Posted on 08/25/2021 7:26:13 PM PDT by marshmallow
Holy Theophany Church in the Tatar village of Krugloe Pole was closed by the godless Soviet authorities in 1932, leaving it without Divine services for several decades. And the last episcopal service was held there in 1914.
However, the rebirth of the church is now underway, and the Divine Liturgy was joyously celebrated there on Saturday, August 21, for the first time in 89 years, reports Orthodoxy in Tatarstan.
The service was headed by His Grace Bishop Innokenty, vicar of the Kazan Diocese, together with the local rector Archpriest Vitaly Staheev and other local clergy.
Restoration work is currently underway in the altar and central part of the church, so the service was held in the church refectory under the open sky. The service was well attended by local believers and parishioners of nearby churches.
Following the service, Bp. Innokenty congratulated all on the occasion of the first Liturgy in the reviving church, and offered a word encouraging all to earnestly strive for holiness, “because the pursuit of holiness is the whole essence of human life. It is a return to Heaven.”
On the feast of the Transfiguration, August 19, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the Church of the Transfiguration on Kizhi Island in the Russian Republic of Karelia for the first time in 84 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at orthochristian.com ...
Striking how much the West and Russia are headed in opposite directions...
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No young people in the congregation? Bummer.
Maybe you missed the detail that it had been closed in 1932 but the people stayed loyal enough for long decades to BE any sort of congregation now. You should instead rejoice.
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