The Commemoration of the Heavenly Patrons of Almaty, the Holy Hieromartyrs of St. Nicholas Church—Presbyters Stephen, Alexander, and Philip

On January 16, 2025, the Forefeast of Theophany and the transferred feast day of the heavenly patrons of Almaty, the Holy Hieromartyrs of St. Nicholas Church—Presbyters Stephen, Alexander, and Philip—were prayerfully commemorated.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy at St. Nicholas Cathedral in the southern capital, where the holy martyrs, Protopriests Alexander Skalsky, Stephen Ponomarev, and Philip Grigoryev, carried out their pastoral ministry in the 1920s and 1930s.

The head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan was joined by Bishop Gennady of Kaskelen, Chancellor of the Metropolitan District, and Bishop Klavdian of Taldykorgan; Protopriest Valery Zakharov, Dean of Almaty Churches and Rector of St. Nicholas Cathedral; Protopriest Eugene Vorobyov, Rector of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” in Almaty; Hieromonk Gennady (Burduzha), Secretary of the Kostanay Diocese; Protopriest Ioann Lopatin, Rector of St. Paraskeva Church and Alexander Nevsky Church; Protopriest Alexander Gaychenya, Dean of Christ the Savior Cathedral; Protopriest Igor Svetlichny, Dean of St. Nicholas Cathedral; Protopriest Valery Shavrin, Rector of the Theophany Church; Hieromonk Pimen (Tkachenko), Rector of the Church of St. Xenia in Konayev; Protopriest Alexander Sokolov; Hieromonk Alexy (Cherevtsov), Rector of the Nativity of the Mother of God Church in Akzhar; Priest Ioann Livinsky, Vice Rector for Student Affairs of the Almaty Theological Seminary; Hieromonk Cherubim (Levin); Hieromonk Prokhor (Endovitsky), Head of the Metropolitan’s Personal Secretariat; Priest Vyacheslav Isikov, Deputy Chairman of the Eparchial Commission for Social Service; Priest George Sidorov, Head of the Administrative Secretariat of the Metropolitan District; Priest Maxim Bely, Cleric of Christ the Savior Church in Almaty; Priest Ioann Konoplev, Dean of the Church of Sts. Adrian and Natalia; Priest George Rublinsky, Dean of Kazan Cathedral in Almaty; Priest Sergei Slesarchuk, Cleric of the Nativity of the Mother of God Church in Akzhar; Protodeacon Vladimir Syrovatsky; Hierodeacon Athanasius (Kozel); Deacon Ioann Churkin; and Deacon Rustik Yakupov.

Among the attendees were Honored Worker of Arts of Russia and member of the Church and Public Council under the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia for the Development of Russian Church Singing O.N. Ovchinnikov; M.S. Simakova, Head of the Russian House in Almaty; staff of the Almaty Eparchial Administration; benefactors of the diocese; teachers and students of the central Sunday school of the southern capital, led by its director G.V. Cherepanova; and many parishioners.

Liturgical hymns were performed by the small choir of St. Nicholas Cathedral, conducted by O. Solomonova.

During the service, special prayers were offered for the repose of departed Kazakhstani hierarchs, the ever-memorable builders and beautifiers of St. Nicholas Church, soldiers who gave their lives for faith and the homeland, all those martyred and killed during the years of severe persecutions by godless forces, those who died of hunger, cold, wounds, illnesses, and forced labor, and all Orthodox Christians who lived and piously departed in the land of Kazakhstan.

The sermon after Communion was delivered by Priest George Sidorov.

At the conclusion of the Liturgy, a glorification of the Holy Hieromartyrs of St. Nicholas Church was performed. The clergy and choir sang the troparion, kontakion, and magnification to the martyrs of Christ.

Metropolitan Alexander then congratulated the hierarchs, clergy, and laity on the feast day of the heavenly patrons of Almaty and Semirechye, addressing those gathered with a word of edification.

At the end of the service, His Eminence, accompanied by hierarchs, clergy, and the faithful, proceeded to the cathedral square to the commemorative cross, erected in honor of the 90th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Holy Hieromartyrs of St. Nicholas Church. There, he performed a litia and laid flowers.

“In the days of celebrating the revelation of Christ, the Giver of Life, the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan prayerfully commemorates the anniversary of the martyrdom of the pastors who labored during the fiery trials (1 Peter 4:12) at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Almaty—Protopriests Alexander Skalsky, Stephen Ponomarev, and Philip Grigoryev. To them, we can fully apply the laudatory words of St. Ephraim the Syrian: ‘Blessed are these champions of Christ, partakers of the light and eternal life, pillars of faith, sons of the honorable Church, strongholds of the walls of Heavenly Zion.’ ‘God is with us!’ (Isaiah 8:10; Matthew 1:23)—these words, fulfilled in the mystery of Christ’s Nativity, now echo in the churches. For more than two millennia, the Orthodox Church has lived with this joyful news. This certainty inspired the apostles who laid its unshakable foundation. With it, the ancient martyrs shed their blood for Christ. With this faith, hierarchs and pastors labored selflessly, enlightening and strengthening nations and peoples in the Orthodox faith. ‘God is with us!’—this truth gave courage to Protopriests Stephen, Alexander, and Philip, and the countless host of new martyrs and confessors of the 20th century who ascended Golgotha during the most brutal persecutions of Orthodoxy.” From the sermon of Metropolitan Alexander.