Approximately 35,000 Pilgrims took part in an Evening Religious Procession in Yekaterinburg in Honour of the Royal Martyrs

Memorial Church of Christ on-the-Spilled-Blood, Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg, 17 July 2008 (Interfax):

In the darkness in the early hours of Thursday, about 35,000 people took part in a religious procession in Yekaterinburg on the 90^th anniversary of the murder of the imperial family. According to the Diocese of Yekaterinburg, the procession was preceded by an all-night vigil at the Memorial Church of the Saviour on-the-Spilled-Blood, which is built on the precise spot where Tsar Nikolai and his family were martyred. There was not enough room in the church for all of the worshippers, many knelt in the street, and the area directly in front of the church was filled with a vast throng.

Exactly at midnight the bells rang out, and a liturgy was served by hierarchs of the MP, including those of the ROCOR. “Thousands of people received the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist on this night of prayer and repentance at this holy place of Christ, a place soaked with the blood of the martyrs. Pilgrims came from all over the globe, Orthodox Christians came here to the Urals to confess, receive absolution, and to ask forgiveness from the Holy Royal Martyrs”, a spokesman of the diocese told journalists. During the entire duration of the solemnities the Memorial Church was brightly illuminated by searchlights.

The services were broadcast in their entirety to the region, and those who could not enter the stuffed church prayed under the open sky. The liturgy concluded at 04.00, after which the bells rang out again, signalling the beginning of a religious procession to Ganina Yama. Thousands of people filled the streets of Yekaterinburg in the darkness of the pre-dawn morning, ready to walk the 20 kilometres (@12.5 miles) to Ganina Yama (the original burial site of the Royal Martyrs: editor’s note). Liturgy shall be offered in all parishes of the MP on Thursday on the feastday of the Holy Royal Martyrs.

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=25513 (in Russian)

Editor’s Note:

More people participated in this one event than there are in most American Orthodox jurisdictions. This is what we need. We do not need Metropolitan Councils, psychologists, “facilitators”, Fair Practises, “workshops”, boards of “eminent theologians”, Town Halls, or “American democracy” in our Church. We need the faith that moves mountains. The people of Yekaterinburg have it. We do not. Therefore, we must do what we must to get it.