The summer meeting of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Moscow was held on Saturday, 16 July. The meeting was opened with a solemn celebration in the cathedral of the Dormition in the Kremlin on the occasion of the feast of St. Philip, metropolitan of Moscow and of all the Russias. The Synod heard a report presented by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, head of the Department for foreign relations, on his participation in the funeral of John Paul II and in the mass for the inauguration of the pontificate of Benedict XVI. In his report the metropolitan emphasized according to a communiqué put out by the Patriarchate of Moscow “the usefulness of these exchanges”. The Holy Synod further expressed “the hope of settling the existing problems and giving a new development to the good relations with the Roman Catholic Church with a view to a common Christian witness in a world that is being subjected to a very strong attack by secularism”. The Synod then included in its martyrology some twenty new martyrs. Patriarch Alexis II, who took part in the work of the Synod, presented a report on the theological schools of the Russian Church to mark the end of the university year. According to the statistics of the Patriarchate, the seminaries of the Russian Orthodox Church currently comprise 4,095 students and 4,710 students by correspondence. The regular students of the Academies of Theology are 1060, while a further 990 are studying by correspondence.
