Funeral services for His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksy II to take place Tuesday, December 9, 2008

The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Church of Russia announced today that funeral services for His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksy of Moscow and All Russia, who fell asleep in the Lord on Friday, December 5, 2008, at 79 years of age, will take place on Tuesday, December 9, 2008, at the Cathedral of the Epiphany in Moscow.

The Holy Synod also announced that His Eminence, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, has been elected Patriarchal Locum tenens.

May the memory of His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksy II of Moscow and All Russia be eternal!