May 30, 2026, on the eve of the feast of the Life-Giving Trinity – Holy Pentecost – Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the All-Night Vigil at the Ascension Cathedral in the city of Alma-Ata.
Concelebrating with the Head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan were: Bishop Gennady of Kaskelen, Chancellor of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District; Archimandrite Ioann (Sazonov), spiritual father of the Alma-Ata Diocese; Archpriest Alexander Suvorov, dean of the Ascension Cathedral of Alma-Ata and Head of the Metropolitan District Department for Public Relations; and clergy of the cathedral.
The hymns were performed by the choir of the Metropolitan District (choir director – O.N. Ovchinnikov, Honored Worker of Kazakhstan, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, member of the Patriarchal Council for the Development of Russian Church Singing; choirmaster – V. Dudareva) and the choir of the Ascension Cathedral (choir director – E. Boguslavets).
According to ancient tradition, the church was adorned with tree branches, while clergy and faithful attending the vigil also held green branches and flowers in their hands.
The blessing of bread, wine, wheat, and oil was performed.
For the first time since Great and Holy Saturday, clergy, choir, and faithful sang the prayer to the Holy Spirit – O Heavenly King.
At Matins, following the reading of the Gospel pericope, the prayer O Heavenly King was solemnly sung for the second time by clergy and people together, after which Metropolitan Alexander addressed those gathered with an archpastoral homily.
During the singing of the canon, the faithful were anointed with blessed oil.
For the third time during the All-Night Vigil, the prayer O Heavenly King was sung by all the people before the chanting of the Great Doxology.
On May 31, the very day of the feast, Vladyka Metropolitan will celebrate the late Divine Liturgy and the Great Vespers of Pentecost with the reading of the kneeling prayers at the Ascension Cathedral of the Southern Capital. The divine service will begin at 8:30 a.m.
Main
Login or register, to write a comment!
Your comment has been successfully added and is currently being reviewed by the site administration