There are 3 different churches of note that we visited in the Holy Land in the very hot summer of 2017 – The Church of the Resurrection at the Holy Sepulchre, The Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene at the Mount of Olives and The Church of the Annunciation at Nazareth.

 

A group of us from the parish went to the Holy Land on a mixture of adventure, pilgrimage and holiday. Our first port of call was, of course, Jerusalem and we attended the Divine Liturgy on our first Sunday there, at the Church of the Resurrection. 

 

The following Tuesday, we went to the Divine Liturgy at the Russian Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene and venerated the holy relics of Saints Elizabeth and Barbara, the new martyrs. I personally found this monastery was a very special place and peaceful in comparison with the Old City of Jerusalem which was across the valley. The nuns there were very welcoming and invited us to the trapeza after the Liturgy. I went to the Divine Liturgy again the following day just before we departed Jerusalem for Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee.

 

Later on, in the week, we visited the Church of the Annunciation which was built over the well where the Archangel Gabriel came bearing good news to the Mother of God. It was a great blessing to be there as we were there when a Russian pilgrim group from Moscow was there as well and we joined them for the moleben and to be blessed by the sprinkling of holy water from the well.