Metropolitan Herman presides at meeting of the Lesser Synod of Bishops

SYOSSET, NY [OCA Communications] — The Lesser Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, under the chairmanship of the Primate, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, met at the OCA Chancery here on Thursday, April 27, 2006.

The members of the Lesser Synod reviewed the minutes of the extraordinary meeting of the Metropolitan Council Administrative Committee at the Chancery on March 16, 2006. Read the text of Metropolitan Herman’s statement to the Administrative Committee.

After the review and discussion, members of the Lesser Synod of Bishops expressed their support for Metropolitan Herman’s recent decisions regarding personnel changes, as well as new accounting and financial procedures and controls. Read the text of the Primary Policies and Procedures of The Orthodox Church in America.

The members of the Lesser Synod of Bishops also expressed their full agreement with the actions taken by Metropolitan Herman, including the retaining of Proskauer Rose law firm to investigate the allegations, and the Lambrides, Lamos & Moulthrop accounting firm to assist the Church’s lawyers by conducting reviews of specific financial materials relevant to the investigation. This is in addition to their prior engagements which began in January 2006, in which they were authorized to audit the OCA’s financial records for the years 2004 and 2005, as well as to audit all special appeal income, distributions, expenses, and balances from 2001 to 2005, as requested by the Holy Synod of Bishops on March 1, 2006.

Other members of the Lesser Synod of Bishops who attended the meeting included His Eminence, Archbishop Kyrill of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania and the Bulgarian Dicoese; His Eminence, Archbishop Job of Chicago and the Midwest; His Grace, Bishop Seraphim of Ottawa and Canada, Secretary of the Lesser Synod of Bishops; and His Grace, Bishop Tikhon of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania. Also present for the meeting was His Grace, Bishop Nikon of Boston, New England, and the Albanian Archdiocese.