On May 6, the feast day of the Holy and Great Martyr George the Victory-Bearer, the church in honor of the Mother of God “Vladimirskaya” was consecrated in the Nizhny Novgorod‘s Kanavinsky district. Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan headed the rite of Great Consecration.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Metropolitanate in the Republic of Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the newly consecrated church. Metropolitan Georgiy of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas, Metropolitan Kirill of Stavropol and Nevinnomyssk, Vicar of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese Bishop Elijah of Balakhna, Bishop Varnava of Vyksa and Pavlovsky, Bishop Siluan of Lyskovsk and Lukoyanovsk concelebrated at the Liturgy.

At the end of the service, His Grace Alexander congratulated all those present with the glorious paschal days and the consecration of the church. Speaking about the consecration, the head of the Metropolitanate in Kazakhstan has also congratulated Metropolitan Georgiy on his patron saint’s day and thanked him for “labor to the glory of God,  his work that is seen and known, for the enormous amount of work transforming the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese far beyond its capital city of Nizhny Novgorod.”

In honor of his patron saint’s day and in remembrance of the consecration of the new Vladimirskaya Church, His Grace Alexander presented the Head of the Nizhny Novgorod Metropolitanate with a copy of the miracle-making “Fyodorovskaya” Icon of the Mother of God from the Theophany Cathedral in the namesake monastery in Kostroma. “I have been the guardian of the miraculous “Fyodorovskaya” Icon for twenty one years in the city of Kostroma located on the great Russian river Volga. The “Fyodorovskaya” icon is associated with Nizhny Novgorod. The Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky, on his return from the Horde, was tonsured into the Great Schema in Gorodets and rested in the Lord near his beloved icon. He never parted and with it and took it with him during his military campaigns, won remarkable victories, trusting in God and saying that God is not in might but in truth. Your Grace Georgiy, I wish you a great many of God’s favors. May the Lord save you and grant you everything needed to succeed at your tireless labors,” wished the bishop of the Diocese of Astana.

Metropolitan Georgiy congratulated the participants of the festive church service and noted that this event is of enormous importance for Nizhny Novgorod residents, and their joy it brings is a paschal joy.

Abbess of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery Hegumenia Sergiya was among the faithful who gathered in the church. She congratulated Metropolitan George with his name day.