A report in Georgian Daily<\/a> by Paul A. Goble<\/a> details a number of new appointments and transfers put in motion by Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Goble says that “Russian commentators agree” that the patriarch intends to use his position to promote a more public and more active approach at home and abroad. But, citing a report by Aleksandr Soldatov on the Russian language Portal-Credo site<\/a>, Goble says there are also signs of preparations for a major council.<\/p>\n At the direction of Kirill, the Holy Synod created a \u201cstill mysterious\u201d commission for the preparation of materials in anticipation of an as yet undefined and unscheduled church council or \u201csobor” and named Archmonk Saava, who is particularly close to the new patriarch as its secretary.<\/p>\n This group, which Kirill apparently will chair could prove to be only a place holder for housekeeping functions or it could \u2013 and Soldatov suggests that Kirill\u2019s own personality makes this more likely \u2013 a staging area for the convention of a Church Council like the one that met at the time of the Russian revolutions of 1917-1918.<\/p>\n Such a session would likely not only seek to redefine the relationship between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church could also serve to \u201cguarantee\u201d Kirill\u2019s place \u201cin the annals of the Church,\u201d an outcome that the in no-way-retiring patriarch almost certainly would like.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ecumenical News International reports that the Russian Holy Synod appointed Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, an Oxford-educated cleric who served as the Moscow Patriarchate’s representative to European organizations in Brussels<\/a>, to lead the Russian Orthodox Church’s Department of External Church Relations.<\/p>\n The appointment was made on March 31 at the first meeting of the church’s synod of bishops chaired by Patriarch Kirill I since his enthronement in February, ENI said.<\/p>\n As metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Kirill himself led the church’s external relations department for nearly 20 years until he was elected patriarch on Jan. 27 following the death of Patriarch Alexei II in December.<\/p>\n Anatoly Krasikov, director of the Centre for Religious and Social Studies of the Institute of Europe in Moscow, told ENI that Bishop Hilarion is a “a vivid personality,” and said the decision “is a gain for the church.”<\/p>\n