On 6 December 2019 the capital’s Church of the Holy Right-Believing Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky celebrated its patronal feast. On this day Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, head of the Central Asian Metropolitan District, celebrated the Divine Liturgy there. The evening before, a polyeleos service was served at the Dormition Cathedral in Tashkent.
Concelebrating with His Eminence were: the rector of the church Archpriest Sergiy Statsenko, Archpriest Andrei Tugushev, Priest Dimitry Khabarov, Priest Alexander Kokhansky, Hieromonk Spiridon (Pozdeev), Protodeacon Alexander Nesin, Protodeacon Gennady Buryakov, Deacon Mikhail Mezhovikov and Deacon Pyotr Gnatik.
The abbess of the Holy Trinity–St. Nicholas Convent, Hegumenia Ekaterina (Malgina), also prayed at the Liturgy.
After Holy Communion and the dismissal, the traditional procession of the cross was held in honour of the patronal feast, and the archpastor then addressed the rector, clergy and parishioners with his word of instruction, congratulating everyone on the feast and noting:
“The Right-Believing Prince Alexander Nevsky is of very great significance for us in every sphere of our life. He is a defender of the Orthodox faith, a defender of our Fatherland, a man who deeply understood the situation of the time in which he lived. He began to act very clearly and decisively to save the Orthodox faith from subjugation. And most importantly, he did all this with very deep faith in God and constant prayer. He did not rely on his own strength, abilities or talents, but on God. When things were very hard for the Fatherland, he was the supreme leader of the Russian land. And of course he answered before God for Holy Rus’, which was being subjugated both from the east and from the west. Between these two fires he had to find the strength to stand against the forces attacking our land. Prince Alexander chose the path of faith, the path of piety, the path of prayer.”
In his archpastoral word Metropolitan Vikenty also gave guidance on how to keep the Nativity Fast, now in its tenth day, to our own benefit and to the glory of God:
“It is very important that in these days of the Nativity Fast we look at examples such as the life of Alexander Nevsky. He is a living example of a pious life: a politician, a statesman, a military leader. One would think that, busy with such important affairs, he had no time to pray, to go to church, to think about God. Enemies on every side: west, north, south and east. When, one would think, could he pray? And yet he sets all his affairs aside and comes to understand that without God none of this can be sorted out. He came to church and prayed, because the church is the house of God. From here he drew all his strength to defeat his enemies, to carry out his service to the people successfully, to protect them from unbelief and doubt, to strengthen our Orthodox faith, and to deliver people from all the attacks of that time from Catholicism and paganism. He found strength for the struggle precisely in God. And we too must learn this”.
