By Kostas Onisenko
The Russian media spoke of a “revolution” regarding the decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to include the abbess Xenia (Cherniga) in the Supreme Ecclesiastical Council.
It is the first time a woman has taken a high-level position in the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church. The nun Xenia is the head of the Legal Administration of the Russian Church and has repeatedly participated as an expert in the work of the Supreme Ecclesiastical Council.
Moreover, the deputy chairman of the Synodal Department for Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media of the Moscow Patriarchate, Vakhtang Kipshidze, said, “Indeed, there were no women permanent members in the Supreme Ecclesiastical Council until now.”
“At the same time, experts, who were considered necessary, were invited to the Supreme Ecclesiastical Council, regardless of their gender, in order to discuss certain issues,” the Russian news agency Tass reports.
Abbess Xenia, also known as Oksana Chernega, was born in 1971 in Moscow and studied law.