On Meatfare Parental Saturday, Metropolitan Alexander celebrated the Liturgy at the Representative Office of the Metropolitan District in Moscow

February 22, 2025 – Ecumenical Parental Saturday (Meatfare).

The Holy Church, dedicating the final preparatory week before Lent to the reminder of the Last Judgment of Christ, established intercession on this Saturday for all “who have died since the beginning of the time, who lived in piety, of all generations, ranks and conditions,” especially for those who died a sudden death. The synaxarion (statutory teaching) of Meatfare Parental Saturday says: “the holy fathers, moved by love for mankind, established, based on the apostolic teaching, to perform this general, universal commemoration, so that no one, no matter when, where or how he ended his earthly life, would be deprived of the prayers of the Church.”

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Holy Martyrs Vera, Nadezhda, Lyubov and Sophia at the Patriarchal Metochion of the City of Moscow – Representative Office of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District.

The Archpastor was assisted by: Archpriest Andrei Pavlenko; Vice-Rector of the Alma-Ata Theological Seminary, Candidate of Theology, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Hegumen Agafangel (Gagua); Key-keeper of the Church Hieromonk Anthony (Drobiazko); clergy of the Metochion.

The Church Choir sang under the direction of Anna Rozhnova.

The Representative Office staff and parishioners of the Church prayed during the service.

The funeral litany commemorated all “Orthodox Christians who have died from the beginning of time to this day”; Fervent prayers were offered for the newly departed Archbishop of Kokshetau and Akmola Serapion, for the late rector of the St. Sophia Church, Archpriest Boris Prisyazhnyuk, through whose efforts the parish was revived, the ever-memorable builders and beautifiers of the church; for the deceased Kazakh hierarchs and clergy; for those buried in the Miusskoye Cemetery of the capital, among whom was A.F. Vedernikov, People's Artist of the USSR - "Golden Bass of Russia"; for all those innocently tortured and killed during the years of godless persecution, those who died from hunger, cold, wounds, illnesses and hard labor; for the leaders and soldiers who laid down their lives on the battlefield for the faith and the Fatherland. After the dismissal of the Liturgy, the hierarch addressed the congregation with words of sermon on the importance of commemorating the departed, after which a memorial service was held for all "Orthodox Christians who have died from the beginning of time to this day."

"The Church has great power, extraordinary authority, granted to it by God, to change the fate of its deceased children. We bring to the church notes with names dear to our hearts, we pray fervently for the forgiveness of voluntary and involuntary sins "of our relatives and neighbors who lived before us and who have died," we give prosphora, from which at the very beginning of the Liturgy, during the Proskomedia on the holy altar, particles are taken out. And during the Divine Service, a very important, spiritually significant moment comes - all these particles are immersed in the chalice with the Most Pure and Life-giving Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the same time, the prayer is said: "Wash away, O Lord, the sins of all those remembered here by Thy Precious Blood through the prayers of Thy saints." Saint John Chrysostom testifies to this sacred rite: "It was not in vain that the holy apostles established the custom of remembering our loved ones who have died in the Lord during the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. The holy apostles instituted this because they knew that these prayers bring the deceased much profit and much benefit." Our relatives, close and known ones, whose names are written in the memorial notes, receive grace, sanctification and remission of sins from the bloodless Sacrifice offered on the Throne. Those righteous people to whom, by special Divine providence, the secrets of the afterlife were revealed, testify that the souls of the departed are granted the greatest consolation and inexpressible joy when church prayer is poured out for them and the Bloodless Sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist is offered.” From the sermon of Metropolitan Alexander.