On the day of remembrance of St. Maxim the Confessor, Metropolitan Alexander celebrated the Liturgy in the home church of the metropolitan residence in Alma-Ata

February 3, 2024 is the day of remembrance of St. Maxim the Confessor, St. Maxim the Greek and Hieromartyr Presbyter Elijah (Berezovsky), who was killed in Kaskelen for Christ (1938).

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Iveron-Seraphim home church of the metropolitan residence in Almaty.

Concelebrating with the archpastor were: the head of the personal secretariat of the metropolitan, Hieromonk Prokhor (Endovitsky), the head of the administrative secretariat of the Head of the Metropolitan District, Priest Georgy Sidorov, the cleric of the St. Nicholas Cathedral of the southern capital, Hierodeacon Afanasy (Kozel) and Deacon Sergius Slesarchuk.

The men's choir of the Alma-Ata diocese under the direction of Deacon Alexander Pivny sang.

Praying during the service were the Secretary of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District, Honored Artist of Russia, member of the Patriarchal Council for the Development of Church Singing O.N. Ovchinnikov with employees of the Alma-Ata diocesan administration.

During the Liturgy, intense prayers were offered for the repose of the deceased Kazakh hierarchs, leaders and warriors who laid down their lives on the battlefield for the faith and the Fatherland, all of whom died in a time of fierce persecution from the atheists, who were tortured and killed, who died from hunger, cold, wounds, illnesses and backbreaking work, and all Orthodox Christians who lived and died piously on the land of Kazakhstan.

At the end of the Liturgy, Metropolitan Alexander congratulated the participants in the service on the day of remembrance of the great theologian and zealous champion of Orthodoxy, St. Maximus the Confessor and delivered a word of teaching.