Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
September 23, 2002

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, attended the gathering of the representatives of consumer cooperatives held in Moscow, on September 12, 2002. Tens of thousands of representatives of consumer cooperatives and authorities from numerous part of Russia participated in the meeting.

It was stated at the gathering that the mutual cooperation of consumer cooperatives is very successful. This cooperation involves 10.5 million people and 425.000 associates from the dioceses and parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church. It comprises the organisation of little religious bookstores in village shops, the joint work at the renovation of some churches, common efforts to find solution for poverty and unemployment, common waging of antialcohol campaigns and other vice fighting, as well as organisation of cultural life in villages.