Bishop's Liturgy in the church in honor of the Savior Not Made by Hands in the city of Ust-Kuttranslated

On August 9, 2026, on the 10th Sunday after Pentecost, the Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon, Metropolitan of Irkutsk and Angarsk Maximilian and Bishop of Bratsk and Ust-Ilimsk Konstantin celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Spassky Church in the city of Ust-Kut, co-served by the clergy of the Bratsk and Irkutsk dioceses. Following the prayer behind the pulpit, glorification of the Great Martyr Panteleimon took place, after which the bishops congratulated everyone on Sunday and addressed the parishioners with an archpastoral word. In their sermon, both Bishops noted the joy of prayerful communication with clergy and residents of Ust-Kut. They said that they were at the end point of a missionary rafting trip on the Lena River. During such a journey, it is clear that there is a future for those villages and towns where churches have been preserved, where faith and memory are alive. We also remembered a whole galaxy of Siberian Saints who carried the light of the Christian faith to the northern deserts, from the Land of Irkutsk to the distant island of Kodiak.

Special mention was made of St. Herman of Alaska and St. Innocent (Veniaminov), Metropolitan of Moscow, through whose labors the light of the Orthodox faith still shines on distant shores. We also talked about the fact that Sunday and the memory of the great martyr coincided...