For the first time, a diaconal ordination has taken place at the Church of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious in Samarkand. The ordination was performed during the Divine Liturgy on 27 January 2016, the leave-taking of the feast of Theophany and the feast of St. Nino, Equal-to-the-Apostles and Enlightener of Georgia, by the head of the Central Asian Metropolitan District, Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan. Oleg Dushenko, a novice of the church and a student in the extramural department of the Tashkent Orthodox Theological Seminary, was ordained to the holy order of deacon.
Concelebrating with His Eminence at the Liturgy were: the dean of the Samarkand Deanery, Archpriest Roman Zagrebelny; Priest Igor Babakov; Priest Dionisy Yakimenko; Priest Timofey Sirodzhev; Hierodeacon Mikhail (Stolyarov); Deacon Oleg Lin; and Deacon Alexander Kolotovkin.
At the end of the service, the ruling bishop of the diocese, Metropolitan Vikenty, censed three times around the festal icon to the singing of the troparion and kontakion of Theophany, after which the magnification of the feast and of St. Nino, Equal-to-the-Apostles, was sung. Metropolitan Vikenty then addressed the parishioners of the Church of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious with his archpastoral word, congratulating everyone on the recent feasts of the Nativity of Christ and Theophany. The archpastor reminded them that Christ the Savior came into this world not for earthly joy and pleasure, but to suffer — to suffer for the human race and to redeem us from sin, the curse and death.
"We must reflect deeply on how we live here on earth, and whether our life helps us attain what the Lord has given us at so great a price — whether we are able to follow the path He has shown us in order to give us eternity," His Eminence noted.
In his sermon Metropolitan Vikenty urged the Orthodox faithful to approach their professional and work duties conscientiously.
"We need to acquire the divine mind, to seek God's truth, not human truth," the archpastor stressed.
In his archpastoral word Metropolitan Vikenty also spoke briefly about the life of St. Nino, Equal-to-the-Apostles, noting her victorious labors in bearing the Word of God and spreading the preaching of Christ crucified and risen: "This young woman was so inflamed with love for Christ that she desired that a people dwelling in the darkness of unbelief, a people possessing a great holy relic — the Robe of the Lord — be enlightened by the light of the Gospel teaching. Over the 35 years she spent in the land of Iberia (Georgia), she brought everyone to Christ," the archpastor concluded.
