Chukotka is the eastern end of Russia; the climate here is extremely cold. Most of the Orthodox churches and chapels in Chukotka were traditionally built of wood. However, at the beginning of the XXI century in the Iultinsky region, in the village of Egvekinot, the first stone temple in the region appeared in honor of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-giving Cross of the Lord. The building, directed upward, crowned with gilded domes with a cross on each, very quickly became one of the symbols of Orthodoxy in this harsh land. As often happens, the history of the arrival of the Exaltation of the Holy and Life-giving Cross of the Lord in the village of gold miners and reindeer breeders Egvekinot began before the beautiful temple grew up here. Back in the mid-nineties of the last century, in a village surrounded by hills, located next to a bay called the Bay of the Cross, a group of Orthodox activists gathered with the goal of building a temple. Since 1994, she prayed together in a two-room apartment specially converted into a church, belonging to one of the believers - and since there was no priest in the village at that time, they themselves read all the liturgical texts in a secular rank. Learning about the zeal of the local Christians, the ruling bishop began from time to time to send hieromonks to Egvekinot, who baptized, communed people and performed various services. Since the community, which did not yet have its own church, was active in the parish, the district administration provided it with an apartment where services could be held regularly, without embarrassing anyone. The temple-apartment was consecrated - and not with the usual priestly, but with the hierarchal rank! The number of residents of the village who wanted to pray at the service and receive communion grew - for this reason, the local community turned to the district administration with a request to allocate a plot for the construction of a church. And it was highlighted on the picturesque coast of the bay: it was assumed that the temple built here would be perfectly visible from anywhere in the settlement. In 2001, the foundation of the temple was consecrated by Bishop Diomedes, and the costs of its construction - the temple, we recall, was supposed to become the first stone church in the region - was undertaken by the Chukotka Trading Company headed by its director, Igor Ivanov. Over the 13 years that the construction has been going on, the parish has changed its abbot three times and the number of parishioners has grown significantly. Finally, by December 2014, the temple as a whole was completed, although some inside the building still needed finishing. On December 12, the parish priest Vladimir Kozak celebrated the first divine Liturgy here. And less than a month later, on the Great Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, for the first time, the ringing of a bell was heard from the bell tower, which was perfectly heard everywhere in the village of Egvekinot. The main shrine of the temple is the icon of the Exaltation of the Holy and Life-giving Cross of the Lord in an amber setting. It was written on the shores of the Baltic Sea and consecrated in the Kaliningrad Cathedral of Christ the Savior. She was brought to Egvekinot - through the Urals, Siberia and Vladivostok - by the rector of the church in the summer of 2016. And in early autumn of the same year, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia visited a new church in a village in Chukotka. The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church consecrated the church with a small rank and handed over to the rector a list of the revered icon of the Mother of God 'Kazan' with a commemorative inscription. Patriarch Kirill handed over to the chief trustee of the parish, director of the Chukotka trading company I.P. Ivanov Order of the Holy Blessed Prince Daniel of Moscow, III degree - for diligence in building temples and in connection with his sixtieth birthday. All who came to the temple on this solemn day were presented with icons of the Great Martyr Panteleimon the Healer. “Flying up to Egvekinot, through the window I saw ... a temple with golden domes, bright houses ... Your snow-white temple is like a particle of heaven on earth. I believe that the Lord will give a lot for this place, Chukotka and all of Russia to flourish, ”said Patriarch Kirill. Rite of the great The consecration of the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in the village of Egvekinot was made on April 1, 2017 by Bishop Matthew of Anadyr and Chukotka.
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