On the Sunday of the Paralytic, Metropolitan Alexander Celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Shymkent

May 11, 2025 – Fourth Sunday of Pascha, the Sunday of the Paralytic. The liturgical texts of this day commemorate the healing by the Lord of the paralytic who had suffered from a grievous affliction for thirty-eight years. In this miracle, the Church sees the renewal of all humanity through the Resurrection of Christ.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy with the Paschal rite at the main church of the Diocese of Chimkent – the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in the city of Shymkent.

Concelebrating with the Head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan were: Bishop Chrysanth of Chimkent and Turkestan; Bishop Klavdian of Taldykorgan, vicar of the Astana Diocese; Protopriest Evgeny Vorobyev, rector of the Almaty Church in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow”; Archimandrite Anthony (Solovyov), dean of the South Kazakhstan Church District; Protopriest Andrey Lebedev, rector of the Church of the Archangel Michael in Shymkent; Protopriest Evgeny Glushchenko, cleric of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas; Protopriest Alexander Mogilevsky, head of the Information Department and the Department for Church-Society Relations of the Chimkent Diocese; Priest Georgy Sidorov, head of the administrative secretariat of the Head of the Metropolis; and clergy of the Almaty and Chimkent dioceses.

The hymns of the service were sung by the choir of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas under the direction of E.V. Aleshina.

Among those praying at the service were: staff of the Chimkent Diocesan Administration, members of the Cossack community, students of Sunday schools, parishioners of the churches of Shymkent, and pilgrims from surrounding areas.

The sermon after the Communion verse was delivered by Priest Georgy Sidorov.

At the conclusion of the Liturgy, a Paschal procession took place around the church, followed by the singing of Paschal hymns. Metropolitan Alexander then proclaimed the Paschal greeting “Christ is Risen!” in various ancient and modern languages.

The Metropolitan also served a memorial litia at the burial site of the ever-memorable Archbishop Eleutherius (Kozorez).

The archpastor sprinkled the faithful with holy water and delivered a word of spiritual instruction.

“In the prayers of the Paschal season, we hear repeated proclamations that Christ has given life ‘to those in the tombs.’ Who are these dead whom the Savior has brought back to life through His Resurrection? These are the righteous of the Old Testament, beginning with Adam and Eve; all of humanity, which before the coming of the Lord into the world had no knowledge of truth or freedom (cf. John 8:32); and all those whose souls have been raised by the grace of God through faith in Christ, who have come alive through repentance and the keeping of the Gospel commandments. ‘When the soul turns from sin to virtue,’ teaches St. Dorotheus of Gaza, ‘then it celebrates the Pascha of the Lord. The Lord’s Pascha is the passage from evil to good.’ The Gospel miracle of Christ’s victory over death is a call to each person to begin a new life – to rise with the Risen Savior through faith in the power of God (cf. Col. 2:12). Through His Resurrection, Christ confirmed to the apostles the truth and certainty of His promise: ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die’ (John 11:25–26). The Lord’s disciples carried this joyful message throughout the earth. And in every age, each Christian, along the path of life – amid trials and tribulations, sorrows and hardships – places their hope in Christ, ‘who died and came to life again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living’ (Rom. 14:9).” — From the homily of Metropolitan Alexander.