«Partnership Parish»: the Factor of Priests and Laity Cooperation in the Development of the Orthodox Church Parishes Social Work in Contemporary Russia

Abstract

The article suggests sociological analysis of the social relationships in the parish as a factor which promotes parish social work development. The paper is based on the data of two field research. First (quantitative) source is a survey of the on–line educational course on church social work participants, conducted in 2014–201530. The second source of data is a qualitative study «Social work organization on the Russian Orthodox Church parishes in the first half of XXI. Sociological Analysis31». Within this research in 2012–2013, 154 in-depth interviews were conducted with parishioners, priests, and non–parishioners, involved into parish non–liturgical activities in 10 regions of Russian Federation. Basing on the empirical data, in the first part of the analysis we trace the connection between the type of priests and laity social relationship in the parish and the quantitative indicators of parish social work development. These indicators are the number of non–liturgical activities in the parish, the number of people involved into parish social activities, and the number of organizations the parish has contacts with. In the Second part of the article, we present the description of the parish prior (head of a parish) styles of working with people in the relation of these styles to the formation of different types of priests–laity cooperation and promotion of the corresponding types of social work in the parish.

Keywords

• parish sociology
• faith–based social work
• parish social work in the Russian Orthodox Church
• priest
• social relationship in the parish