May 30, 2026 – Trinity Memorial Saturday. On the eve of the feast of Pentecost, the Holy Church offers universal commemoration of all Orthodox Christians departed in the faith, who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and life eternal.
Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan presided over the Divine Liturgy at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the city of Alma-Ata.
Concelebrating with the Head of the Metropolitan District were: Archpriest Valery Zakharov, Dean of the churches of the Southern Capital and rector of St. Nicholas Cathedral; Archpriest Evgeny Vorobyov, rector of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Joy of All Who Sorrow in Alma-Ata; Archimandrite Joseph (Yeremenko); Archpriest Ioann Lopatin, rector of St. Paraskeva Church and the Alexander Nevsky Church; Hegumen Onisim (Tulnikov); Hieromonk Prokhor (Yendovitsky), Head of the Metropolitan’s Secretariat; Priest Georgy Sidorov, Head of the Administrative Secretariat of the Head of the Metropolitan District; Hieromonk Cherubim (Levin); Protodeacon Nikolai Grinkevich; Protodeacon Roman Golovin, Head of the Metropolitan’s Protocol Service; Protodeacon Vladimir Syrovatsky; Deacon Dimitry Yachmenev; and Deacon Georgy Tkachenko.
Praying during the Liturgy were: O.N. Ovchinnikov, Secretary of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan, Honored Worker of Kazakhstan, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, Choir Director of the Choir of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District, and member of the Patriarchal Council for the Development of Russian Church Singing; staff of the Alma-Ata Diocesan Administration; and parishioners of the church.
The hymns were performed by the choir of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral under the direction of choir director A. Kulmetov.
During the divine service, fervent prayers were offered for the repose of “all those who perished suddenly during journeys, at sea or in impassable mountains, in raging waters, abysses, from illness and hunger, cold, fire, natural disasters, and in the ice, in civil wars, or who suffered any other end, and all Orthodox Christians who from ages past unto this day have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection.” Special commemoration was made of Archbishop Sophronius (Sokolsky), the first hierarch of the Turkestan Diocese, and Metropolitan Joseph (Chernov), ascetic of piety, as well as Kazakh hierarchs, clergy, monastics, and all those who “lived and departed in faith and piety in the land of Kazakhstan.”
The sermon following the Communion verse was delivered by Priest Georgy Sidorov.
After the dismissal of the Liturgy, the hierarch addressed those gathered with a word of archpastoral instruction, speaking about the importance of commemorating the departed.
As a gift to the Alexander Nevsky Church, the Head of the Metropolitan District presented an icon of St. Spyridon the Wonderworker of Trimythous, painted by S.N. Sokolov, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation. The icon was created with the blessing of Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan through the benefaction of the church’s ktetors. Archpriest Ioann Lopatin gratefully received the sacred gift.
Following the conclusion of the divine service, a memorial service (panikhida) was celebrated for all “Orthodox Christians who from ages past unto this day have fallen asleep.”
“Liturgical order appoints special days of general commemoration of the departed, when the Church of Christ prays for all who lived upon this earth before us and crossed the mysterious threshold separating the temporal from the eternal. Today is precisely such a day – the universal memorial Saturday preceding holy Pentecost, the feast of the Life-Giving Trinity, the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles.
We offer special prayers for all who lived before us and have departed this life, for forefathers, fathers, brothers, and sisters. We ask the Lord, the Righteous Judge, to forgive the sins of all who from ages past have reposed; we commemorate our relatives and loved ones, those whom we knew – with whom we journeyed together through life – and people unknown to us, yet united with us in spirit, who confessed the Orthodox faith.
Today our prayers are also for those who, by reason of various circumstances, were not granted Christian burial or were not comforted in the hour of death by the reception of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, for those whose names have long since been erased from human memory.
Trinity Memorial Saturday precedes the feast that we call the ‘Birthday of the Church.’ Therefore, today’s commemoration of the departed bears a special meaning. The mystery of ecclesial unity is revealed to us. All Orthodox Christians – we who are now living, our departed relatives and acquaintances, and all generations of believers who lived before us – constitute one Body of Christ, the one Church, built up and enlivened by the Holy Spirit.
We pray that the grace of the Life-Giving Spirit of God may cleanse us from impurity, renew us, and sanctify us, and at the same time we ask this mercy also for the departed. Abiding in the Church, being alive unto the Lord, departed Orthodox Christians, through the offering of the unbloody sacrifice – the Divine Eucharist – through the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos and the saints, and through our humble prayers, are made worthy of the grace of the Spirit of Consolation, by Whom ‘every soul is given life and exalted in purity.’
This grace becomes for the departed a source of joy and blessedness, and for us it grants the ability to perceive the reality that death has been trampled down by the Savior, and that all who have passed into the other world continue to exist in expectation of the day of the universal Resurrection.”
From the homily of Metropolitan Alexander.
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