The Presidential Library: Visit of Patriarch Kirill I

The Presidential Library was visited by the Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow and All Rus.

This event was dedicated to the Assembly of the Holy Synod in the historical building. In his address the Patriarch remarked that “already for the second time the Synod gathers in the building of the Presidential Library. It means that St.–Petersburg being a synodal capital has accepted these responsibilities. I hope that we will always meet here”. Among the permanent members of the Synod: Metropolitan Vladimir of St. Petersburg and Ladoga; Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Sluzk, the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarussia; Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna; Metropolitan Vladimir of Kishinev and All Moldavia; Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the Head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations. The temporary members of the Holy Synod during the winter session of 2009 are: Metropolitan Ireney of Dnepropetrovsk and Pavlograd; Archbishop Simon of Brussels and Belgium; Archbishop Vadim of Irkutsk and Angara, the Archbishop Zosima of Elista and Kalmykia; Bishop Tikhon of Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory; Archbishop Varsonofii of Saransk and Mordova, the Deputy Administrator of the Moscow Patriarchate.

After the Assembly of the Holy Synod Patriarch Kirill held a divine service in the Holy fathers’ church of the seven ecumenical councils.

This is the second Assembly of the Holy Synod in the reconstructed building. The first one took place on May, 27 2009, the day of the Library’s opening ceremony.