On 23 July 2018, the Holy Church commemorates the Placing of the precious Robe of our Lord Jesus Christ in Moscow and also honors the memory of Venerable Anthony of the Kiev Caves, the founder of all Russian monasticism. On this day the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Holy Right-Believing Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky in Termez was celebrated by the head of the Central Asian Metropolitan District, Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan.
Concelebrating with His Eminence were: the dean of the Samarkand Deanery, Archpriest Roman Zagrebelny; the rector of the church, Priest Alexander Tereshchenko; Priest Igor Babakov; Priest Timofey Sirodzhev; Priest Artemy Ponomarev; Deacon Pyotr Gnatik; and Hierodeacon Ioann (Chumakov).
At the end of the service, the archpastor addressed the parishioners with his archpastoral word:
"In 1625 the Robe of the Lord came to us in Rus'. It was given to the Russian Church, to Patriarch Philaret, and it is still in our Church; it is always brought out on this day in the Dormition Cathedral of the Kremlin, and we are glad that we have the opportunity to touch the Robe of the Lord, which He wore and which was taken from Him when He was crucified. This is a great holy object of our Church, and we are glad that we always glorify this holy relic and this event, which we celebrate today.
Today we also celebrate the memory of Venerable Anthony the Great. He lived in the year 900, he lived for 90 years, he labored in special ascetic feats, he was on Mount Athos, where he took up the monastic rule of Christian life, and he became the forefather, that is, he became the first monk in Rus' who gave himself over entirely to the will of God and took upon himself heavy ascetic labors, living in a cave.
Now we are enduring intense heat. Our ascetics, enduring this hot season of the year, wanted to labor even more in order to gain the Kingdom of God. We too can endure this heat in order to gain the Kingdom of God. We simply need not to grumble, to be content with what we have, to thank God for giving us such heat and giving us such an opportunity to endure, that is, giving us the opportunity to practice patience for the sake of Christ, for the sake of the Kingdom of Christ.
This is what the ascetics of piety did in those times. When we read the lives of the saints, one saint or another endured heat, cold and bitter frost, endured all of this for the sake of Christ. There are examples from the lives of the Athonite elders, for on Athos it can be cold and snowy, and it can also be very hot. And so, when one of the novices was sent on an obedience, he got lost in the mountains of Athos; he walks barefoot through the snow and says: 'Lord, help me! I do not know where to go. I am already freezing, I am perishing. For the sake of my elder, who gave me this obedience, help me find the way, so that I do not freeze and die of the cold.' And he walked not on the ground, not in the snow, but on top of the snow, and his feet were warm, as if he were walking on warm earth. This is what obedience, prayer and faith in God mean. The Lord is ready to help us in any place."
In the evening of the same day, Metropolitan Vikenty celebrated the All-Night Vigil in the same church in honor of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Princess Olga.
