The Head of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District and the Ambassador of the Russian Federation A.N. Borodavkin discussed issues of religious life in the Republic of Kazakhstan

December 8, 2024. Astana. Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan visited the residence of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to the Republic of Kazakhstan, where the hierarch met with the head of the Russian diplomatic mission Alexei Nikolaevich Borodavkin.

The meeting was attended by the dean of the capital's parishes, Archimandrite Sergiy (Karamyshev).

After exchanging greetings, Metropolitan Alexander told Alexei Nikolaevich about his participation in the meeting of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' with the Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan M.S. Ashimbayev, which took place in Moscow on November 22. His Holiness the Metropolitan emphasized that during the conversation, His Holiness noted the high level of relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the leadership of Kazakhstan and the actively developing church life in the country. The Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan conveyed to His Holiness the Patriarch a cordial greeting from the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Kemelevich Tokayev, who "greatly appreciates what the Russian Orthodox Church does to promote interreligious dialogue, as well as to spread moral values."

Metropolitan Alexander and Alexey Nikolaevich highly praised the results of the meeting of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan K.-Zh.K. Tokayev and the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin, which took place on November 27 in Astana. According to the head of the diplomatic mission, the head of the Russian state was given a warm welcome in the capital of the Republic, productive negotiations took place in narrow and expanded formats, 20 documents were signed: a joint statement of the two Presidents, agreements between ministries and departments, between companies that will develop cooperation in Kazakhstan in various areas, including energy, transport, new technologies, etc. As the ambassador noted, in addition to official meetings, one-on-one negotiations between the Presidents took place, which lasted about six hours.

Metropolitan Alexander shared with Alexei Nikolaevich a plan of church and public events dedicated to historical dates of the coming 2025 - the 50th anniversary of the blessed death of Metropolitan Joseph (Chernov), the 70th anniversary of the death of the holy confessor Nikolai (Mogilevsky), Metropolitan of Alma-Ata and Kazakhstan, and the 225th anniversary of the birth of the first archpastor of the Turkestan diocese - Archbishop Sophonia (Sokolsky). The archpastor told his interlocutor that on the eve of the sacred memorable dates, a decision was made to create a memorial complex in the southern capital dedicated to Metropolitans Nikolai and Joseph, at present a lot of work is being done in this direction - historical buildings are being restored, where the elders-hierarchs lived and worked, where they performed divine services and wrote their sermons, received people for spiritual conversations. As the Head of the Metropolitan District noted, the clergy and believers preserved icons, utensils, vestments, books and household items that the ever-memorable hierarchs used. Along with archival documents and photographs, all these unique relics and things donated by admirers of the righteous metropolitans will form the basis of a large museum exhibition. According to the hierarch, the exhibits collected in the memorial house will help visitors to feel the atmosphere of genuine kindness and philanthropy that surrounded Bishop Nikolai and Bishop Joseph, to feel their human modesty and evangelical simplicity, to see their ardent love for the Church of Christ.

The Ambassador told the Bishop Metropolitan about his work in the business forum "Moscow-Astana: Creative Cities", which took place on December 2 with the participation of a delegation of the Moscow Government, the Moscow City Duma, as well as a representative group of cultural figures from the Russian capital.

The head of the diplomatic mission and the archpastor discussed issues of Russian-Kazakh cooperation in the fields of politics, economics, education, science, culture and art. In the mutual opinion, thanks to the policy of President K.-Zh.K. Tokayev, Kazakhstan is currently one of the significant centers of global integration processes.

During the conversation, an exchange of views took place on a wide range of issues related to the role of religion and religious leaders in the modern world, and the state of socio-confessional relations in Kazakhstan.

At the end of the conversation, the Head of the Metropolitan District and the Russian Ambassador exchanged good wishes.