A meeting was held between His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' and Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan

March 20, 2025. Moscow. A working meeting was held between His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' and Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan at the Patriarchal and Synodal Residence in the Danilov Monastery.

The main topic of the meeting was the Primate's visit to the Republic of Kazakhstan. Earlier, His Holiness responded positively to the invitation of President K.-Zh.K. Tokayev to take part in the VIII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, which will be held on September 17-18 this year in Astana.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and the Head of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District discussed the program of the Primate's stay within Kazakhstan. It is expected that in addition to participating in the Congress, His Holiness will celebrate the Divine Liturgy in the country's main church, the Assumption Cathedral in Astana, on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, visit the site of the exploits and martyrdom of the new martyrs of the Church of Christ and the mass burial of prisoners of the Akmola camp for the wives of traitors to the Motherland, "ALZHIR", meet with Kazakhstan's archpastors and the leadership of the Republic, visit the construction site of the church and spiritual and educational center in the name of All Saints who shone in the land of Kazakhstan.

The Primate expressed his desire to visit the city of Shymkent, where the world-famous Lisya Balka is located, the place of execution and final resting place of thousands of Orthodox Christians, including Metropolitan Kirill (Smirnov) of Kazan, Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh), Archbishop Alexy (Orlov), Bishop Evgeny (Kobranov), many other famous archpastors and pastors, and countless ordinary believers.

In November 2024, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill put forward an initiative to create a memorial chapel in Lisya Balka, which will become a monument to the martyrdom of Orthodox hierarchs, clergy, and laity who suffered for their faith. The noble idea of His Holiness found a response among the state leadership of the country, and in Lisya Balka, in memory of the innocently repressed people, whose number, according to official data alone, is over 18,000 people, a memorial mosque and a temple-chapel in honor of the new martyrs of Shymkent will be built. The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church expressed the wish to consecrate the newly built Orthodox memorial and hold a service within the walls of the chapel.

Metropolitan Alexander informed His Holiness about the life of the Metropolitan District, which is celebrating this year the 15th anniversary of the approval of its canonical and legal status, the 225th anniversary of the birth of the Apostle of the Great Steppe - the ever-memorable Archbishop of Turkestan Sophonia (Sokolsky) and the 70th anniversary of the death of the holy confessor Nikolai (Mogilevsky), Metropolitan of Alma-Ata and Kazakhstan.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill thanked the Head of the Metropolitan District for his work and conveyed his Primate's blessing to the archpastors, clergy, monastics and laity of Kazakhstan.