« Meeting of the Diocesan Assembly »
08-01-2011 
On the 8th of January, the day of the Synaxis of the Mother of God, there was a festal Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Dormition in London. Archbishop Elisey of Sourozh, Archbishop Anatoly of Kerch and clergy and laypeople representing all the parishes of the Diocese of Sourozh took part in the service. After the reading of the Gospel Archbishop Elisey read out the Christmas message of His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill. At the end of the Liturgy, Archpriest Benedict Ramsden, Dean of the South-West England region and Deputy Chairman of the Diocesan Assembly, congratulated Archbishop Elisey on the Feast of Christmas in the name of the clergy and laity of the diocese. Vladyka Elisey, greeting the congregation on the occasion of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, thanked the clergy and laity for their active participation in Church life and for their striving towards a unity like that of the shepherds and wise men gathered around the holy bed of the Most Holy Lady, of whom the Divine Child, the Saviour, is born into the world.
After the festal meal there was a meeting of the Assembly of clergy and lay people representing each of the parishes of the Diocese of Sourozh. The Assembly heard the report of Archbishop Elisey on the activity of the diocese on 2010, as well as those of the Heads of the Diocesan Departments of Religious Education, Youth Work, dissemination of the Word of God via Mass media and Publishing, Inter-Christian Relations, Social Service and Pilgrimages.
The Diocesan Assembly accepted the administrative division of the pastoral and missionary work of the clergy into twelve diocesan regions, covering the whole territory of the British Isles. Thirteen deaneries were established, including the Central Deanery of Greater London, which is administered directly by Archbishop Elisey, together with six others in England, four in Ireland, one in Scotland and the Isles and one in Wales.
It was considered necessary, in the interests of the unity of all the parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in Britain and Ireland, to increase the membership of the Diocesan Assembly by the addition, as full voting members, of representatives of the stavropegic parishes in Dublin and Manchester, together with those of the joint communities (with other Orthodox jurisdictions) in Durham, Walsingham and Stradbally. The Assembly invited representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia to active involvement in its work, as well as to participate in diocesan clergy meetings, diocesan Liturgies and other activities of the Diocese of Sourozh, for the sake of furthering the process of the unification of the Russian Orthodox Church in the British Isles.
The Diocesan Assembly took the decision to unite the Sisterhood of the Holy Martyr the Grand Duchess Elizabeth in Bodiam and the parish community of the same name which has been founded by its efforts into an hierarchical metochion of the Diocese of Sourozh, which shall have as its main object the establishment of monastic life. The community should adopt and submit for approval by the Diocesan Hierarch Statutes based on the Model Statutes of an Hierarchical Metochion of a Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, adopted by the Holy Synod in 2010.