Members of the Russian Orthodox Holy Synod attend the Parade on the Red Square
On 9 May 2012, members of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church: Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna; 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, attended the military parade on the Red Square marking the Victory Day.
Among those invited to attend the parade were archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, head of the Synodal Department for Relations with the Army and Law Enforcement Agencies; archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations; representatives of the traditional confessions of Russia; and members of the Presidential Council for Cooperation with Religious Associations.
After the parade, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, some hierarchs and clerics of the Russian Orthodox Church, and representatives of the traditional confessions of Russia attended the reception at the Grand Kremlin Palace given on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin to mark the 67th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War.