Address of Metropolitan Alexander after the Patriarchal Moleben in the Assumption Cathedral of Astana

September 18, 2025. Astana. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ celebrated a moleben in the main church of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan – the Assumption Cathedral. At the conclusion of the service, Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan addressed the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church with words of greeting:

Your Holiness!

Just now, in the principal church of the Metropolis – the Assumption Cathedral of Astana – You offered a moleben to the new martyrs and confessors of the land of Kazakhstan. To You – our Great Master, Primate, and Father – a host of hierarchs and clergy concelebrated. The participants of the common prayer were residents and guests of the capital, pilgrims from the towns and villages of the Republic, who wished to receive the blessing of their Patriarch and to hear the consoling and encouraging words of Your homily.

Today’s event may rightly be called a great spiritual celebration. The Patriarchal moleben beneath the vaults of the Assumption Cathedral is a visible testimony to the unity and greatness of the Russian Orthodox Church, which carries out its salvific mission in East and West, in Europe and Asia, on various continents, in various countries, and among many peoples.

Fifteen years ago, in the first year of Your Patriarchal ministry, You visited Astana for the first time and performed the rite of consecration of the newly built Assumption Cathedral – the largest Orthodox church in Central Asia. Then, addressing Your flock, You expressed the hope that this temple of God, as well as many other churches that had appeared on Kazakh soil, would contribute to the edification and further prosperity of the multinational and multiconfessional Kazakhstan. Your words have come true. The Assumption Cathedral has become a spiritual and cultural jewel of the capital, a witness to the imperishable beauty of the heavenly world, a place for the preaching of eternal moral truths addressed to people of different convictions and nationalities.

Your first visit to Kazakhstan in 2010 gave a new and powerful impetus to the development of various aspects of church life in the Republic – the canonical and legal status of the Metropolis was established, new dioceses were opened, and a theological seminary was founded. On Your second visit to hospitable Astana, You consecrated the spiritual, cultural, and administrative center of the Metropolis, named in honor of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles, teachers and enlighteners of the Slavic peoples. Your Primatial care extends not only to the hierarchs and clergy but to every believer, every Christian soul seeking the Truth.

I am convinced that Your present stay within Kazakhstan will likewise become a good stimulus for the further strengthening of Orthodoxy in the land of the Great Steppe. Your sacrificial spirit, inexhaustible energy, and fervor, Your wise words, are for all of us a source of inspiration and an encouragement to new labors for the glory of Christ’s name, for the good of our neighbors, and for the welfare of our native land.

We ask the Almighty to grant You good health and unfailing spiritual strength, that You, guided by the Holy Spirit, may for many years continue Your high and responsible Primatial ministry.