Trinity Parents' Saturday. Metropolitan Alexander celebrated the Liturgy at the Ascension Cathedral in Almaty

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Ascension Cathedral in Almaty.

The head of the Metropolitan District was concelebrated by: the confessor of the Alma-Ata diocese, Archimandrite John (Sazonov), the clergyman of the Ascension Cathedral, the head of the Metropolitan District's public relations department, Archpriest Alexander Suvorov, acting. Rector of the Alma-Ata Orthodox Theological Seminary, head of the information department of the Metropolitan District, Archpriest Evgeny Ivanov, head of the Metropolitan’s personal secretariat, Hieromonk Prokhor (Endovitsky), head of the administrative secretariat of the Head of the Metropolitan District, Priest Georgy Sidorov, Priest Sergiy Abdulaev; Protodeacon Nikolai Grinkevich, head of the Metropolitan Protocol Service, Protodeacon Roman Golovin, Protodeacon Vladimir Syrovatsky, Deacon Andrey Pleten, Deacon Vitaly Bystrushkin, Hierodeacon Zephaniah (Mazurenko), Deacon Alexander Piven.

Praying during the service were: employees of the Alma-Ata diocesan administration, Sunday school students and parishioners of the cathedral.

Liturgical chants were performed by the choir of the main church of the southern capital under the direction of N. Zubrevich.

During the service, special prayers were made for the repose of “everyone suddenly during wanderings, in the sea or impassable mountains, in stormy streams, abysses, from illness and hunger, cold, from fire, from the elements and in ice, in internecine wars, or other demise of those who suffered, and all Orthodox from this century to this day, in the hope of the resurrection of those who have died.” The first saint of the Turkestan diocese, Archbishop Zephaniah (Sokolsky) and the ascetic of piety, Metropolitan Joseph (Chernov), Kazakh archpastors, shepherds, monastics and all “who lived and died in faith and piety in the land of Kazakhstan” were especially remembered.

The sermon on the sacramental verse was delivered by Priest Georgy Sidorov.

After the dismissal of the Liturgy, the hierarch addressed those gathered with a word of archpastoral teaching, in which he spoke about the importance of commemorating the dead.

At the end of the service, a memorial service was performed for all “Orthodox Christians who have passed away from this century to this day.”

“The liturgical charter provides for special days of general remembrance of the dead, when the Church of Christ prays for everyone who lived on this earth before us and crossed the mysterious threshold separating the temporal from the eternal. Today is just such a day - the universal parental Saturday, which precedes Holy Pentecost, the feast of the Life-Giving Trinity, the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles. We say special prayers for everyone who lived and died before us, for our forefathers, fathers, brothers and sisters. We ask the Lord, the Righteous Judge, to forgive the sins of all those who have passed away from time immemorial; We remember our relatives and friends, those we knew - with whom we walked through life together, and people unknown to us, but united with us in spirit, who professed the Orthodox faith. Today our prayers are also for those who, due to various circumstances, were not granted a Christian burial or were not consoled at the hour of death by the communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, for those whose names have long been erased from human memory. Trinity Parents' Saturday precedes the holiday, which we call the "Birthday of the Church." Therefore, today's commemoration of the dead has a special meaning. The secret of church unity is revealed to us. All Orthodox Christians - we living today, our deceased relatives and known ones, and all generations of believers who lived before us - constitute one Body of Christ, one Church, created and revived by the Holy Spirit. We pray that the grace of the Life-giving Spirit of God will cleanse us from defilement, renew us, sanctify us, and at the same time, we ask for this grace for the departed. Staying in the Church, being alive with the Lord, deceased Orthodox Christians, by virtue of the offering of a bloodless sacrifice - the Divine Eucharist, through the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos and the saints, through our humble prayers, are granted the grace of the Comforter Spirit, by which “every soul is given life and is exalted in purity.” This grace becomes a source of joy and bliss for the deceased, and gives us the opportunity to feel the reality that death has been trampled upon by the Savior, that all those who have passed on to another world continue to exist in anticipation of the day of the general Resurrection.” From the sermon of Metropolitan Alexander.