The celebration will include the Divine Liturgy at the St. Martha and Mary Convent, which His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, will celebrate; and a large charitable concert at the International House of Music.
“Currently several joint projects with the ‘Mercy’ Orthodox movement are being implemented at the Martha-Mary Convent. All of the projects are supported by people interested in them,” Abbess Elizaveta (Poznyakova), Superior of the convent, noted. “We hope to gather our benefactors and gather together at the Divine Liturgy and the concert on November 1.”
The charitable concert of the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, headed by V. Fedoseyev, entitled “The Grand Duchess Elizabeth: 150th Anniversary of Her Birth” will take place at the International House of Music in Moscow in the evening on November 1.
During the concert, Polina Kutepova, an actress of the “Fomenko Workshop” theater, and Mikhail Filippov, an actor of the Mayakovsky Academic Theater of Moscow, will read excerpts from the memoirs of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth and her correspondence with her husband, the Grand Prince Sergei Alexandrovich.
Among the participants in the concert will be Katya Skanavi, soloist of the Moscow Philharmonic Hall (piano), and the Kozhevnikov Academic Choir. Guests will hear pieces of work by Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Kalinninkov, Schubert, Schumann, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich.
The organizers of the concert are the Martha-Mary Convent of Mercy and the “Mercy” Orthodox Movement.
An exhibition of photographs, dedicated to the life and charitable activities of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, and also to the modern life of the convent and social projects of the “Mercy” helping service, will be held at the lobby of the House of Music.
All of the money collected during the concert will be transferred to the development of the Children’s Traveling Palliative Service, one of the social projects by the “Mercy” movement; which was implemented at the St. Martha and Mary Convent. As part of the Children’s Traveling Palliative Service, doctors, nurses, and social workers help families with children who are suffering from various severe and incurable illnesses. This service aspires to help at homes widely, so as to guarantee children and their parents a higher quality of life, and to avoid causeless hospitalization as much as possible. Today the children’s service cares for seventy-seven families with children with severe illnesses. The workers of the service make over 1,000 house calls to their patients every year.
The Divine Liturgy will begin at 9:30 am at the Martha-Mary Convent.
The charitable concert will begin at 19:30 at the International House of Music. The press will be allowed to speak to the participants of the concert at 19:00 preceding the concert.
Accreditation of mass media may be conducted until 19:00, October 30, at miloserdie.press@gmail.com and by phone +7 (901) 502-29-52 (Anna Ovsyannikova)
Accreditation to the Patriarch’s divine service will be held until 15:00, October 31.
The “Mercy” Orthodox Helping Service/ Patriarchia.ru.
