Penza, 12 September 2013. PenzaNews. The dignitaries of the region congratulated bishop of Penza and Nizhnelomovsk Veniamin on his 60th birthday after the service in the Assumption Cathedral in Penza on Thursday, September 12. Governor Vasily Bochkarev thanked the bishop for his creative activity and handed him the order “To the glory of the land of Penza.”

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The chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Penza region Ivan Belozertsev also congratulated the bishop marking his work with a silver sign of the regional parliament.

During the ceremony, a greeting from the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill was also read out loud. In his message he considers it fair to reward boshop Veniamin with the order of Saint Innokentiy the bishop of Moscow and Kolomna of the second degree.

In addition, the bishop was assigned to a certificate of merit and a bouquet of white roses from the chairman of the Federal Assembly of Russia Valentina Matvienko, who sent a kind greeting where she spoke fondly of educational and charitable activities of the main spiritual leader of the region.

In his turn, the bishop told the officials, the clergy and the parishioners about the people who brought him to his godly path, and thanked everyone for their warm greetings.