On October 9, the day of the repose of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, Priest Georgy Sergeyev, responsible for the care of Russian-speaking believers in the territory of the Turkish Republic, celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church at the burial place of the holy apostle in the Turkish town of Selcuk near Ephesus. Hieromonk Palladiy (Bystrov), responsible for the care of the faithful of the Moscow Patriarchate at the nuclear power plant under construction in Akkuyu, also took part in the service.
Numerous pilgrims who arrived from Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya, Akkuyu, Izmir, Didim and Kusadasi, as well as a group of pilgrims from the Moscow region, prayed at the service.
At a special litany, special petitions were made and a prayer for Holy Russia was read.
At the end of the Liturgy, Father George preached a sermon. The priest thanked the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey for the permission to perform the divine service, as well as the chairman of the Solzhenitsyn Russian Society of Culture A. Ponomarev for his help in organizing the pilgrimage of believers.