Moldovan President to attend ordaining ceremonies of Russian Patriarch

Moldova's President Vladimir Voronin will travel Moscow to attend the ordaining ceremonies of the Patriarch-elect of the Russian Church, Kirill, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to a communique by the presidential press service, Voronin has been invited by the Patriarch. Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad was elected on January 27 as Patriarch of Moscow and Entire Russia, thus taking over the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church. He got 508 votes from 700 of the Council of the Orthodox Church of Russia gathered in Moscow to pick a successor after Patriarch Aleksiy II, departed in December 2008.