Sunday dedicated to the memory of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council. Metropolitan Alexander celebrated the Liturgy in the church of the Representative Office of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan in Moscow

June 16, 2024 is the 7th week of Easter, the post-feast of the Ascension of the Lord, the day of remembrance of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church in the name of the holy martyrs Faith, Nadezhda, Love and Sophia at the Patriarchal Metochion of the city of Moscow - the Representative Office of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District.

His Eminence was served by: assistant to the Head of the Metropolitan District, Hieromonk Anthony (Drobyazko) and clergy of the metochion.

Employees of the Representation and parishioners of the temple prayed during the service.

Liturgical chants were performed by the church choir under the direction of Anna Rozhnova.

The service ended with glorification of the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord and the holy fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, after which Metropolitan Alexander delivered a sermon.

The hierarch sprinkled the believers with holy water.

“The time from the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord to the Day of the Most Holy Trinity is dedicated to the remembrance of the expectation of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. Before ascending to Heaven, to God and the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, addressing his disciples, said: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for what was promised from the Father... a few days after this, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (see Acts .1:4-5). So today, like the apostles, we pray for the renewal in us of the grace of God, which once descended on the disciples of the Savior on the day of Pentecost, and continues to be poured out abundantly on believers in Christ through church sacraments and sacred rites. On the holidays of Ascension and Pentecost, the image of the Church of Christ is revealed to us, outside of which it is impossible to be saved, it is impossible to become children of God and heirs of His eternal Kingdom. We remember the words of our Lord, sounding victorious and comforting in the Gospel: “I will build My Church, and the gates of hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18) and “I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28: 20). Only by staying in the Church of Christ, which is His Body (Eph. 1:23), being its faithful and obedient children, do we find God, mysteriously unite with Him, and through this we receive the fullness of being, fill life with true meaning and inherit eternity. Between the feasts of the Ascension of the Lord and the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, Sunday, dedicated to the memory of the holy fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, shines with a special blessed light. The fathers and teachers of the Church who gathered in the city of Nicea in 325, being the successors of the apostles, continuers of the works of Christ’s disciples, showed to the whole world the truth of the action of the Holy Spirit in the church body, the life-giving and renewing power of God’s grace, strengthening believers and preserving them from disorder, heresies and schisms. The Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council exposed the errors of the false teacher Arius, the contradiction of his fabrications with the gospel gospel and opposed the heresy he created, which threatened to tear people away from the revealed truth. Arius, having a high opinion of himself and having pagan religious ideas in his mind, began to teach that the Lord Jesus Christ is not the incarnate Son of God, that He is not God. Possessing eloquence, preaching brightly and a lot, Arius captivated a large number of people with his false teachings, the powers that be took his side, and even highly educated representatives of society were seduced by his ideas. And only the power of the Holy Spirit, acting in the Church through the fathers and teachers, one of whom was Deacon Athanasius, the future Archbishop of Alexandria, nicknamed the Great for his labors, was able to expose and defeat this heresy. Each of us is familiar with the main result of the works of the fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, even those who have not read books on church history or theological works. The fruit of their deeds is the Creed, which is familiar to all of us. Its first part, telling about the Son of God, “begotten, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father,” was compiled precisely then, in 325 in the city of Nicaea, at the Ecumenical Council. Remembering this glorious event, celebrating in honor of the holy participants of the First Ecumenical Council - the illustrious fathers and teachers of the Church, we must glorify their memory. And the best praise is fidelity to their covenants, firm and unshakable confession of the Orthodox faith, staying in the canonical fence of the Church of Christ, raising our children and grandchildren in the gospel truth, doing all possible work for the spiritual enlightenment of our relatives and friends.” From the sermon of Metropolitan Alexander.