His Holiness the Patriarch visits the Tobolsk diocese

HIS HOLINESS THE PATRIARCH VISITS THE TOBOLSK DIOCESE

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and all Russia paid a primartial visit to the Tobolsk and Tyumen diocese from August 31 to September 3, 1998. Accompanying His Holiness was Archbishop Sergy of Solnechnogorsk, Chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate. It was the second visit of His Holiness to Western Siberia during his Patriarchal office. The first visit took place in 1993. The programme of his staying in the Tyumen diocese was very intense as it included everyday Divine services, visits to the churches and meetings with the believers. His Holiness visited four cities of the diocese, the distance between which is hundreds of kilometers, and his trips by plane were long.

The visit of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church began in Tyumen where His Holiness visited several churches, including the cathedral church dedicated to the ‘Sign’ Icon of the Theotokos and the theological college at the Holy Trinity monastery. On September 1, His Holiness officiated at the Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Tobolsk Kremlin. He celebrated a prayer service for the beginning of the school year and later attended the ceremonial act in the Tobolsk theological seminary. The next day, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy consecrated three side-altars and celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church of Ss Peter and Paul in the town of Kogalym. This town is over twenty years old, but the church of Ss Peter and Paul is the first Orthodox church there. Thanks to the benefactors, a complex of buildings was built around the church which includes a belfry under construction, a baptismal church and the premises of a Sunday school. The white church complex together with a pine forest which was carefully preserved by the constructors has undoubtedly become an adornment of Kogalym.

On September 3, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy visited the town of Nadym in the Polar region where he consecrated a new church of St. Nicholas and celebrated the Divine Liturgy there. As in Kogalym, this church is the first in Nadym, a town of oil industry workers. After the Divine service, His Holiness attended a concert which the young inhabitants of the town prepared for his visit. The Patriarch took part in a press-conference in the Mayor’s office and answered many questions of the correspondents of the local and central mass media.