Archpriest Roman Zagrebelny, dean of the Samarkand Deanery and rector of the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Samarkand, has received a patriarchal award: the right to wear the palitsa (epigonation). The award was presented by the head of the Central Asian Metropolitan District, Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, during the Paschal evening service at the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God.
At Paschal Vespers and Matins, concelebrating with His Eminence were: Fr. Roman; Priest Igor Babakov; Priest Vladimir Matveev; Priest Timofey Sirodzhev; Priest Oleg Dushenko; Hierodeacon Mikhail (Stolyarov); Deacon Oleg Lin; and Deacon Mikhail Mezhovikov.
At the end of the service Metropolitan Vikenty, having first congratulated everyone on the Pascha of Christ, addressed the faithful with a word of instruction.
"Pascha in the Old Testament is the passage from Egyptian bondage to the promised land. The Old Testament Pascha is a prefiguration of the New Testament Pascha, which is the passage from temporal, earthly life to eternal, blessed life.
In the Old Testament, God's curse from the fall of our first parents still weighed upon man; eternal blessed life was closed to all people, even the righteous. And then the Lord accomplished a great work, a great feat: taking upon Himself the sins of all mankind, He lifted them up onto the Cross, washed them with His precious Blood, and granted us eternal blessed life. This life was given to us at the price of Blood, at the price of the sufferings of Christ the Savior, which He bore throughout His earthly life. He went through all the hardships that come from our fall, from our sinful state, and from the fact that sin weighed upon both man and the surrounding world. All this our Lord Jesus Christ endured; He humbled Himself and bore His cross in order to give us eternal life.
The Lord calls us too, dear brothers and sisters, to pass worthily along the path of our earthly pilgrimage, and in this way to transform our life and change our spiritual disposition. All this should help us come to God, so that the Lord may receive us into His Heavenly mansions, which He has prepared for us who love Him."
