forgiveness because she not always had time to speak, and invited people to a cup of tea.

ChurchSchoolreport

Svetlana Zaychenko reported on the work of the School which had been set up by the Sisterhood. Elena Grigorieva, one of the original founders of the School, had returned to London and had started teaching classes of the law of God. She had conducted the first lesson with the parents. Children from a Muslim family had returned to the School and expressed a wish to attend the church.

The School had organised a few events. It had gained a special publicity after participating in the festival organised by the Moscow Patriarchate church. Accordion player Nikolay Ryskov cooperated with the School and was ready to go with the children to any stage. A Council Hall in Chiswick had been rented for the Christmas celebration; Pavel Lisitsin, Russian embassy and Russian Community Council UK had helped financially. Svetlana thanked Olga Yuzhaninova for making beautiful scenery. The School had also participated in Cheesefare celebration.

Since this year, there had been a new subject at the School - logic, in which the focus was not on maths but on practicing cause-and-effect complex sentences and other difficult expressions in Russian. Another additional subject was creative work, in which children did crafts. The geography lessons focused on geography and history of holy places.

The School had been growing (there were already more than 40 students). Although there was not enough space, people were not choosy; teachers wanted to grow little parishioners.

Finally, Svetlana Zaychenko thanked H.E. Archbishop Mark, Frs. Peter and Vladimir.

The Trustees' statement

Trust representative Gregory Wolcough thanked H.E. Archbishop Mark for approachability, Fr. Peter for keeping the parish stable as Fr. Vladimir was getting involved into the parish work, Churchwarden Vera McClenaghan, Head Sister Sofia Michailidou and Assistant Treasurer Galina Shirokova. He noted that now was the best period in the parish life over the last years.

Church Council election

Vera McClenaghan was the only nominee for Churchwarden. She was unanimously elected for a new three-year term.

The Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer nominees were Galina Shirokova and Ivan Larin, respectively. They were elected unanimously.

For other nominees to the Church Council the votes were as follows: Oleksiy Danylenko (unanimously), Vadim Ermolenko (unanimously), Nicolas Mabin (one vote against), Darja Scukina, Youth Representative (one vote abstained), Andzej Strucinskij (unanimously). Therefore, all of them were elected.

H.E. Archbishop Mark thanked all who voted and all who were elected.

Audit Commission election

The Audit Commission members were elected as follows: Alexei Bykov (unanimously), Lyubov Leonenko (one abstained), Natalia Zacharonko (two abstained and one vote against) and Daria Asadullaeva as a Reserve Member (one vote against).

H.E. Archbishop Mark thanked tellers for their work.

Fence report

Churchwarden Vera McClenaghan thanked benefactors, described details of the best fence construction offer so far (GBP 92,000 before VAT). She appealed to people to donate for small parts of the fence- 44 columns, 22 panels, 2 large gates and 2 small gates. We had received an alternative proposal for the column material (solid granite for GBP 33,200 excluding transportation). If there was not enough money for this, it would be possible to revet the columns with granite instead.

Fr. Vladimir suggested starting the fence construction now, before we have collected all required money. This proposal was approved, with one vote against.

Belfry project report

Ivan Larin briefly informed that the belfry construction plan had been presented to the local council and was expected to be approved within 6 weeks. Thereafter, the money collection would start; however, there was already a benefactor ready to pay the whole amount. The construction plan had been approved by the Church Council; it could be put on our website. It was expected to have at least 3 bell-ringers, who could be sent to Russia for training.

Any other business

Ktitor and Trustee Pavel Lisitsin put a proposal to increase recommended annual church dues up to GBP 100 per person, or GBP 300 per family. This proposal was rejected (13 voted for and 16 voted against).

Daria Asadullaeva suggested using tax efficient Gift Aid form of donation rather than plate collections.

Nicolas Mabin reminded that one had to distinguish between parish membership, money donations and the right to vote at an AGM. He urged everyone to pay annual church dues.

Elena Grigorieva doubted need to cook meals for every Sunday, asked the priest to complement Sunday lunches with counselling. H.E. Archbishop Mark added that lunches were the communication of parishioners with each other and the parishioners with the priest. This matter will be considered by the Church Council.

Choir Director Anna Kobrina did not have an opportunity to conduct church singing classes for children.

Closing of the AGM

The AGM was closed with prayer at 17:18

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