1943 Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church

The 1943 meeting of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church held on September 8, 1943, was the first sobor of the Russian Orthodox Church since the 1917–18 Local Council. The assembly was held in Moscow in the Patriarchal Residence in Chisty Lane in Khamovniki District of the city, that just had been returned to the Moscow Patriarchate by the Soviet Government.

The assembly unanimously elected Metropolitan Sergius of Moscow and Kolomna to be the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus'.

The assembly also excommunicated everyone who collaborated with the Axis powers, and reestablished the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Participants The assembly was attended by 19 bishops: all the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church who at that time held their positions on the territories not occupied by Nazi troops, except Bishop Photius (Topiro) of Kuban and Krasnodar, whose reasons of absence are unknown, and Archbishop Barlaam (Pikalov) of Sverdlovsk, assigned to his office from the Komi ASSR field-crop-walkers one day before the opening of the Council. Besides the bishops Archpriest Nikolai Kolchitsky, rector of the Yelokhovo Cathedral in Moscow also participated in the assembly. He became a Synod member as the head on the Property Management Directorate of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Sergius (Stragorodsky), Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna, locum tenens of the patriarchal throne Alexius (Simansky), Metropolitan of Leningrad Nicholas (Yarushevich), Metropolitan of Kiev and Galich Luke (Voyno-Yasenetsky), Archbishop of Krasnoyarsk John (Bratolyubov), Archbishop of Sarapul Andrew (Komarov), Archbishop of Kazan Alexius (Palitsyn), Archbishop of Kuybyshev Stephen (Protsenko), Archbishop of Ufa Sergius (Grishin), Archbishop of Gorky and Arzamas John (Sokolov), Archbishop of Yaroslavl and Rostov Aleksius (Sergeyev), Archbishop of Ryazan Basil (Ratmirov), Archbishop of Smolensk and Kalinin Bartholomew (Gorodtsov), Archbishop of Novosibirsk and Barnaul Gregory (Chukov), Archbishop of Saratov and Stalingrad Alexander (Tolstopyatov), Bishop of Molotov Pitirim (Sviridov), Bishop of Kursk Benjamin (Tikhonitsky), Bishop of Kirov Demetrius (Gradusov), Bishop of Ulyanovsk Eleutherius (Vorontsov), Bishop of Rostov

See also Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church 1945 Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church

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