The head of the Metropolitan District celebrated the Liturgy at St. Nicholas Church in the village of Irgeli

June 8, 2024 – Saturday of the 5th week of Easter; Day of Remembrance of the Apostles from the 70th Carp and Alpheus.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church in the name of Hiero-Confessor Nicholas, Metropolitan of Alma-Ata, in the Irgeli microdistrict of the city of Alma-Ata.

Concelebrating with the head of the Metropolitan District were: Archpriest Evgeniy Vorobyov, rector of the Alma-Ata Church in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow”; The Dean of the Uzun-Agash Church Deanery, Rector of the Kazan Temple of the village of Uzun-Agash Archpriest Gennady Kadnikov, Keymaster of the Christmas Cathedral Archpriest Alexander Gaichenya, Rector of the Nikolsky Church Hieromonk Filofei (Bobov), Head of the Administrative Secretariat of the Head of the Metropolitan District, Priests Sidorov, Klyuchar of the Kazan Cathedral of Alma-Ata. Priest Georgy Rublinsky, clergyman of the Adriano-Natalievsky Church, Priest John Konoplev, Protodeacon Nikolai Grinkevich, head of the Metropolitan Protocol Service, Protodeacon Roman Golovin, Protodeacon Vladimir Syrovatsky, Deacon John Churkin.

For prayerful worship and spiritual strengthening of believers, with the blessing of Metropolitan Alexander, an ark with a part of the stone from the Holy Sepulcher was delivered to Irgeli from the house Iversko-Seraphim Church of the Metropolitan Residence in Alma-Ata. At the request of Metropolitan Alexander, the keeper of the keys of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, Sheikh Wajih Nuseibeh, gave the shrine as a gift to the Orthodox people of Kazakhstan, with the blessing of His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilus III of Jerusalem.

The choir of the Ascension Cathedral sang under the direction of N. Zubrevich.

Praying during the service were: Secretary of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District, member of the Patriarchal Council for the Development of Church Singing, Honored Artist of Russia O.N. Ovchinnikov; residents of the village of Irgeli and surrounding settlements.

The sermon on the sacramental verse was delivered by Priest John Konoplev.

The liturgy ended with glorification of the feast of the Holy Resurrection of Christ, after which Metropolitan Alexander uttered the exclamation “Christ is Risen!” in different languages - ancient and modern.
At the end of the service, the Head of the Metropolitan District addressed the parishioners with an archpastoral word, after which he sprinkled the believers with holy water.

“Each of us participating in the solemn Easter services gains an invaluable religious experience - the joy of meeting the Risen Lord. Physically being in the temple, in spirit we strive with the myrrh-bearing women to the life-giving Tomb, with our thoughts we retire in the Zion upper room with the apostles, mysteriously touch together with Thomas the purest wounds of the Savior and, like Luke and Cleopas, the disciples of the Lord traveling to Emmaus, our hearts burn in us for joy at the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Let us try to maintain saving confidence in the presence of the Risen Lord next to us “always to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20), because this faith, according to the apostolic word, “is the victory that has overcome the world” (1 John 5:4) . Saint Demetrius of Rostov warns us about the danger of lack of faith and doubt in the love of God: “Whoever believes little receives little, and whoever believes more receives more. Whoever believes that God’s providence will be accomplished in him, it will happen; whoever does not believe will not. If someone, praying earnestly and diligently, believes that God hears his prayers, then He really does, and whoever does not believe does not hear him.” It is impossible to doubt God, who in His Resurrection revealed both ineffable mercy and His boundless omnipotence. “If during the crucifixion Christ the Savior had mercy on that thief, then how will He not have mercy on the Christian after the Resurrection? And if the humble Sufferer showed so much mercy to the repentant, then what kind of mercy will the Risen One in glory show to the one who asks!” testifies St. Ambrose of Milan. "From the Metropolitan's sermon Alexandr.