On March 4, 2021, Bishop Ivan Laptev of The Church of Ingria visited Diaconia Charity Foundation that has been working in St. Petersburg since 1991. The Foundation brings together people of different Christian denominations who want to do social work. Before 2008, the Foundation was called “The Christian Inter-Church Diaconal Council.” Lilia Stepanova, Director of Mariakoti Retirement Home in Tervolovo, St. Petersburg Oblast, is a deputy chairperson on the Foundation’s board, representing The Church of Ingria.The Foundation’s areas of work include distributing food packages, clothes and shoes, doing paperwork with the government to re-issue lost personal ID’s and legal documents, organizing meals for the homeless, preventing the spread of the HIV infection, social adaptation of alcohol and drug addicts, e. a. The doors of the social aid center are open daily from 10 am to 2 pm. Address: St. Petersburg, Naberezhnaya Obvodnogo Kanala 66. Website: https://diaconiafond.ru/
On March 4, 2021, Bishop Ivan Laptev of The Church of Ingria and Auxiliary Bishop Nikolai Dubinin of the Mother of God Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Moscow met with the Foundation’s Executive Director Yelena Rydalevskaya to discuss the current situation in charity and the possibilities of working together. The guests were shown around the premises of the social aid center and learned more about its work.