A meeting took place between Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan with State Counselor of the Republic of Kazakhstan E.T. Karin

January 15, 2024. Astana. In Akorda, a meeting took place between Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan with State Counselor of the Republic of Kazakhstan Erlan Tynymbaevich Karin.

After exchanging greetings, Metropolitan Alexander told E.T. Karin about the life of the Metropolitan District, which is celebrating an important historical date this year - the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Astana and Alma-Ata diocese.

The bishop emphasized that the priority direction of activity of the Astana diocese and the entire Kazakhstan Metropolitan District was and remains the strengthening of interaction and cooperation between church institutions, government agencies, traditional confessions and public associations for the well-being of Kazakhstan.

The archpastor noted that His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', in connection with the anniversary, blessed the bringing to the Metropolitan District of a special shrine - the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Healer”.

Metropolitan Alexander shared his impressions of communicating with the poet and public figure Olzhas Suleimenov, singers Bibigul Tulegenova and Roza Rymbaeva, who were awarded high awards of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan - the Order of Peace and Harmony. “The main idea of our communication was the preservation in the Republic of its main heritage, bequeathed by our ancestors - interethnic peace and interfaith harmony,” the hierarch noted.

The parties discussed the construction in Astana of a spiritual, cultural, administrative and educational center of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District with a temple in honor of All Kazakhstan Saints, which, according to the Bishop, will become a monument to the victims of political repression of the twentieth century.

Erlan Tynymbaevich noted that the country's leadership, headed by President Kassym-Jomart Kemelevich Tokayev, continues to carry out systematic work to create the necessary conditions for the activities of traditional religious associations and strengthening interfaith dialogue.

Another topic of communication between the meeting participants was the inclusion of the Ascension Cathedral of Almaty - the historical and cultural pearl of Semirechye - in the List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Kazakhstan. Metropolitan Alexander told E.T. Karin about the stages of full-scale scientific restoration of one of the most beautiful churches in the southern capital, which was carried out at a high professional level with the involvement of qualified specialists and the use of modern technologies. According to the mutual opinion of the parties, the Ascension Cathedral, called by the President “the all-Kazakh shrine,” meets all the standards of the international organization UNESCO.

The State Advisor of the Republic of Kazakhstan informed the hierarch about the work to declassify documents about political prisoners and repressed people in 1930-50, the list of which includes a large number of clergies of the Russian Orthodox Church. Materials about several hundred thousand innocently injured people were transferred by the state to the Presidential Library in Astana.

Metropolitan Alexander invited Erlan Tynymbaevich to visit the Orthodox spiritual and cultural center named after Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius at the Assumption Cathedral of the capital and the church-historical museum of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan, most of the exhibitions of which are dedicated to the exploits of repressed clergy - sufferers for the faith of Christ. The State Advisor gratefully accepted the invitation.

At the end of the meeting, the interlocutors exchanged souvenirs.