Meeting of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ with Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan

Meeting of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ with Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan

On August 14, 2025, in Moscow, at the Patriarchal and Synodal residence in the Danilov Monastery, a meeting took place between His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ and the Head of the Metropolitan District of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Republic of Kazakhstan, Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan.

The meeting was attended by: personal secretary of His Holiness, Bishop Alexy of Ramensk, and Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media, V.R. Legoyda.

The main subject of the meeting was the discussion of the program of the visit of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Republic of Kazakhstan and the participation of His Holiness, at the invitation of President K.-Zh.K. Tokayev, in the VIII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, which will be held on September 17–18 of this year in Astana.

The Head of the Metropolitan District informed His Holiness Patriarch Kirill about the progress of construction of the church and spiritual and educational center in honor of All Saints Who Shone Forth in the Land of Kazakhstan, in the capital of Kazakhstan, and the memorial chapel in the city of Shymkent – in Lisya Balka – on the site of the execution and final repose of thousands of Orthodox believers who suffered for Christ. The Metropolitan noted that on the eve of the meeting – on August 13 – domes and crosses had been erected on the newly built church in Astana.

Metropolitan Alexander told His Holiness about the life of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan. The Head of the Metropolitan District warmly thanked the Primate for his Patriarchal greeting to the clergy and flock on the occasion of the 225th anniversary of the birth of Archbishop Sophronius (Sokolsky), the first hierarch of the Turkestan diocese and the apostle of the Great Steppe, and reported to His Holiness about the X Congress of Orthodox Youth of Kazakhstan, which took place on August 8–11 with the participation of guests from Russia, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill thanked Metropolitan Alexander for his labors and conveyed his Primatial blessing to the hierarchs, clergy, monastics, and laity of Kazakhstan.