A civil new year prayer service was held after the late-morning liturgy at the Trinity Cathedral on the first day of the year.

During the New Year celebration, with one year coming to a close and another just around the corner, we tend to look back at the year-end results, set our hopes to the future, and meet the new year with prayer trusting our lives and the lives of our loved ones to God.

According to St. Isaac the Syrian, gratitude is like a hand stretched out to God in hopes of receiving new blessings. We thank the Lord for His help and bountiful mercy last year and ask for forgiveness of sins. As we begin the new year, we seek His blessing during it.

The rite for the civil new year prayer service was introduced in the Russian Orthodox Church at the beginning of the 20th century. On November 30, 1917, during the meeting of the conciliar section “On Church Service, Preaching, and the Church,” the Church Council accepted the provision to convert the prayerful singing for the civil new year into the rite of the prayer service with canon.