Department for External Church Relations
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Divine services celebrated at the Church of St Nicholas in Demre, Turkey
DECR Communication Service, 19/12/2023
On December 18, the eve of the commemoration day of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, an evening service followed by an akathist was celebrated at St. Nicholas Church in Myra in Lycia, present-day Demre in Turkey.
On December 19, the commemoration day of St Nicholas the Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, Priest Georgy Sergeyev, who is in charge of pastoral work with the Moscow Patriarchate’s flock residing in Turkey, officiated at the Divine Liturgy in the church in Demre.
Concelebrating with him were Priest Alexy Golovin, Priest Dimitry Bogatyr and Hieromonk Pallady (Bystrov) – clerics of the Moscow Patriarchate serving in the Russian Orthodox Church’s communities in Antalya, Alanya and Akkuyu.
During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, special petitions and a prayer for the Holy Rus’ were offered.
Attending the Liturgy were over 300 pilgrims from various Turkish regions, as well as the Russian specialists working at the construction site of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant.
The Liturgy was followed by a moleben to Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker.
Father Georgy extended special greetings to all those present on the occasion of the commemoration day of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The priest expressed gratitude to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the administration of the Demre museum for the permission to celebrate divine services at St. Nicholas Church. He also thanked the Society of Orthodox Russian-Speaking Residents of Antalya Province and the Russian Art and Culture Association in Antalya for assistance in organizing the pilgrimages.
Later, a memorial service was celebrated for Andrei Karlov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Türkiye, who had been killed by a terrorist in Ankara on December 19, 2016.
The worshippers laid flowers to the monument to Andrei Karlov, Hero of the Russian Federation, which stands in the main street of Demre named after the late Russian diplomat.
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