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Patriarch Kirill to chair Holy Synod session Wednesday

As tradiiton has it, twelve archbishops headed by the Patriarch participate in the Synod proceedings

MOSCOW, October 5 (Itar-Tass) — Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia will chair a session of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). The session opens here on Wednesday. The Holy Synod meets four times a year alternately in the Russian capital, in St Petersburg, and in Kiev where the latest session of the Synod was held.

This time the session will take place at the patriarchal residence in Chisty Pereulok (Clean Lane), the Patriarchate press service announced.

The hierarchs will discuss the current state of affairs in the Church.

As tradiiton has it, twelve archbishops headed by the Patriarch participate in the Synod proceedings. There are seven permanent members of the Synod who are vested with these powers depending on the significance of the bishopric or church organization which they head, and five temporary members.

The Primates of the Ukrainian, Moldovan, and Belarusian Churches, the Metropolitan of St Petersburg, the governor of the Moscow Region parishes, as well as the Chancellor of the Patriarchate and Head of the Department for Foreign Church Relations are Permanent Members of the Synod.

The heads of bishoprics from Uzbekistan, from the cities of Khabarovsk, Pyatigorsk, and Oryol, as well as from Ukraine -- Metropolitan Onufry of Chernovtsy and Bucovina -- have been invited to the "winter session" of the Synod. It is Metropolitan Onufry that, most likely, will represent the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, for the Church Primate, Metropolitan Vladimir, will not be able to attend owing to a broken leg.

It was precisely in Bucovina that Patriarch Kirill spent the first days of October, consecrating the main cathedral of a monastery near Chernovtsy and a monastic house for disabled children. The Primate of the ROC was greeted in that south-western region of Ukraine very warmly and cordially.