The Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate hosted the VII International conference "Church Care for the Mentally Ill: Concepts of mental illness and Strategies for assistance in the dialogue between clergy and Psychiatrists" from November 28 to 29, 2025.
The conference was organized jointly by the Commission on Church Education and Deaconry of the Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church, DECR, the Section on Clinical Psychiatry, Religiosity and Spirituality of the Russian Society of Psychiatrists and the Scientific Center for Mental Health (NCPH). The meeting was supported by the international charitable foundation "Help for the Church in Need." The joint working group of the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church on cooperation in the church and public sphere also participated in the preparation and holding of the conference.
The conference was attended by more than 60 people from Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Iraq, India and Ethiopia — representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Roman Catholic Church, the Ancient Eastern Churches - Coptic, Armenian Apostolic, Ethiopian and Malankara, as well as the Assyrian Church of the East and the World Council of Churches. Among the participants were employees of state medical and scientific research institutions, psychiatrists, psychologists, clergymen and theologians, teachers and students of theological faculties and theological schools. The participants presented more than 30 reports.
The conference was led by Metropolitan Sergiy (Fomin), head of the expert group on the development of the Pastoral Care of the Mentally Ill at the Inter-Council Commission on Church Education and Deaconry. The conference was co-moderated by V.G. Kaleda, Deputy Director of the National Research Center and Head of the Section on Clinical Psychiatry, Religiosity and Spirituality of the Russian Society of Psychiatrists.