On 26 April 2017, the head of the Central Asian Metropolitan District, Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, began his Paschal archpastoral visit to the parishes of the Samarkand Deanery. On this day, when the Holy Church honors the memory of the Hieromartyr Artemon, Metropolitan Vikenty celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Great Martyr George the Victorious in Samarkand.

Concelebrating with His Eminence were: the dean of the Samarkand Deanery, Archpriest Roman Zagrebelny; Priest Timofey Sirodzhev; Priest Igor Babakov; Priest Vladimir Matveev; Priest Oleg Dushenko; Hierodeacon Mikhail (Stolyarov); Deacon Oleg Lin; and Deacon Mikhail Mezhovikov.

After Communion and the dismissal, the troparion and kontakion of the feast of Antipascha were sung, along with the magnification to the Risen Lord.

The archpastor then congratulated all the clergy and parishioners of the church on the feast of the Bright Resurrection of Christ, and drew the attention of the faithful to some very important aspects of the life of an Orthodox Christian:

"We have a problem: we live on earth, believe in God, go to church, confess and receive Communion, pray at home, but we do all this not to inherit the Kingdom of God, not to restore our fallen nature, which still lies in sin, but so that the Lord will give us a good life on earth: comforts, joys, pleasures. One word is now drawing us all into its nets: 'comfort'. One could even go about naked, because it is comfortable. This is, in essence, a blinding of our mind. We do not see things as they really are.

We were created by God for eternal blessedness, not for earthly comfort but for heavenly, eternal comfort. And Christ accomplished the great work of restoring our fallen nature. By the grace of Christ we can restore our fallen nature and attain perfection in the mansions of the Kingdom of God.

These great days of Holy Pascha urge us to rise above ourselves, above earthly things, and to think more about what is heavenly and eternal. And we must be deeply imbued with the thought of what Christ the Savior has done for us, and of course we must follow Him, love Him, listen to Him and fulfill His holy will."

At the end of his sermon Metropolitan Vikenty gave all the parishioners a Paschal keepsake: a small icon of Venerable Silouan of Athos.