The Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, at its meeting held on April 22/May 5, 2009 established a Commission for Dialog with the Orthodox Church in America.

The first preparatory meeting of this Commission was held at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York on July 22/August 4 and July 23/August 5, 2009.

Participating were: His Grace. Bishop George of Mayfield,Chairman; Archimandrite Luke; Protopriest David Moser, Priest Peter Jackson, and Mitred Protopriest Alexander Lebedeff, Secretary.

This Preparatory Meeting discussed a variety of proposed Agenda items for the future Joint Meetings of the Commissions and made assignments to the Commission members for the drafting of position papers to be discussed  at  the next meeting of the Commission, scheduled for November.

A presentation on the preliminary work of the Commission will be made at the next meeting of the Synod of Bishops of the Church Abroad.

The members of the Commission expressed their gratitude to Archimandrite Luke and the members of the brotherhood of Holy Trinity Monastery for organizing and hosting the meeting and for their warm hospitality.