Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church opens at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

On 27 January 2009, the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church began its work at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

The bishops robed in mantles proceeded to the Church through western doors. The clerics, monastics and laymen – delegates of the Council – have already assembled.

The Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad celebrated a prayer service before the Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God and read out the Charter of the Bishops’ Council on the convocation of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow on 27-29 January 2009 and declared the Council open. All the delegates sang the Creed.

The delegates elected the Presidium of the Local Council, consisting of:

Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad – chairman

Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and All Ukraine

Metropolitan Daniel of Tokyo and All Japan

Metropolitan Vladimir of St. Petersburg and Ladoga

Metropolitan Philaret of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus

Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna

Metropolitan Clement of Kaluga and Borovsk, Chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate

Metropolitan Vladimir of Kishinev and All Moldova

Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York

Metropolitan Alexander of Riga and All Latvia

Metropolitan Kornily of Tallinn and Al Estonia

Archbishop Innokenty of Korsun

Archbishop Mitrofan of Belaya Tserkov and Boguslav

At the proposal of the Bishops’ Council held on January 25, the delegated elected the Secretariat of the Council with Metropolitan Clement of Kaluga and Borovsk, Chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate at the head; the Credential Committee headed by Archbishop Mark of Khust and Vinogradov; the Drafting Committee headed by Archbishop Alexander of Kostroma and Galich; and the Counting Committee headed by Metropolitan Isidor of Yekaterinodar and Kuban.

Greetings to the Council were read out. The head of the Presidential Administration Mr. S. Naryshkin read out the message of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

The Patriarch Locum Tenens Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad presented a report on the life of the Church in the years of the primatial ministry of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II.

• Complete photoreport of Divine Liturgy with Enthronement rite
• Address by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia after his enthronement at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on 1 February 2009
• New Primate of the Russian Church receives the staff of Metropolitan Peter of Moscow
• Enthronement of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
• The Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church completes its work
• Head of the Russian state congratulates Metropolitan Kirill on his election to the Patriarchal Throne
• Metropolitan Kirill is elected to the Moscow Patriarchal Throne
• Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church opens at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
• Patriarchal Locum Tenens officiates at the Divine Liturgy on the first day of the Local Council’s work