Moscow Patriarch to lead remembrance service at Siberian hydroplant

ABAKAN, East Siberia, August 30 (Itar-Tass) - Patriarch of Moscow and
all Russia Kirill I, who is touring the Russian Orthodox dioceses of
Eastern Siberia is expected to stay in the region of Khakassia Tuesday.
In the regional capital Abakan, he is going to consecrate a new church
in the name of St Constantine and St Helen, which will become a third
Russian church in the city with a population of over 160,000.
Eastern Orthodox Christianity reached Khakassia some 300 years ago but
practically all the churches were destroyed after the Bolshevik revolution
of 1917.
In the post-Soviet years, more 50 churches were restored or built anew.
Also Tuesday, His Holiness Kirill I is due to go the
Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant located on the river Yenisei 140
kilometers to the south of Abakan. Laboriois restoration works continue
there for the second year running after a major accident that took away
the lives of 75 people.
The Patriarch will conduct a special remembrance prayer in a chapel
that has been built on the plant's territory.
At present, the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant is working at only 40% of
its output capacity. Three new hydroelectric units built in St Peterburg
were delivered there at the beginning of August and the first of them will
be launched into operation in December.
All the ten hydroturbines installed at the plant will be replaced by
new ones in the period of through to 2014.