On the second Sunday of Easter, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrates the Liturgy at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and officiates at the consecration of Archimandrite Varnava (Baranov) as Bishop of Vyksa

[gallery]
On 22 April 2012, the Sunday of St Thomas, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

During the Liturgy the Patriarch officiated at the consecration of Archimandrite Varnava (Baranov) as Bishop of Vyksa and Pavlovo.

Concelebrating with His Holiness Patriarch Kirill were: Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna; Metropolitan Varsonofy of Saransk and Mordovia, chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Metropolitan Clement of Kaluga and Borovsk, chairman of the Publishing Board of the Russian Orthodox Church; Metropolitan Panteleimon of Yaroslavl and Rostov; Metropolitan Alexy of Tula and Yefremov; Metropolitan Viktor of Tver and Kashin; Metroplitan Pavel of Ryazan and Mikhailov; Metropolitan Georgiy of Nizhniy Novgorod and Arzamas; Archbishop Gregory of Mozhaisk; Archbishop Dimitry of Vitebsk and Orsha; Archbishop Arseny of Istra; Archbishop Yevlogy of Vladinir and Suzdal; Archbishop Ioann of Belgorod and Stary Oskol, chairman of the Synodal Missionary Department; Archbishop Yevgeny of Vereya, chairman of the Synodal Education Committee; Archbishop Mark of Yegoryevsk, Moscow Patriarchate director for institutions abroad; Bishop Nikon (Mironov); Bishop Iosif of Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Kineshma; Bishop Tikhov of Vidnoye; Bishop Irinarkh of Krasnogorsk, chairman of the Synodal Department for Ministry in Prisons; Bishop Feofilakt of Dmitrov; Bishop Veniamin of Penza and Kuznetsk; Bishop Ignaty of Bronnitsy; chairman of the Synodal Department for Youth Affairs; Bishop Roman of Serpukhov; Bishop Sergy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Administrative secretariat of the Moscow Patriarchate; Bishop Ieronim (Chernyshov); Bishop Tikhon of Podolsk, chairman of the Finance and Economic Management of the Moscow Patriarchate; Bishop Nazary of Vyborg; Bishop Kirill of Stavropol and Nevinnomyssk, chairman of the Synodal Committee for Cooperation with the Cossacks; Bishop Kliment of Krasnoslobodsk and Temnikov; Bishop Panteleimon of Smolensk and Vyazma, chairman of the Synodal Department for Charity and Church Service; Bishop Veniamin of Rybinsk and Uglich; Bishop German of Yeisk; Bishop Savva of Voskresensk; Bishop of Belev and Aleksin; Bishop Adrian of Rzhev and Toropets; Bishop Veniamin of Ardatov and Atiashevo; Bishop Dionisy of Kasimov and Sasovo; Bishop Vladimir of Skopin and Shatsk; Bishop Nikolai of Balashikha; Bishop Avgustin of Gorodets and Vetluga; schema-archimandrite Iliy (Nozdrin); archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations; archpriest Mikhail Ryazantsev, sacristan of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour; hegumen Philaret (Bulekov), vice-chairman of the Department for External Church Relations; abbots of stavropegic monasteries; clerics of the Nizhny Novgorod metropolia and Moscow clerics.

Present at the service were Vladimir Legoida, chairman of the Synodal Information Department; mother superiors of stavropegic convents; numerous faithful from various dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church, who came to Moscow to take part in a prayer vigil in defense of faith, profaned shrines, the Church and her good name; officials from the Nizhniy Novgorog region; and a delegation of the clergymen and laymen from the Nizhniy Novgorod metropolia.

Kept in the altar before the prayer vigil were the ark with a piece of the Lord’s Robe and a Nail from the Lord’s Cross, and several shrines which had been subjected to profanation: the veneration cross from the Cathedral of the Intercession in the city of Nevinnomyssk of the Stavropol region, the icon from the Church of St. Prokopius the Righteous in Velikiy Ustyug of the Vologda region, and the Icon of Our Lady of Kazan from the Church of St. George the Victorious in Velikiy Ustyug, which had been shot through by bullets in the 20s of the 20^th century.

The service was broadcast and shown on screens installed before the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

After the Liturgy, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church delivered an exhortation to Bishop Varnava and presented him with a bishop’s staff. By tradition, Bishop Varnava gave his first archpastoral blessing to the worshippers.

After that, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill addressed the worshippers with a homily.