His Holiness Patriarch Kirill chairs regular session of Supreme Church Council

On 30 August 2017, a regular session of the Supreme Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church took place in the Hall of Church Councils of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour under the chairmanship of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

The agenda of the meeting included such topics as the implementation of decisions of the Supreme Church Council and the Bishops’ Council, and the situation of seminaries’ graduates who went to various dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church on two-year assignments.

The Supreme Church Council chaired by His Holiness the Patriarch 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 Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk, chairman of the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church;

Metropolitan Arseny of Istra, the first vicar of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia for the city of Moscow

Metropolitan Ioann of Belgorod and Stary Oskol, chairman of the Synodal Department for Mission;

Metropolitan Merkury of Rostov and Novocherkassk, chairman of the Synodal Department for 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;

Archishop Sergy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administrative Secretariat;

Bishop Irinarkh of Krasnogorsk, head of the Synodal Department for Prison Ministry;

Bishop Panteleimon of Orekhovo-Zuevo, 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 Administration of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Institutions Abroad;

Bishop Serafim of Lubertsy, chairman of the Synodal Department for Youth Affairs;

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 Mass Media Relations.

Invited to attend the session were Bishop Savva of Voskresensk, first deputy chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Archpriest Maxim Kozlov, first vice-chairman of the Education Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church; Archimandrite Savva (Tutunov), deputy chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Hegumenness Xenia (Chernega), head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Legal Service; Rev. Alexander Starodubtsev, a staff member of the Education Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church; Mr. Alexander Schipkov, first deputy chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society and Mass Media Relations; and Ms. Natalia Leontyeva, specialist in teaching methods of the Education Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Patriarchal Press Service/

DECR Communication Service