Moscow, December 22, 2016
Photo: https://vk.com/sr700
The city of Moscow has seen an outpouring of love and prayerful remembrance for assassinated Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov. Muscovites gathered Wednesday evening around Christ the Savior Cathedral in a memorial rally for the slain diplomat, reports pravmir.ru.
“Orthodox youth have gathered today at the walls of Christ the Savior Cathedral to honor the memory of Andrei Gennadievich Karlov who far from his homeland gave his life for the fatherland, and his path in life serves as an example for us all,” remarked Mikhail Kuksov, head of the Moscow diocese youth department and the “Orthodox Volunteers” movement.
Representatives of several youth organizations and universities gathered to pray for the repose of Karlov’s soul, lighting and placing lamps in the shape of a large cross, followed by a minute of silence.
On Thursday His Holiness Patriarch Kirill served the funeral for the ambassador in the cathedral, following a farewell ceremony Thursday morning at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Photo: https://ria.ru/religion/20161222/1484324161.html
According to RIA-Novosti, before gathered relatives, friends, clergy and political representatives, the patriarch noted that he had met Karlov several times when he served as ambassador to North Korea and later Turkey. He had helped to arrange the building of a church in Pyongyang, where his own wedding was among the first services.
“He will go down in the history of our Fatherland as an ambassador killed in the line of duty. We have had few such servants, and he will be a hero among them forever. In the categories of human life his death has immortalized him. That which is tragic for us, surrounding his casket, is not a tragedy for him—his immortal soul is together with them now. That world exists, and if it were not so, then the point of human life would be lost,” said the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.
“We believe that through our prayers, and especially through his martyric death, Andrei Gennadievich will enter into the Heavenly Kingdom of glory, and upon him will be shed the grace of the merciful God,” His Holiness added.
