METROPOLITAN KIRILL
OF SMOLENSK AND KALININGRAD
Curriculum Vitae
Metropolitan
Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad (secular name Vladimir Mikhailovich
Gundyaev) was born on 20 November 1946 in Leningrad to the family of a
priest. He graduated from secondary school in 1964 and from the Leningrad
Theological Seminary and Academy in 1970 with the degree of Kandidat of
Theology for his study on "The Formation and Development of the Church
Hierarchy and the Teaching of the Orthodox Church on Its Gracious Nature".
He was tonsured by Metropolitan
Nikodim of Leningrad and Novgorod on 3 April 1969. He was ordained hierodeacon
on 7 April and hieromonk on 1 June of the same year. He was appointed personal
secretary to Metropolitan Nikodim on 30 August 1970. As a teacher at the
Academy and secretary to the Metropolitan he devoted much of his time to
participation in the external activity of the Moscow Patriarchate. In 1971
he represented the theological schools of the Russian Orthodox Church at
the SYNDESMOS General Assembly and was elected by the assembly to the SYNDESMOS
Executive Committee. He was elevated to the rank of archimandrite on 12
September 1971 and appointed representative of the Moscow Patriarchate
at the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva. In 1972 he was elected
to the Board of the WCC Fund for Reconciliation and Reconstruction and
Indochina.
He was appointed rector of the Leningrad
Theological Schools on 26 December 1974. In 1975 he became chairman of
the Leningrad Diocesan Council. By the resolution of His Holiness Patriarch
Pimen and the Holy Synod on 3 March 1976 Archimandrite Kirill was made
Bishop of Vyborg, vicar of the Leningrad Diocese. His episcopal consecration
took place on 14 March 1976.
Metropolitan Kirill has been actively
involved in the ecumenical activity of the Russian Orthodox Church. In
1975 he was elected to the Central and Executive Committees of the WCC
at its 5th Assembly in Nairobi and has remained at these posts to this
day. On 9 September 1976 he was appointed representative of the Russian
Orthodox Church at the WCC Plenary Commission "Faith and Order".
He participated in the 1st Pre-council Pan-Orthodox Conference in 1976
in Geneva, as well as Orthodox-Catholic dialogues in 1978, 1980 and 1984.
From 1976 to 1978 he was Deputy Patriarchal Exarch for Western Europe and
later took pastoral care of the Patriarchal parishes in Finland. He was
elevated to the rank of archbishop on 2 September 1977. Since 1979 he has
been member of the Holy Synod Commission for Christian Unity, now the Synodal
Theological Commission.
On 26 December 1984 he was transferred
to the See of Smolensk. By the decision of the Holy Synod of 14 November
1989, he was appointed Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations
and Permanent Member of the Holy Synod. In 1991 he was elevated to the
rank of metropolitan. He is an Honorary Member of the St. Petersburg Theological
Academy and Doctor honoris causa of the Reformed Theological Academy in
Budapest. He has been decorated with high orders of the Russian Orthodox
Church and many Local Orthodox Churches. In August 1993 he was awarded
the international Loviis Peace Prize by the Public Committee of the Loviis
Peace Forum led by Ms. Tellervo Koivisto, wife of the Finnish President.
This prize is given once in three years to a peacemaker who made an especially
significant contribution to this service so important to the family of
nations.
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