On May 10, 2024, the solemn opening of the 4th All-Belarusian procession "Church and Army" took place near the walls of the Gomel Cathedral of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, which this year is held under the motto "Memory. Faith. Fatherland" and is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders.
With the blessing of the Primate of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, from June 9 to 29, a procession will take place in all settlements of Belarus, which were awarded the pennant "For Courage and Perseverance during the Great Patriotic War" by Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus No. 44 dated February 2, 2024. During each stop, the participants of the procession will collect earth from the burial sites of the liberator soldiers in a capsule, offering prayers for the repose of all the soldiers who defended their native land at the cost of their lives.
The clergy of the Gomel Diocese, representatives of the Ministries of Defense, Internal Affairs, Emergency Situations, the State Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus, internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as members of the Belarusian Republican state-public Association "Voluntary Society for Assistance to the Army, Aviation and Navy", cadets of secondary school No. 21 gathered on the territory of the Petro-Pavlovsky Cathedral.
Archpriest Georgy Alampiev, Secretary of the Gomel Diocese, read out an appeal from Metropolitan Veniamin of Minsk and Zaslavsky, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, to the participants of the Procession:
"You are participants in a very important, spiritually intense event of historical significance. 80 years ago – in 1944 – thanks to the courage, heroism and self-sacrifice of soldiers and officers of the Red Army, partisans, underground workers, and the strength of the national spirit, the Belarusian lands were liberated from Nazi occupation.
From the first to the last day of the Great Patriotic War, the Orthodox Church was guided and acted according to the principle: "For the Motherland – with faith in my soul." The priests not only carried out their prayer service at the throne of God, but also raised funds for the needs of the front, sheltered partisans in the occupied territories, helped in the treatment of the wounded, warned civilians about the danger threatening them, often risking their own lives and families.
During the war, Belarus was deprived by the occupiers of its spiritual national symbol – the Cross of St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk. But the Nazi criminals could not break the spirit of the people. And subsequently, it was largely thanks to the revival of church life and the mobilization of spiritual forces that a Great Victory was won.
Today, at a difficult time for all of us and the country as a whole, we do not stop hearing the echo of that war – a multi-voiced, instructive and warning one. By making our Procession with the forces of the Church, the Armed Forces, internal affairs agencies, border guards, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, DOSAAF, and local authorities, we not only pay military and Christian honors to the servicemen and civilians who fell during the Great Patriotic War, but also remind them of the need for prayerful defense of our country, that patriotism is a high state the spirit. After all, according to the word of the Apostle Paul, "... every fatherland in heaven and on earth is called from the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 3:14-15), which tells us about the deep, sacred significance of the Motherland in the life of every person.
At the same time, we are also participating in the battle against unconsciousness and lies, the desire to impose alienation on us from the feat and pride in our Great Victory, and, as the inspirer of the Army and Church Processions, the first Patriarchal Exarch of all Belarus, Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk, emphasized: "The procession, speaking in the army language, is a military march across all regions of Belarus, across all dioceses of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, which is carried out by all of us with weapons of the Christian faith – with the holy Cross." May the Cross of Christ and the love of God overshadow our Fatherland, keep it in peace, prosperity and purity."
Archbishop Stefan of Gomel and Zhlobin consecrated the capsules in which the earth from the places of military graves will be placed. Then the ceremony of laying the ground brought from the burial sites of Gomel, as well as Gomel, Rechitsky, Loevsky, Svetlogorsk, Rogachevsky, Zhlobinsky, Buda-Koshelevsky, Vetkovsky, Dobrushsky, Chechersky and Kormyansky districts took place.
His Eminence Stephen and his fellow clergy celebrated a litany for all the liberating soldiers who fell on the battlefield, as well as for all those who died during the Great Patriotic War.