On 19 September 2019, the commemoration of the miracle of the Archangel Michael at Chonae, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the main church of the Diocese of Tashkent, the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God in Tashkent.

The service was led by the head of the Central Asian Metropolitan District, Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, concelebrating with Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan, the clergy of the Diocese of Tashkent, and clergy of the Diocese of Australia and New Zealand of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

During the previous night the archpastors returned from Dushanbe, where the wonderworking Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God “of the Sign” had remained for several days. Before the Liturgy this holy icon was again solemnly carried into the cathedral of Uzbekistan’s capital and placed in the centre of the church, so that on the last day of its stay in Central Asia as many people as possible could venerate it.

After the Liturgy a hymn of glorification was sung before the icon of the Queen of Heaven. Metropolitan Vikenty then addressed the large congregation with his archpastoral word, in which he related that over the past two weeks the great holy icon of the Russian Church Abroad, the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God, had visited not only the Diocese of Tashkent but also the Diocese of Bishkek and Kyrgyzstan. The archpastor thanked the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York, for his blessing to bring this holy icon to the Central Asian Metropolitan District, and also Bishop Nicholas and all the guests accompanying the icon for their labours and common prayer throughout these days.

In reply Bishop Nicholas thanked Metropolitan Vikenty for the warm welcome, noting: “Every day you glorified the Mother of God and the Kursk Icon. We felt this, and I am sure your flock felt it too. In the akathist to the Kursk Icon, in one of the kontakia, there are these words: ‘There is no city or village in which Your power has not been revealed.’ And today this can rightly be said of your dioceses, of the cities of Tashkent, Samarkand, Bishkek and even Tursunzade: the Mother of God has visited them with her motherly protection. It is simply a miracle of God. And all of us together experience this and rejoice. Let us put it this way: today we say goodbye, but we will hope for wonderful meetings in the future.”