His Holiness Patriarch Kirill chairs session of Supreme Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church

On 25 August 2016, the Supreme Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church began its session at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow under the chairmanship of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
In his opening address, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill spoke on the agenda of the meeting. The members of the Supreme Church Council will hear reports on the implementation of decisions taken by the Bishops’ Council and the Supreme Church Council, as well as a report by Metropolitan Merkury of Rostov and Novocherkassk, chairman of the Synodal Department for Religious Education and Catechization, on the development of the concept of the 25th International Christmas Educational Readings, entitled ‘1917-2017: Lessons of the Century.’
The Supreme Church Council chaired by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill consists of:
Metropolitan Varsonofy of St. Petersburg and Ladoga, chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate;
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations;
Metropolitan Clement of Kaluga and Borovsk, chairman of the ROC Publishing Council;
Metropolitan Ioann of Belgorod and Stary Oskol, chairman of the Synodal Missionary Department;
Metropolitan Merkury of Rostov and Novocherkassk, chairman of the Synodal Department for Religious Education and Catechization;
Metropolitan Mark of Ryazan and Mikhailov, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Finance and Economic Administration;
Metropolitan Kirill of Stavropol and Nevinnomyssk, chairman of the Synodal Department for Relations with the Cossacks;
Archbishop Yevgeny of Vereya, chairman of the Holy Synod’s Education Committee;
Archbishop Feognost of Sergiev Posad, chairman of the Synodal Department for Monasteries and Monasticism;
Bishop Sergy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administrative Secretariat;
Bishop Irinarkh of Krasnogorsk, chairman of the Synodal Department for Prison Ministry;
Bishop Ignaty of Vyborg and Priozersk, chairman of the Synodal Department for Youth Affairs;
Bishop Panteleimon of Orekhovo-Zuyevo, chairman of the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Ministry;
Bishop Tikhon of Yegorievsk, chairman of the Patriarchal Council for Culture;
Bishop Antony of Bogorodsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administration for Institutions Abroad;
Archpriest Sergy Privalov, chairman of the Synodal Department for Cooperation with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies;
Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, chairman of the Patriarchal Commission for Family and Protection of Motherhood and Childhood;
Mr. Vladimir Legoida, chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society and Media Relations.
Invited to attend the session were Bishop Savva of Voskresensk, first deputy chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Archimandrite Savva (Tutunov), deputy chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Archpriest Maxim Kozlov, first deputy chairman of the Education Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church; hegumeness Ksenia (Chernega), head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Legal Service; and Mr. A. Schipkov, first deputy chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society and Media Relations.