Address by the Head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan, Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, on the occasion of the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord and the 30th anniversary of the founding of the parish in the name of the Supreme Apostles P

Your Reverence,
Dear Father Superior Archpriest Vladimir!

Venerable Fathers, dear brothers and sisters!

Today we remember the sacred Gospel event – the Meeting of the Lord. This Feast is dedicated to the spiritual understanding of the event described in the Gospel of Luke – forty days after the birth of the Infant Christ, the righteous Joseph the Betrothed and the Most Holy Theotokos, according to the Law of Moses, brought Him to the Jerusalem Temple to present Him before the Lord (Luke 2:25–35). Here, in the main holy place of the chosen people, the mysterious meeting of Law and Grace, the Old Testament with the New, the elder Simeon with the Divine Child took place. The meeting, described on the pages of the Gospel, depicts the most important meeting in the life of every person - a meeting with God. Together with the knowledge of the Creator and Savior, together with deep faith in Christ, people find the meaning of life, the purpose and moral basis of their existence. Having met God, a person strives to actively implement the words of the Gospel, begins to overcome egoism, learns sacrificial love, transforming by the light of the Heavenly Kingdom. Through the centuries, the voice of Christ sounds as an address to us, Who calls us to meet Him: "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). Happy is the person who hears this Divine call and responds to it.

The Gospel Meeting took place in the Jerusalem Temple – a sacred place chosen by the Creator Himself for communication with humanity and now the main place for us to meet with God continues to be the Temple. Both two thousand years ago and today, the faithful continue to come to the House of their Heavenly Father. Then, in Old Testament times, people brought sacrificial animals to the Temple, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that openly profess his name (Heb. 13:15), must worship Him in the spirit and in truth (John 4:24). The most important thing that takes place under the grace-filled vaults of the Church is the offering of a verbal and bloodless Sacrifice – the celebration of the most holy Eucharist. On the eve of the sufferings of Golgotha, the Savior established the sacrament of Communion, perpetuating in it His Sacrifice on the Cross for the life of the world. Participating in this Sacrament of Sacraments, we remember and experience with our hearts everything that has happened for us – from Bethlehem to the Mount of Olives, from the Nativity to the Ascension. The entire history of our salvation, the entire Gospel passes before our spiritual gaze, not only the past, but also the coming Kingdom of God is revealed to us in these great hours and minutes.

Righteous Archpriest John of Kronstadt saw in the events of the Meeting – in how the elder Simeon received the Infant Christ into his arms – a foreshadowing of the Sacrament of Communion. “We have greater happiness and bliss than Saint Simeon,” says the Kronstadt pastor and explains – “We have the happiness of lifting the Divine Jesus not only in our arms, but of receiving Him with our lips and hearts. And not once in a lifetime, not ten times, but as many times as we want.” In the same sermon on the Meeting of the Lord, the preacher addresses the Lord with repentant sorrow: “What have we come to? You come out daily to meet us at the gates of Your temple, and we respond to You with indifference.” It is vitally important for all of us to be grateful to God, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37), to try in every way to respond to His love. Participation in the Eucharist is one of such noble responses to the Lord and Savior and at the same time, an effective means of cleansing and sanctifying our nature, the greatest Divine help on the path to salvation.

Today's celebration is aggravated for the clergy and believers of the Peter and Paul Church of the Southern capital by the memory of a special date - 30 years have passed since the beginning of the liturgical life of the parish. By historical standards, three decades is not a long period, but for the clergy and parishioners this time was filled with many works and concerns on the construction and beautification of the temple, the organization and development of various aspects of church activity here, and therefore became unforgettable and significant. Over the years, by the grace of God, a beautiful majestic temple grew on the site of a modest prayer house, and a small parish community turned into a large friendly Orthodox family.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Peter and Paul Church, it is necessary to thank and prayerfully remember its builders, donors and decorators, to honor the memory of all who served and prayed within its sacred walls. Of course, to note the noble deeds of the rector, Archpriest Vladimir, the clergy, singers, church workers and benefactors. For more than three decades, Archpriest Vladimir Shklyar has been performing pastoral service to God and people, invariably trying with great power to testify about the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus (Acts 4:33), so that the word of God would grow, and the number of disciples would multiply greatly (Acts 6:7). It was he who became the initiator and inspiration for the creation of a church in the Southern capital in honor of the supreme apostles. Father Vladimir's sons followed in his footsteps - Archpriest Kirill works as the key keeper of the Peter and Paul Church, and Priest Andrei carries out the obedience of assistant key keeper of the Ascension Cathedral.

According to the apostle's word, God will not forget "your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people" (Heb. 6:10). I would like to recall the words of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, filled with deep meaning: "He who builds and restores churches enters history. Not only human history. The names of these people are specially recorded in the Book of Life."

An Orthodox church, according to Holy Scripture and Tradition, is Heaven on earth, the house of God and the gates of Heaven (Gen. 28:17), the high and exalted throne of the Lord (Is. 6:1). Temples shining with grace become schools of spiritual life for us. Here, enlightened by the imperishable words of the Gospel, listening to the texts of prayers and patristic teachings, we are brought up in faith, strengthened in hope, perfected in love. And the most important thing that happens under the church vaults is the celebration of the "Sacrament of Sacraments", the Divine Liturgy, during which the Bloodless Sacrifice is offered for the life of the world and the faithful partake of the holy, most pure and life-giving Mysteries of Christ "for the remission of sins and for eternal life, for the healing of soul and body." May our zeal for visiting the temple never wane, our love for divine services never cool, and our joy from participating in the Divine Liturgy never fade. Through the prayers of the Most Blessed Lady Theotokos, the supreme apostles Peter and Paul, the new martyrs and confessors of Kazakhstan, may “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you” (2 Cor. 13:13) be with us all.