On 2 June 2016 the Samarkand cathedral of St. Alexius, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia, the Wonderworker, celebrated its patronal feast. On this day the head of the Central Asian Metropolitan District, Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, who was on a paschal visit to the Samarkand Deanery, celebrated the Divine Liturgy in our cathedral. On the eve, the archpastor had celebrated the prescribed paschal service at the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Samarkand.

Concelebrating with His Eminence were Archpriest Roman Zagrebelny, Priest Igor Babakov, Priest Timofey Sirodzhev, Priest Leonid Khimonidi, Hierodeacon Mikhail (Stolyarov), Deacon Alexander Kolotovkin, Deacon Oleg Lin and Deacon Oleg Dushenko.

After the Sacrament of Holy Communion and the dismissal, a procession of the cross was held around the cathedral, and Metropolitan Vikenty offered a prayer to St. Alexius. His Eminence then addressed the parishioners with an archpastoral sermon, greeted everyone on the radiant feast of the Pascha of Christ, and spoke of the redeeming feat of Jesus Christ, who delivered the human race from the slavery of sin, from the curse and from death, and of the need to live by God’s commandments: “It is not hard to live by God’s commandments,” His Eminence noted. “To live by God’s commandments means to live decently, to live within the bounds of God’s law, to live morally and purely. It is very pleasing to our soul when we live like this. And it is very unpleasant to our soul when we live sinfully, dissolutely, acting according to our own sinful will.

We must humble our own will and not let it have its way, because it is easily inclined to sin. It draws us toward a depraved life in order to do us harm in soul and body. But when we direct our will onto the path of fulfilling the will of God, it is then trained, it changes and becomes obedient to the will of God. And then, in fulfilling the will of God, our will brings us only joy, consolation and goodness. And the will of God we can discover for ourselves from the Gospel, from the Holy Scripture of the New Testament.”

After the sermon, the children of the parishioners of Saint Alexius Cathedral presented to the archpastor a small festive performance, “The Paschal Kolobok.”