Meeting Held Between His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan

March 20, 2025. Moscow. A working meeting between His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan took place at the Patriarchal and Synodal Residence in the Danilov Monastery.

The main topic of the meeting was the upcoming Patriarchal visit of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Republic of Kazakhstan. His Holiness had previously responded positively to the invitation of President Kassym-Jomart K. Tokayev to take part in the 8th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, which will be held on September 17–18 of this year in Astana.

Patriarch Kirill and the Head of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District discussed the itinerary of the Patriarch’s visit to Kazakhstan. In addition to participating in the Congress, it is planned that on the Feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, His Holiness will celebrate the Divine Liturgy in the main church of the country – the Dormition Cathedral in Astana; visit the site of the spiritual struggles and martyric death of the New Martyrs of the Church of Christ and the mass grave of the female prisoners of the Akmola Camp for the Wives of Traitors to the Motherland – “ALZHIR”; meet with the hierarchs of Kazakhstan and representatives of the Republic’s leadership; and visit the construction site of a church and spiritual-educational center in honor of All Saints Who Shone Forth in the Land of Kazakhstan.

The Primate expressed his desire to visit the city of Shymkent, where the infamous Lisya Balka is located – a place of execution and final resting place for thousands of Orthodox Christians, among them Metropolitan Kirill (Smirnov) of Kazan, Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh), Archbishop Alexy (Orlov), Bishop Eugene (Kobranov), many other renowned hierarchs and clergy, and a countless multitude of lay faithful.

In November 2024, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill proposed the creation of a memorial chapel at Lisya Balka, which would serve as a monument to the martyric witness of Orthodox hierarchs, clergy, and laity who suffered for the faith. The Patriarch’s noble initiative received support from the national leadership, and both a memorial mosque and a chapel in honor of the New Martyrs of Shymkent will be built at Lisya Balka in memory of the innocently persecuted, whose official number exceeds 18,000 individuals. His Holiness expressed the desire to consecrate the newly built Orthodox memorial and to serve the divine services within the chapel’s walls.

Metropolitan Alexander informed His Holiness about the life of the Metropolitan District, which this year celebrates the 15th anniversary of the establishment of its canonical and legal status, the 225th anniversary of the birth of the Apostle of the Great Steppe – the ever-memorable Archbishop of Turkestan, Sophonius (Sokolsky), and the 70th anniversary of the repose of the Hieroconfessor Nicholas (Mogilevsky), Metropolitan of Alma-Ata and Kazakhstan.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill thanked the Head of the Metropolitan District for his labors and conveyed his Patriarchal blessing to the archpastors, clergy, monastics, and laypeople of Kazakhstan.