Kirill of Moscow
Head of the Russian Orthodox Church since 2009. He met Pope Francis at Havana in 2016; his church stayed away from the council on Crete that year and in 2018 broke communion with Constantinople over Ukraine.
Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyaev was born in Leningrad on 20 November 1946, the son and grandson of priests (Moscow Patriarchate, Biography of Patriarch Kirill). From 1989 to 2009 he was chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (Moscow Patriarchate, Biography of Patriarch Kirill). A local council of the Russian Orthodox Church elected him patriarch on 27 January 2009, and he was enthroned on 1 February (Moscow Patriarchate, Biography of Patriarch Kirill).
On 12 February 2016 he met Pope Francis at Havana, a meeting their joint declaration calls the first in history (Joint Declaration of Francis and Kirill (Havana, 2016) 1). In June of that year the synod of his church resolved that its delegation could not take part in the council on Crete unless the council was postponed (Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Statement of June 2016). In October 2018 the same synod declared eucharistic communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople impossible after Constantinople’s decisions on Ukraine (Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Statement of 15 October 2018 closing paragraphs); see Constantinople Grants Autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In May 2022 the council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church stated its disagreement with his position on the war in Ukraine (Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Resolutions of the Council of 27 May 2022 3).
In the timeline
- June 2016, firm dateThe Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church
After decades of preparation a council of the Orthodox churches meets on Crete under the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Ten of the fourteen autocephalous churches take part; Antioch, Bulgaria, Georgia and Russia stay away, having asked for it to be postponed.
- 6 January 2019, firm dateConstantinople Grants Autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine
The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew hands Metropolitan Epiphanius a tomos declaring the Orthodox Church in Ukraine autocephalous. The Moscow Patriarchate, which counts Ukraine as its own canonical territory, has already broken communion with Constantinople over the decision.