The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church has begun its first session to take place in 2018, at the St. Daniel monastery in Moscow. It is chaired by His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, mospat.ru informs.
Opening the session, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church greeted the permanent and temporal members of the Holy Synod.
The permanent members of the Holy Synod are Metropolitan Onufry of Kyiv and All Ukraine; Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna; Metropolitan Vladimir of Kishinev and All Moldova; Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, head of the Metropolitanate in the Republic of Kazakhstan; Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, head of the Metropolitanate of Central Asia; Metropolitan Varsonofy of St. Petersburg and Ladoga, chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavsk, Patriarchal Exarch for All Belarus; Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations.
Summoned for the summer session (March-August) are Metropolitan Lazar of Simferopol and the Crimea; Metropolitan Mark of Ryazan and Mikhailovsk; Archbishop Matfey of Anadyr and Chukotka; Bishop Alexander of Daugavpils and Rezekne; and Bishop Nestor of Korsun.