On February 3, 2026, the first event of the School of Compassion, a joint series of meetings between the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Service and the Tabor Cultural Center, took place in Moscow. The participants discussed how to support a loved one during a personal crisis.
The event was attended by Bishop Kirill of Sergiev Posad and Dmitrov, Vicar of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, Rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, Doctor of Theology. The bishop spoke about compassion as a component of spiritual life, and how to help a loved one cope with their pain. Vladyka shared tips and practical recommendations on how to help overcome a life crisis.
"Compassion, help, sympathy are all mercy, a manifestation of Christian love. In the modern world, people turn to psychologists with requests on how to deal with pity, the "rescuer syndrome", and how not to harm themselves and others through empathy. This often becomes a problem: a person begins to feel compassion, but at the same time he becomes exhausted, does not find solace in Christ and strains his strength. It is important to understand that not all compassion is useful. A person may not notice that his support is cruel and rude. He may think that he is doing a good service, but in fact does not assess the consequences for the person. Compassion is a very important thing for us Christians, and, of course, we need to be aware of how to help properly," Bishop Kirill emphasized.
The conversation was about inner feelings and ways to overcome them.: how to cope with the loss of a loved one, betrayal, disappointment, and a crisis of faith.
The Tabor Cultural Center is an open educational Orthodox platform for social and educational projects. The purpose of the community is to spread and maintain spiritual and moral values and culture.
The Synodal Department for Charity coordinates all social services of the Russian Orthodox Church. These are hundreds of charity projects in Russia and other countries. Among them are 86 shelters for women in crisis, more than 450 projects to help people with disabilities, more than 900 sisterhoods, 103 homeless shelters, 272 humanitarian aid centers, and more than 600 projects to help alcohol addicts.