Department for External Church Relations
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Representatives of DECR and Church’s Postgraduate Institute attend festive reception at the Assyrian church in Moscow
DECR Communication Service, 08.05.2023.
On May 7, the Assyrian church of Virgin Mary (Mat Maryam) in Moscow gave a grand reception in honour of the radiant feast of the Pascha of Christ, the memory of Great Martyr George the Conqueror and the forthcoming Victory Day.
At the invitation of the rector of the church, representative of the Assyrian Church of the East in Russia Chor-Bishop Samano Odisho, the reception was attended by a joint delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations and the Ss Cyril and Methodius Institute for Post-Graduate and Doctoral Studies (SMI). The delegation included the DECR staff members - S. G. Alferov, (lecturer on Theological Dialogue with Oriental Churches, CMI Chair of Church Practice Disciplines); I. A. Nikolayev, D. E. Arakelian, and S. A. Bekeshchenko.
The festivities began with a concert of Russian and Assyrian Paschal hymns performed by the joint choirs of the Moscow Patriarchate delegation and the Mar Mariam church. Then Chor-Bishop Samano Odisho recounted some peculiarities of the liturgical ritual and statutory life of Assyrian Christians, as well as the Assyrian people’s veneration of Great Martyr George the Conqueror whose memory is celebrated in the Assyrian Church a day after it is done in the Russian Orthodox Church, on April 24, which is the 7th of May according to the new calendar.
In conclusion of the event, the senior deacon of the church Roland Bidjamov delivered a lecture on the history of Assyrian volunteer unites in the Russian imperial army of the First World War time and the Assyrians who fought in the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. Two of them - a front scout Sergeant L Sh. Davydov (1924-1987) and a sapper Lieutenant S. A. Sarkhoshev (1913-1991) had been awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
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