His Holiness Patriarch Kirill announces church statistics at the Moscow Diocesan Meeting
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia announced at the Moscow Diocesan Meeting taking place at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on 23 December 2009 that 299 Patriarchal services were celebrated during the current year, including 18 in the cathedrals and churches of the Moscow Kremlin, 50 in the Moscow cathedrals 71 in the Moscow monasteries and convents, monasteries’s metochia and parish churches, and 90 in the monasteries and churches of other dioceses.
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill officiated at 5 episcopal consecrations.
His Holiness presented the following statistics: there are 836 Moscow churches and chapels in Patriarch’s jurisdiction, including 6 cathedrals in the Kremlin, 2 cathedral churches, 7 churches at the Synodal departments, 409 parish churches, 127 Patriarchal metochia, 110 monasteries’s metochia, 53 monastery churches, 8 churches at the Representations of the Orthodox Churches, 20 churches for baptism at parishes, and 94 chapels.
90 churches and chapels are under construction.
Divine services are celebrated in 782 churches and chapels; daily services – in 170 churches. 18 churches have not been vacated; services have not been resumes in 36 churches.
Serving at the Moscow parishes are 1153 clergymen, including 11 bishops, 845 priests, and 297 deacons. Serving in the monasteries and convents of the Moscow diocese are 95 clergymen, including 6 bishops, 52 priests, and 37 deacons.
The total number of the Moscow clergymen is 1248. 12 clergymen are on international trip.
Future priests and other church workers for Moscow are trained at the Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary, the Sretenskaya, Perervinskaya and Nikolo-Ugreshskaya Seminaries, as well as the St. Tikhon Orthodox Humanitarian University.
There are 213 Sunday schools in Moscow attended by 9890 children and 6566 adults.
The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church informed the participants in the Diocesan Meeting that 12 Moscow clergymen passed away in the Lord for the last year, and “Memory Eternal” was sung.