His Holiness Patriarch Kirill Celebrates Seventh Anniversary of Enthronement

On Monday, February 1, the seventh anniversary of the enthronement of His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Patriarch Kirill was vested in the vestments worn during his enthronement in 2009.

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church was concelebrated by: Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine; Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, Patriarchal Vicar of the Moscow diocese; Metropolitan Vladimir of Chisinau and all Moldova; Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan; Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, head of the Central Asian Metropolitan District; Metropolitan Varsonofy of St. Petersburg and Ladoga, Chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavl, Patriarchal Exarch of all Belarus; Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad; Metropolitan John of Varna and Velikopereslavl (Bulgarian Orthodox Church); Bishop Arseny, Vicar of the Archdiocese of Plovdiv (Bulgarian Orthodox Church) as well as ruling and vicar bishops of the Russian Church who arrived in Moscow for the Holy Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, His Grace Bishop John of Naro-Fomisnk joined the hierarchs in Moscow to congratulate His Holiness and to participate in the work of the Holy Council of Bishops.

His Holiness was joined by representatives of the Local Orthodox Churches: Metropolitan Athanasius (Orthodox Church of Alexandria); Bishop Anthony Moravia (Serbian Orthodox Church); Archimandrite Stefan (Dispirakis) (Jerusalem Orthodox Church); Archimandrite Theoktist (Dimitrov) (Bulgarian Orthodox Church); Archimandrite Seraphim (Shemyatovsky) (Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia). Metropolitan Nifon of Philippopolis, representative of the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East prayed in the altar.

At the conclusion of the Liturgy, Metropolitan Onufry read out a congratulatory address to His Holiness Patriarch on behalf of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, and then presented to His Holiness an Icon of the Mother of God of "Kazan", a Patriarchal Paraman and a bouquet of flowers.

Source: Moscow Patriarchate