On the commemoration day of Saint Gregory the Dialogist, Metropolitan Alexander celebrated the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts at the Adrian and Natalia Church in the village of Otegen Batyr

25 March 2026 – Wednesday of the 5th week of Great Lent, the commemoration day of Saint Gregory the Dialogist, Bishop of Rome, and Venerable Symeon the New Theologian.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts at the church in honor of the Holy Martyrs Adrian and Natalia in the village of Otegen Batyr, in the suburb of Alma-Ata, a metochion of the Shymkent and Turkestan diocese.

Concelebrating with the Head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan were: Bishop Chrysanth of Shymkent and Turkestan; Bishop Vianor of Uralsk and Atyrau; Dean of the parishes of the Southern capital, rector of St Nicholas Cathedral, Candidate of Theology Archpriest Valery Zakharov; rector of the Archangel Michael Cathedral in Uralsk Archimandrite Theodosiy (Kuryanov); Archimandrite Iosif (Eremenko); Hegumen Onisim (Tulnikov); personal secretary of the Head of the Metropolitan District Hieromonk Dimitry (Baidek); Head of the metropolitan’s secretariat Hieromonk Prokhor (Endovitsky); cleric of the Iveron parish of the village of Boraldai Priest Dimitry Kharlamov; rector of St Demetrius Church of the village of Baiserke Priest Vladimir Shishlov; key holder of the Adrian and Natalia Church Priest Ioann Konoplev; rector of the Kazan Cathedral of Alma-Ata Priest Georgy Rublinsky; Protodeacon Nikolay Grinkevich; Head of the metropolitan’s protocol service Protodeacon Roman Golovin; Protodeacon Vladimir Syrovatsky.

The service was sung by the male choir of the Alma-Ata diocese under the direction of Deacon Alexander Piven.

Praying at the Liturgy together with the parishioners 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.

The sermon before Holy Communion was delivered by Priest Georgy Rublinsky.

At the conclusion of the service, the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan addressed those gathered with a word of instruction.

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 the Iveron parish of the village of Boraldai, Priest Dimitry Kharlamov – the right to wear the palitsa;

to the rector of St Demetrius Church of the village of Baiserke, Priest Vladimir Shishlov – 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.