His Holiness Patriarch Kirill leads annual meeting of the Moscow Diocesan Assembly

An annual meeting of the Moscow Diocesan Assembly chaired by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, who is the ruling bishop of the capital city of Moscow, took place in the Hall of Church Councils of Christ the Saviour Cathedral on 22 December 2010.
The presidium includes Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, Patriarch’s locum tenens for the Moscow diocese; Metropolitan Varsonofiy of Saransk and Mordovia, chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Archbishop Arseniy of Istra; archpriest Vladimir Divakov, secretary of the Diocesan Council of the city of Moscow; and archpriest Mikhail Ryazantsev, chairman of the Ecclesiastical Council of Moscow.

Taking part in the Diocesan Assembly are vicar bishops of the Moscow diocese, deans of the Moscow deaneries, parish rectors and clerics, abbots and abbesses of the Moscow monasteries and convents, and chairmen of the parish councils, press office of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia reports.

Archbishop Arseniy of Istra and archpriest Vladimir Divakov were elected deputy chairman and secretary of the Diocesan Assembly respectively. Rector of the Patriarchal metochion of the former Zaikonospassky Monastery, hegumen Pyotr (Afanasiev), and abbess of St. Ambrose’s stavropegic hermitage in Kazan, hegumeness Nikona (Peretyagina) were chosen for signing the minutes.

Archpriests Vsevolod Chaplin and Alexander Abramov were elected chairmen of the drafting committee and counting commission respectively.