Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan Congratulated Metropolitan Juvenaly (Poyarkov) on His 90th Birthday

September 22, 2025. The Head of the Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Republic of Kazakhstan, Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, congratulated Metropolitan Juvenaly (Poyarkov) on his 90th birthday:

Your Eminence, beloved Vladyka in the Lord!

I cordially congratulate you on this special date in your life - your 90th birthday.

From your youth, having loved the beauty and splendor of Orthodoxy, you followed Christ Who called you. In fulfilling various ecclesiastical obediences, you always strove so that “the word of God grew and multiplied” (Acts 12:24) and “the number of the disciples increased greatly” (Acts 6:7). By the will of the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church, remaining faithful to Christ and true to your vocation, with full dedication of your strength and abilities, with patience and hope in God’s help, you carried out your ministry in different countries. For many decades you governed the Moscow diocese, and during the years of your leadership churches were restored and newly built, monasteries revived, educational, catechetical, youth, and social ministries flourished, and the Kolomna Theological Seminary was opened and continues to function.

Reverently celebrating divine services, fervently preaching, enlightening, and consoling, you not only with inspired words but also with your personal example of love for God and His Church kindled the fire of saving faith in the hearts of many of our contemporaries. Your many years of apostolic labors are a worthy contribution to the creative service of the Russian Orthodox Church in the last third of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries.

Now, on this jubilee day of your celebration, looking back on the years you have lived and recalling the past, you may give glory and thanksgiving to the Lord for His countless blessings, abundantly bestowed upon you throughout your life, and say in the words of the Psalmist: “In God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God” (Ps. 61:8).

Dear Vladyka, on this special day I sincerely offer you my prayerful wishes of peace, health, well-being, and “mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:21). I lift up heartfelt prayers to the new martyrs and confessors of Christ who shone forth in the ancient land of Semirechye for your health and prosperity.