On the Sunday commemorating the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, Metropolitan Alexander celebrated the Liturgy at St Nicholas Cathedral of the Southern capital

22 March 2026 – the 4th Sunday of Great Lent, the commemoration of Venerable John Climacus, Abbot of Mount Sinai; the celebration in honor of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great at St Nicholas Cathedral in the city of Alma-Ata.

Concelebrating with the Head of the Metropolitan District were: Dean of the parishes of Alma-Ata, rector of St Nicholas Cathedral, Candidate of Theology, mitred Archpriest Valery Zakharov; rector of the Alma-Ata church in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God «Joy of All Who Sorrow» Archpriest Evgeny Vorobyev; Archimandrite Iosif (Eremenko); rector of the Alma-Ata Orthodox Theological Seminary, Head of the Information Department of the Metropolitan District, Candidate of Theology Archpriest Evgeny Ivanov; Hieromonk Onisim (Tulnikov); personal secretary of the Head of the Metropolitan District Hieromonk Dimitry (Baidek); rector of the Nativity of the Mother of God Church of the Akzhar microdistrict Hieromonk Alexy (Cherevtsov); Head of the metropolitan’s secretariat Hieromonk Prokhor (Endovitsky); Head of the administrative secretariat of the Head of the Metropolitan District Priest Georgy Sidorov; cleric of St Nicholas Cathedral Priest Oleg Nasymov; Deputy Chairman of the Commission for Work with the Cossacks of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District Priest Evgeny Kozlov; key holder of the Adrian and Natalia Church Priest Ioann Konoplev; rector of the Kazan Cathedral of Alma-Ata Priest Georgy Rublinsky; Priest Vladislav Pashkov; Protodeacon Nikolay Grinkevich; Head of the metropolitan’s protocol service Protodeacon Roman Golovin; Protodeacon Vladimir Syrovatsky; Deacon Alexy Kanushin; Hierodeacon Afanasiy (Kozel); Deacon Ioann Churkin.

The liturgical hymns were performed by the choir of St Nicholas Cathedral under the direction of Yu. Mishchenko and the everyday choir under the direction of O. Solomonova.

Praying at the service were: Secretary of the Metropolitan District, member of the Patriarchal Council for the Development of Church Singing, Honored Artist of Russia O.N. Ovchinnikov; staff of the Alma-Ata diocesan administration; teachers and pupils of the central Sunday school of the Southern capital headed by Director G.V. Cherepanova; numerous parishioners.

At the memorial litany, fervent prayers were offered for the repose of the ever-memorable Archbishop of Tikhvin Meliton (Solovyov; † 1986), the spiritual mentor of Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan. The ever-memorable hierarch, at his monastic tonsure, received his name in honor of one of the Sebaste martyrs. Also specially commemorated were the newly departed: His Holiness and Beatitude Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II and the long-time church laborer Lyubov Pavlovna Milovanova.

The sermon after the communion hymn was delivered by Archimandrite Iosif (Eremenko).

The Liturgy concluded with the glorification of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, after which the Head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan addressed those gathered with a word of instruction.

Many Years was proclaimed to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill; to the Head, the hierarchs, the clergy and the flock of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District; to the President, the authorities, the armed forces and all the people of Kazakhstan.

At the conclusion of the service, Metropolitan Alexander warmly congratulated Archpriest Valery Zakharov on his name day, wishing him strength of soul and body, long years and God’s help in his pastoral labors and church obediences.

In his response, the pastor sincerely thanked the hierarch for his good wishes and prayerful support.

The rector was also congratulated on his heavenly patron by the pupils of the central Sunday school.

In anticipation of the forthcoming feast of Holy Pascha, the Head of the Metropolitan District bestowed liturgical-hierarchical awards upon clergy of the Alma-Ata diocese:

to the cleric of St Nicholas Cathedral of the city of Alma-Ata Priest Oleg Nasymov and the Deputy Chairman of the Commission for Work with the Cossacks of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District Priest Evgeny Kozlov – the right to wear the palitsa;

to the cleric of St Nicholas Church of the Southern capital, Candidate of Theology, Head of the Church-Practical Department of the Alma-Ata Orthodox Theological Seminary and staff member of the Information and Publishing Department of the Metropolitan District Priest Vladislav Pashkov – the right to wear a gold pectoral cross.

After the presentation of church distinctions, His Eminence congratulated the awarded pastors, wishing them God’s help in their further labors for the good of Christ’s Church on the land of Kazakhstan.

«Each time, looking into the depths of our soul, we discover an acute lack of mercy, compassion, understanding, patience and other noble qualities. At times a person lacks even the inner strength to support members of his own family, not to mention strangers. What, then, is to be done when love grows scarce? How can we become like the Heavenly Father in mercy if the heart is stricken with insensibility and indifference? The answer is simple – we must with faith turn to the Source of Life – to the Lord Jesus Christ, Who said of Himself: “I am the vine, and you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). “The beginning of every virtue is God, just as the sun is the beginning of daylight,” explains the evangelical thought Venerable Mark the Ascetic. It is precisely in living and constant communion with the Creator and Giver of all good things, God, that we must draw the gift of sacrificial love, which, according to the apostolic testimony, suffers long, is kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked and never ceases to exist (1 Cor. 13:4-8). This living communion with God in its fullness and freely is given to us in the Church of Christ – in her liturgical life, in prayers, sacred rites and the Mysteries, and most of all in the Divine Liturgy, in the Most Holy Eucharist. The righteous pastor John of Kronstadt considered refusal to participate in the Mystery of the Eucharist, negligence in receiving the Holy Mysteries of Christ, to be a clear sign of a person’s spiritual death. Therefore, let us with all our heart and soul strive under the vaults of the temple, in order to be cleansed in the Mystery of Repentance and to partake of the Source of eternal Life, so as to be filled with divine grace, healed of spiritual and bodily infirmities, strengthened in virtues and in the keeping of the commandments, and made partakers of the Heavenly Kingdom». From the sermon of Metropolitan Alexander.