28 December 2018 in the boardroom of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchal and Synodal residence in the Danilov monastery in Moscow under the chairmanship of his Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill began the last in the expiring 2018, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, reports patriarhiei.
Opening the meeting, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church addressed the audience with opening remarks:
“I cordially greet all the members of the Holy Synod at the final meeting in the expiring year. Today we have quite an extensive agenda: it is expected the completion of the many topics we have studied recently. Some questions will relate to the activities of the Synodal institutions. We will need to think about the decision of a significant number of personnel issues, including in connection with certain changes in the Church structure, as the need arose the creation of new ecclesiastical administrative units in foreign countries. So we all have to discuss with you. I want to repeat: the agenda is quite extensive, so begin immediately to work.”
The permanent members of the Holy Synod are: his Beatitude Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine Onufry; the Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna Juvenal; the Metropolitan of Chisinau and all Moldova Vladimir; Metropolitan of Astana and Kazakhstan Alexander, the head of the Metropolitan district in the Republic of Kazakhstan; Metropolitan of Tashkent and Uzbekistan Vikenty, head of Central Asian Metropolitan district; Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Varsonofy, Chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan of Minsk and Zaslavl Pavel, Patriarchal Exarch of all Belarus; Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for external Church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.
To participate in the winter session (September-February) invited: Metropolitan Zaporozhye and Melitopol Luke, Metropolitan of Barnaul and Altai Sergius; Bishop of Narva and Prigodskiy Lazarus; Bishop of Rybinsk and St. Benjamin; Bishop of Nakhodka and Transfiguration Nicholas.