On Tuesday, September 15, an online meeting of the Synod of Bishops was held under the chairmanship of Metropolitan Nicholas of Eastern America & New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad. Also participating were Metropolitan Mark of Berlin & Germany, Archbishops Kyrill of San Francisco & Western America and Gabriel of Montreal & Canada, and Bishops Irenei of London & Western Europe, Theodosius of Manhattan, and Job of Stuttgart.

After a prayer and approval of the agenda, which had been sent out in advance by Bishop Theodosius, the President of the Synod of Bishops opened the session with a brief greeting and a report on his services and visits. In particular, His Eminence told the archpastors about the celebrations for the 90th anniversary of St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in New Jersey, which took place on the feast day of the saint, and about other events in the life of the Church.

Then Bishop Irenei, secretary of the Synod for Inter-Orthodox Relations, reported on events in the Orthodox world since the last meeting. The archpastors included the following in the Secretariat for Inter-Orthodox Relations: Bishop Job, Archimandrite Roman (Krassovsky), head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem (ROCOR), Archpriest Peter Holodny, and Nicholas Ohotin. During the discussion on issues of inter-Orthodox relations, the Synod drew attention to the unease among Orthodox Christians in the U.S. caused by the upcoming awarding of a government official who has actively persecuted Christ’s Church and its faithful.

As a result, the Synod of Bishops asks its flock to intensify their prayers for the strengthening of the faith of Orthodox Christians, as prescribed to be prayed at the end of matins. As for the persecutors of the Church of Christ and the People of God, the prophet long ago said: " I have seen the ungodly man highly exalted and lifting himself up like the cedars of Lebanon. But I passed by, and lo, he was not; and I sought him, and place was not to be found" (Psalms 36:35-36). This is exactly how the memory of the lawless will be erased from people’s hearts, while the Church of Christ will be established forever, noted the Right Reverend members of the Synod of Bishops.

The archpastors also looked at various church disciplinary, property, and administrative-economic issues, as well as a number of petitions from the ruling bishops, who presented their clergy and parishioners for ecclesiastical awards.