KHUJAND, September 4, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has responded to request for help to the Orthodox Maria Magdalena Church in Khujand, the church’s accountant, Ms. Irina Peksheva, said in an interview with Asia-Plus,  

According to her, the Moscow mayor has promised to provide the church with all necessary articles of worship and church vessels.  “The aid will arrive in Khujand in late September through the Yuri Dolgoruky Foundation,” Peksheva said, noting that the aid is expected to be systematic.   

As it had been reported earlier, the new Orthodox church will be constructed in Khujand by design of Moscow architect V. Konovalov. 

According to Peksheva, the estimated budget for construction of the new church is some $500,000.    

Some 30,000 Russian-speaking people currently live in northern Tajikistan, and many of them visited the Orthodox Maria Magdalena Church in Khujand that was built in 1878 already and ruined by fire in January 2005.  The new church will be built in the place of the Orthodox Maria Magdalena Church.  

We will recall that two nuns from a monastery in Tashkent, Uzbekistan died in the fire in the Orthodox Maria Magdalena Church.  One of the nuns, Maria, was 78 years old and the other, Elikonida, was 72 years old.

The church burned to the ground, including the 100-year-old archive.  The blaze destroyed icons, including those dating from the 18th and 19th centuries.