75 Pilgrims To Depart For The Holy Land

Beginning on September 19, two groups of pilgrims, with 75 participants from two parishes of the Western Diocese, namely, St. Mary Armenian Church of Costa Mesa and St. John Armenian Church of San Francisco will depart for the Holy Land on a most memorable pilgrimage.      

The group of 40 pilgrims from the Costa Mesa parish will be escorted by Archpriest Fr. Moushegh Tashjian, the Pastor. The pilgrims will depart from Los Angeles on Sept. 19 and will return ten days later on September 29^th.  The travel agency is George’s International Tours, San Diego and Jerusalem.

Thirty-five pilgrims from the San Francisco parish will be escorted the Rev. Fr. Mesrop Ash. Departing from the San Francisco International Airport on Sept. 23^rd, the pilgrims will return to Los Angeles on Oct. 3^rd. 

The two groups will collectively attend church services together on Sunday, Sept. 25^th at the St. James Cathedral of the Armenian Patriarchate, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (old calendar). 

The Armenian Patriarch, His Beatitude Arch. Nourhan Manougian will preside at the Solemn Ceremony and Procession of the Cross, with a piece of Jesus Christ’s cross kept in an ornate and bejeweled radiance.       

The pilgrims will visit Jerusalem and its vicinity, Holy Sepulcher, Mt. of Olives, Garden of Gethsemane, Tomb of St. Mary, Bethlehem, Jordan River, Jericho, Mt. of Temptation, Dead Sea, Sea of Galilee (Tiberius), Nazareth, Haifa, Jaffa, Tel Aviv, and other historic sites. 

They will also visit the Armenian Patriarchate and the holy shrines belonging to the Armenians, one of the earliest Christian communities in Jerusalem.  They will have private meeting with the Armenian Patriarch and will receive his blessings.