Patriarchal Locum Tenens celebrates Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Laura of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius on the commemoration day of St. Philaret

On 14 December 2008, the commemoration day of St. Philaret, Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad celebrated Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Laura of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius on the commemoration day of St. Philaret. Concelebrating were bishop Daniil of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Kuriles and bishop Feognost of Sergiev Posad.

After the Liturgy, Metropolitan Kirill addressed the worshippers with his archpastoral word, in which he remembered them that December 13 marked the ninth day of the demise of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia who had led the Russian Church for over eighteen years. Metropolitan Kirill also noted that during hard times of social disorders, upheavals and temptation and His Holiness steered the ship of Russian Orthodoxy firmly and in accordance with the canons and traditions of the Church, safeguarding it from internal turmoil and external hostile slander. Metropolitan Kirill invited all people to pray for the late Primate.

• Patriarchal Locum Tenens celebrates Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Laura of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius on the commemoration day of St. Philaret