On the day of the celebration in honor of the Council of the 12 Apostles of Christ, Metropolitan Alexander performed the Liturgy in the church in honor of the Council of the Most Holy Theotokos of Alma-Ata

July 13, 2024 - celebration in honor of the Council of the 12 glorious and all-praised apostles of Christ. The Holy Church, the day after the feast of the supreme apostles Peter and Paul, established special veneration of the 12 closest disciples of Christ. Indications of this celebration are found in the 4th century. The blessed Emperor Constantine the Great (306-337) built a temple in Constantinople in the name of the Holy Twelve Apostles.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan performed the Divine Liturgy in the church in honor of the Cathedral of the Most Holy Theotokos in Almaty.

The head of the Metropolitan District was concelebrated by: Archbishop of Ust-Kamenogorsk and Semipalatinsk Amfilohiy, vicar of the Astana diocese, Bishop of Talgar Benjamin; dean of Almaty churches, rector of St. Nicholas Cathedral, Archpriest Valery Zakharov; rector of the Almaty Church in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow”, Archpriest Evgeny Vorobyov, head of the Department of Education and Catechesis of the Metropolitan District, rector of the Intercession Church and the Church in honor of the Cathedral of the Most Holy Theotokos, Archpriest Evgeny Bobylev; rector of the Paraskevi Church and Alexander Nevsky Church, Archpriest Ioann Lopatin, custodian of the Nativity Cathedral, Archpriest Alexander Gaichenya, rector of the Epiphany Church, Archpriest Valery Shavrin, head of the Metropolitan District's public relations department, cleric of the Ascension Cathedral of the Southern Capital, Archpriest Alexander Suvorov, rector of the Church of the Epiphany of the Lord's Village of Malovodnoye Archpriest Nikolai Tkachenko, keymaster of the Peter and Paul Church Archpriest Kirill Shklyar, dean of the Ili church district Archpriest Alexander Zyryanov, keymaster of the St. Nicholas Cathedral Archpriest Igor Svetlichny, rector of the Elias Church in the village of Karaoi Archpriest Georgy Lagovsky, priest Alexy Muraev, head of the personal secretariat of the Metropolitan Hieromon ah Prokhor (Endovitsky ), acting dean of the Talgar church district, cleric of the St. Nicholas Church of the city of Talgar, priest Kirill Freygang; priest Vladimir Shishlov, rector of the Dimitrievsky Church in the village of Baiserke, priest John Konoplev, custodian of the Adriano-Natalievsky Church; Protodeacon Nikolai Grinkevich, Secretary of the Ust-Kamenogorsk Diocese Deacon Ilya Kvan, Deacon Ioann Churkin, Deacon Ioann Atyrkhanov.

At the beginning of the service, an ark with the relics of the 12 apostles of Christ was brought to the temple for prayerful worship and spiritual strengthening of believers.

Praying at the Liturgy were: the head of the representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo in the Republic of Kazakhstan, M.S. Simakova, head of the educational projects department of Rossotrudnichestvo T.V. Zubkova, teachers and students of the theological and missionary faculty of the Alma-Ata Orthodox Theological Seminary, teachers and students of the parish Sunday school named after the Apostle John the Theologian, parishioners of the temple.

The chants were performed by the men's choir of the Alma-Ata diocese under the direction of Deacon Alexander Pivny.

The sermon on the sacramental verse was delivered by Archpriest Valery Zakharov.

After the dismissal of the Liturgy, the apostle of Christ was glorified in front of the ark with their holy relics, after which Metropolitan Alexander thanked the concelebrating hierarchs and clergy for the joy of the common Eucharistic prayer at the Holy See, congratulated everyone on the memory of Christ’s closest disciples and addressed those gathered with a lesson.

At the end of the service, awards were given to large families of the Alma-Ata diocese.

“Let us remember what the Lord said, addressing His disciples: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? ” (Matt. 5:13). These words make us think about the mission of Orthodox Christians in the modern world. They allow us to assert that a zealous follower of God’s commandments always strives to spread the Glory of God through his works, his preaching, and his life example. And a full-blooded life in the Church always implies both a personal ascetic feat of spiritual improvement and activity for the good of others.” From the words of Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan.