Patriarch Kirill chairs regular meeting of the Supreme Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church

February 6, 2012

In his introductory remarks, His Holiness presented the agenda of the meeting.

The Council, which is meeting at the Supreme Church Council Hall at the cathedral Church of Christ the Saviour, will consider the progress made in implementation of the Council’s earlier decisions. The leaders of the synodal departments will report on the work plans of their structures for 2012. As Patriarch Kirill has reported, the plans and reports of synodal departments, which used to be considered by the Holy Synod, will now be put on the agenda of the Supreme Church Council.

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the Synodal Department for Church-State Relations, will make a report on ‘Celebrations to mark historical dates in 2012’. Mr. Demidov, head of the office for Basic Orthodox Culture of the department for religious education and catechism, will report on the results of the 20^th International Christmas Readings.

The meeting is attended by the following members of the Council:

Metropolitan Varsonofy of Saransk and Mordovia, chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the department for external church relations

Metropolitan Clement of Kaluga and Borovsk, chairman of the ROC Publishing Board

Archbishop Ioann of Belgorod and Stary Oskol, head of the synodal mission department

Archbishop Yevgeny of Vereya, head of the Holy Synod’s education committee

Archbishop Feognost of Sergiev Posad, head of the synodal commission for monasteries

Bishop Irinarch of Krasnogorsk, head of the synodal department for prison service

Bishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s administrative secretariat

Bishop Tikhon of Podolsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s financial and economic administration

Bishop Kirill of Stavropol and Nevinnomysk, head of the synodal committee for cooperation with the Cossacks

Bishop Panteleimon of Smolensk and Vyazma, head of the synodal department for charity and social service

Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, executive secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the synodal department for church-society relations

Mr. V. Legoida, head of the synodal information department

Patriarchal Press Service/DECR Communication Service

Photos by Patriarchal Press Service