Kirill conducts first duty as Patriarch

The newly enthroned Patriarch Kirill has given a service at the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin – his first duty as head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

A source in Moscow’s Patriarchate said this was ‘a thanksgiving service and a litiya for the deceased Heads of the Orthodox Church, who are buried in the Assumption Cathedral’.

After the service a reception was held at the Kremlin's Georgy Hall where Kirill and President Medvedev addressed the country's assembled religious leaders.

Kirill, who is the first Patriarch to be elected in post-Soviet Russia, was enthroned on Sunday. He succeeded Aleksy II, who passed away late last year.