A prayer service before the Olympics will be served for the first time in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin

The prayer service before the Russians leave for the Olympic Games in Beijing will be served for the first time on July 29 in the historically main church of Russia - the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, RIA Novosti said on Thursday the confessor of the Russian national team - Rector of the Church of St. Nicholas at the Tretyakov Gallery Archpriest Nikolai Sokolov.

"This year, an agreement was reached for the first time between the presidential administrations, the patriarchy and the Olympic committee that athletes will take place in the Kremlin," Sokolov said.

With the blessing of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Alexy II , the Moleben will be headed by the Vicar - Bishop of Bronnitsky Ambrose.

During the service, special petitions about the successful performance of Russian athletes will be read. The cathedral will also announce the patriarchal message with the wishes of success, help in God's labors and courage in the wrestling. It is expected that about 300 athletes will come to the temple.

"The Assumption Cathedral is historically the main cathedral of the Russian Empire, and now Russia. The relics of the Moscow saints rest in it, Russian princes are buried nearby," Sokolov noted.

In anticipation of the Olympiads of past years, prayers were also served: before the Olympics in Turin - in the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square, in front of the Olympics in Athens and earlier - in the temple of George the victorious on Poklnaya Gora.

Nikolai Sokolov, as the confessor of the national team, will go to Beijing with her, where another clergyman from Hong Kong will help him.

The rector of the temple at the Tretyakov Gallery is not the first time accompanying the Russian team. He does not begin to assume how the communication of athletes with the clergy will be organized in China, but says that during the previous Olympiads, the service was performed daily in the chapel in the Olympic village.

"Russian athletes could come at certain hours, pray, put a candle, confess and take communion - several liturgies were served," Sokolov said.

Whether the chapels in Beijing will be unknown, but there is an Orthodox temple at the Russian embassy.

The clergyman noted that the individual appeals of athletes to the priest are quite rare. “Mostly teams (skiers, skaters, figure skating, rhythmic gymnastics) are asked to serve a prayer service before serious, final performances,” Sokolov recalls.

“But we should always be ready to help our athletes, at any time of the day and night,” concluded the confessor of the Russian team.