Patriarchal Liturgy in Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow with Epistle and Gospel readings in Yakut

On 9 December a historic event took place – the Patriarch, Aleksiy II, held a service in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow at which a priest from Yakutia read the Epistle and Gospel readings from the modern translation of the New Testament (IBT, 2004) following the Church Slavonic texts. After the service a Yakut choir sang, and the Patriarch said: “We feel and understand that we are one united holy Orthodox Church wherever our believers live, whether in the Far North or in the Far East.” It was a pleasure to see many Yakut faces in the church. Some were guests from Yakutia, who had come for the conference dedicated to 375 years since Yakutia became part of Russia and also to 210 years since the birth of St. Innocent, missionary to Siberia and North America. There were also representatives of the Yakut diaspora in Moscow. And it was thrilling to hear a Turkic language in a cathedral service in Moscow (Yakut is a member of the Turkic language group).