1943 Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church  1943 meeting of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church held on September 8, 1943, was the first sobor of the Russian Orthodox Church since the 1917-1918 council. The assembly was held in Moscow in the Chisty Lane patriarchal residence that just had been returned to the Moscow Patriarchate by Soviet Government. The assembly unanimously elected Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Sergius to be the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. The assembly also decided to excommunicate all bishops and priests, who "had betrayed their country and went into the fascist camp". The assembly also formed the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. The assembly was attended by 19 bishops: all the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church who at that time held their positions on the territories not occupied by Nazi troops, except the bishop of Kuban and Krasnodar Photius (Topiro), whose reasons of absence are unknown, and Archbishop Barlaam (Pikalov) of Sverdlovsk assigned to his office from the Komi Republic field-crop-walkers one day before the opening of the Council. Besides the bishops Archpriest Nikolai Kolchitsky, rector of the Yelokhovo Cathedral in Moscow also participated in the assembly. He became a Synod member as the head on the Property Management Directorate of the Moscow Patriarchate.