November 2, 2016 the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Service held a working meeting headed by Bishop Panteleimon (Shatov) with the colleagues from the Laboratory “Sociology of Religion”. The discussion was devoted to peculiarities of the parish social work in rural areas and small towns.
The participants of the research project “Social work of the Russian Orthodox Church in the XXI century” Batanova Polina and Oreshina Daria prepared a report based on the third wave of monitoring of church social workers as well as on data from several completed studies: “Life in Debt…”, “Social work organization on the Russian Orthodox Church parishes…”.
Several topics, related to obstacles for parish social work’ organization in rural area or small town, were actualized. Sociologists of laboratory demonstrated good practices of overcoming these barriers by elaboration of local communal life.
