The feast of the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord was celebrated on 27 September 2019 at the main church of the diocese, the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos in Tashkent. On this day Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, head of the Central Asian Metropolitan District, celebrated the Divine Liturgy, and on the eve the All-Night Vigil. During Matins, at the Great Doxology, the archpastor brought the Cross out of the altar and performed the rite of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord.
Concelebrating with His Eminence were Priest Vitaly Boston, Protodeacon Alexander Nesin and Deacon Rustik Kovalev.
At the end of the Liturgy the troparion, kontakion and magnification of the Cross of the Lord were sung, after which Metropolitan Vikenty addressed the faithful with his archpastoral word, greeting everyone on the feast of the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord:
"After the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross, the Cross of the Lord was hidden. This great treasure of God's grace was hidden from us, from human eyes, for three centuries. Death on the cross was the most shameful punishment for sins. And the Lord truly took upon Himself the sins of all mankind. He redeemed the gravest and most shameful sins on the Cross. The Cross is a universal sacrifice which the Lord offered for the redemption of all mankind. And this sacrifice brought about that the Cross was transformed from an instrument of shame into the instrument of our salvation. On the Cross the Lord reconciled us with God; He destroyed the enmity between God and man. And this banner of the Cross of the Lord became the symbol of our victory, the victory of good over evil, of good over sin. And so we Orthodox people, armed with the sign of the Cross of the Lord, armed with the power of this Cross, overcome all the snares of the enemy.
We know that the devil, the enemy of the human race, cannot bear the sign of the cross. The sign of the cross scorches him with invisible fire, and he cannot stand before this great power. And we know that when we make the sign of the cross over ourselves, even when we simply fold our fingers to make the sign of the cross, our soul is cleansed and sanctified. And if the enemy of the human race approaches us, he vanishes like smoke. From the lives of many saints we can draw many examples of how God's saints, protecting themselves with the sign of the cross, were delivered from troubles and misfortunes, illnesses, burdens, temptations and attacks of the devil. In this way they overcame sin, overcame the devil and evil, and rejoiced that the Lord had given this power, which is our weapon, by which we grow from strength to strength and are perfected by the grace of Christ.
But the sign of the cross cannot help us when we defile it with our sins and our vices. Therefore we must hold the sign of the cross in reverence and refrain from sin, so that the sign of the cross may have the power to help us in our troubles and sorrows. To venerate the Cross of the Lord means not to sin."
