His Holiness Patriarch Kirill sums up the results of Patriarchal ministry in 2010 and gave statistics on church life in Moscow

On 22 December 2010, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia chaired an annual meeting of the Moscow Diocesan Assembly that took place in the Hall of Church Councils of Christ the Saviour Cathedral.
The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church presented a report, a section of which was about the activities of Patriarch as the ruling bishop of Moscow in 2010.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill chaired four sessions of the Holy Synod held in St. Petersburg (2), at the Dormition Laura of the Caves in Kiev, and in Moscow. The fifth session will take place in Moscow on December 26, press office of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia reports.

Two Bishops’ Conferences were held in 2010. One hundred and fifty-five bishops participated in the first one on February 2, whereas the second conference on July 16 dedicated to the results of the initial stage of experimental teaching “The Foundations of Orthodox Culture” was attended by bishops from the regions in which “The Foundations of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics” were tested as a school subject.

His Holiness the Patriarch had three meetings with heads of the Synodal Department to discuss reforms of the central apparatus of the Russian Orthodox Church.

His Holiness chaired two sessions of the Intercouncil Presence’s Presidium. It is a consultative body which prepares decisions of a wide range of problems for the Bishops’ and Local Councils.

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church met with the President and Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Moscow mayors, presidential envoys in federal districts, and with the heads of foreign states and governments. Urgent problems of relations between the Church and society and between the Church and the state were discussed.

Four agreements on social partnership and cooperation of the Russian Orthodox Church with the state structures were signed.

His Holiness visited twenty-four dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan.

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church visited stavropegic monasteries in Moscow and also the Laura of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius (several times), Optina hermitage, Valaam, Solovki, St. Stephan of Makhrischi Monastery, and other abodes.

Mass meetings with the public in Alma-Ata, Yekaterinburg, Petrozavodsk and Odessa, with diocesan clergymen in Dnepropetrovsk, Tver, Kaliningrad, and with monks at the Optina hermitage, the Transfiguration Monastery on Valaam, the Transfiguration Monastery in Solovki, the Dormition Monastery of the Caves in Pskov were held during the Patriarch’s visits.

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church celebrated one hundred and ninety-five divine services in 2010, including fifteen services in the cathedral and churches of the Moscow Kremlin; forty-three in the Moscow cathedral, and sixty in the Moscow and stavropegic monasteries and convents, monastic metochia, and Moscow parish churches; and seventy-seven services in the monasteries and churches of other dioceses.

The Patriarch officiates at seven episcopal consecrations and thirty priestly ordinations, and performed the office of blessing of twenty-two churches.

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church chaired meetings of the five Boards of Trustees and participated together with the Russian President in the Board of Trustees’ meeting of the National Charity Foundation and led the work of the Commission for Spiritual, Cultural and Natural Heritage Preservation of the Solovki Archipelago.

In December 2010, His Holiness the Patriarch presided at the first session of the Coordinating Committee to support social, educational, informational, cultural and other initiatives under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Patriarchal Council for Culture was established and began its work in 2010.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill gave some statistics on church life in Moscow.

The total number of churches and chapels is 837. Yet, regular divine services are celebrated only in 271 of them, thus making the capital city to occupy the last place among the regions of the Russian Federation in ratio of the number of churches to the number of the ethnic Orthodox residents. Divine services have not been resumed in 39 Moscow churches; 19 churches have not been transferred to the Church; 90 churches and chapels are under construction.

According to His Holiness, these numbers vividly show the necessity to build new churches in Moscow, in dormitory suburbs in particular.

1720 clergymen serve under Patriarchal omophorion, including 1150 in Moscow. They are 19 bishops, 860 presbyters, and 271 deacons.

397 priests and 173 deacons serve in the stavropegic monasteries and metochia; 12 clergymen serve abroad, 48 are supernumerary, and 32 are suspended.

The Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary, the Sretenskaya, Perevinskaya and Nikolo-Ugreshskaya seminaries, and St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Humanitarian University train clergymen and other church workers to serve in Moscow.

There are 226 Sunday schools, studying in which are 10.738 children and 5.738 adults.

Three clerics from other diocese have joined Moscow clergy, while one was transferred to another diocese, one was suspended, and six clergymen died.

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