The Chairman of the Counting Committee, Metropolitan Isidor of Yekaterinodar and Kuban, announced that 702 delegates had voted by secret ballot. The number of ballot papers after voting was 700, including 677 valid and 23 invalid ballots.
The Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad received 508 votes; Metropolitan Clement of Kaluga and Borovsk, Chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate – 169 votes.
The participants in the Council rejoiced with the election of Metropolitan Kirill as the new Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Council members as well as the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev congratulated Metropolitan Kirill on his election the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. The Russian President expressed his hope for the development of dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the State, for the strengthening of spiritual and moral values, and for the consolidation of accord among confessions in Russian society.
The Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church completed its work on 28 January 2009. Besides its main task, consisting in the election of the new Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, occurred in the previous day, the Council considered amendments and additions to the Statute of the Russian Orthodox Church. The new Statute was adopted by the Jubilee Bishops’ Council in 2000. In June 2008, the Bishops’ Council amended it in view of the reunification with the Russian Church Outside Russia.
In its Resolution on the Statute of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Council approved the Statute as amended by the Jubilee Bishops’ Council on 6 August 2000 with the amendments and additions made by the Bishops Council on 27 June 2008.
The Council also adopted a Resolution on the Life and Work of the Russian Orthodox Church and a Message of the Local Council to the Beloved-in-the-Lord Pastors, Honorable Monks and Nuns and All the Faithful of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The council members signed the Charter of the Election of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
In a break between two plenary sessions, the elected Patriarch blessed a new icon setting for the miracle-working Fedorovskaya Icon of Our Lady, whose historical icon setting was lost in the years of theomachy.
In conclusion of the Local Council, Metropolitan Kirill, now elected and named Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, addressed himself to the Council members.
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