His Holiness Patriarch Kirill chairs first in 2013 session of Supreme Church Council of Russian Orthodox Church
On 7 March 2013, the Supreme Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church met for its first in 2013 session under the chairmanship of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
The Primate of the Russian Church addressed all those present in the hall of the Supreme Church Council of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour with an opening speech.
Discussed at the session will be the Synodal institutions’ reports for the year 2012 and their plans for the year 2013, as well as some other issues.
The Supreme Church Council chaired by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill includes Metropolitan Varsonofy of Saransk and Mordovia, chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk, chairman of the Publishing House of the Russian Orthodox Church; Metropolitan Ioann of Belgorod and Stary Oskol, chairman of the Synodal Missionary Department; Metropolitan Mercury of Rostov and Novocherkassk, head of the Department for Religious Education and Catechization; Metropolitan Kirill of Stavropol and Nevinnomyssk, chairman of the Synodal Department for Cooperation with the Cossacks; Archbishop Yevgeny of Vereya, chairman of the Education Committee of the Holy Synod; Archbishop Feognost of Sergiev Posad, chairman of the Synodal Department for Monasteries and Monastics; Archbishop Mark of Yegorievsk, head of the Administration of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Institutions Abroad; Bishop Irinarkh of Krasnogorsk, chairman of the Synodal Department for Ministry in Prisons; Bishop Ignaty of Bronnitsy, chairman of the Synodal Youth Department; Bishop Sergy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administrative Secretariat; Bishop Tikhon of Podolsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Finance and Economic Administration; Bishop Panteleimon of Smolensk and Vyazma, chairman of the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Ministry; Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), executive secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture; Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, chairman of the Synodal Department for Cooperation with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies; Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations; and Mr. Vladimir Legoida, chairman of the Synodal Information Department.
According to its Provisions, the Supreme Church Council is an executive body of the Russian Orthodox Church, acting under the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and under the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Supreme Church Council considers issues relating to education, including theological education, mission, church social ministry, information activity of canonical bodies of the Russian Orthodox Church and church mass media, as well as relations of the Church with the state, society, Local Orthodox Churches, non-Orthodox confessions, and non-Christian religions, and issues of church administration and economic management.