From September 30 to October 7, with the blessing of Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, parishioners of the Moscow Patriarchate communities in the Republic of Turkey made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
On October 1, the group got acquainted with the historical part of Jerusalem – the Old City. According to tradition, the pilgrims walked with crucifixes on the way of the cross, making stops associated with the last days of the Savior's earthly life. The path runs from the place of the death sentence by the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate to Golgotha. During the stops, the head of the pilgrimage group, Priest Georgy Sergeyev, read a passage from the Gospel corresponding to the place, after which the guide accompanying the group gave additional historical explanations. In the Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection of Christ, pilgrims worshiped the Holy Sepulchre.
In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the night of October 2, pilgrims participated in the Divine Liturgy. With the blessing of His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilus III of Jerusalem, the hierarch of the Jerusalem Church, Archbishop Theophan of Geras, officiated. His Eminence was co-served by Priest Georgy Sergeyev, who is responsible for the organization of the care of the faithful of the Moscow Patriarchate in the territory of the Republic of Turkey, and Priest Alexy Golovin, who cares for the community of the city of Antalya. The hymns were sung by the choir and pilgrims in Greek and Church Slavonic.
On October 4, pilgrims participated in the Divine Liturgy at the Basilica of the Nativity of Christ at the birthplace of the Savior.
In the following days, the pilgrimage group visited Galilee, the compound of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Hebron, the place of the Savior's baptism on the Jordan River, the monastery of St. Sava the Consecrated, the monastery on the Mount of Temptations, the Gornensky Convent in Ein Karem.