The second Sunday of Lent. The head of the Metropolitan District celebrated the Liturgy at the Representative Office of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan in Moscow

March 16, 2025 – the 2nd week of Lent, the “week of light-giving fasts”, the memory of St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great 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 Metropolitan District of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

His Eminence was assisted by: Acting Rector of the Church of the Holy Martyr Clement of Rome in Zamoskvorechye, Head of the Doctoral Studies Department of the General Church Postgraduate and Doctoral Studies named after Saints Cyril and Methodius, Archpriest Alexei Marchenko; Acting Rector of the Alma-Ata Orthodox Theological Seminary, Head of the Information Department of the Metropolitan District Archpriest Evgeny Ivanov; Vice-Rector of the Alma-Ata Theological Seminary, Candidate of Theology, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Hegumen Agafangel (Gagua); Key-keeper of the Church of the Holy Martyrs Vera, Nadezhda, Lyubov and their Mother Sophia Hieromonk Anthony (Drobiazko); Clergy of the Metochion.

The church choir sang under the direction of Anna Rozhnova.

The following prayed at the service: Administrator of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District, Bishop Gennady of Kaskelen, employees of the Representative Office, benefactors of the Patriarchal Metochion and parishioners of the church.

After the service, the Head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan addressed those present with a sermon in which he spoke about the life and archpastoral labors of Saint Gregory Palamas.

“On the second Sunday of Lent, called in the liturgical charter “the week of light-giving fasts”, the Church of Christ, in addition to celebrating Sunday, remembers one of the great hierarchs and preachers of Orthodoxy - Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki. Lent is a Divine call for the renewal of man, his liberation from sin, the inner enlightenment of the mind and heart, a call to march towards the bright radiance of the joy of Holy Easter. Saint Gregory Palamas taught that the mysterious Divine light that shone upon the apostles on Mount Tabor, that shone in the life-giving Tomb of the Savior during His Resurrection from the dead, can be actually seen and felt by every believer. Moreover, participation in this light is an indispensable condition of our salvation. The vision of this light is nothing other than living and active communion with Christ, union with Him – “the true Light gives light to everyone was coming into the world” (John 1:9). We are capable of becoming partakers of the Divine life and Divine nature through the illumination of grace, the means of acquiring which are the purification of the heart, the keeping of the mind from vain and evil thoughts, fervent prayer, the reading of the Word of God, a pious and virtuous life according to the commandments, sincere service to God and neighbor, participation in the sacraments of Confession and Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.” From the sermon of Metropolitan Alexander.