On March 25, 2024, the chairman of the Synodal Department for Youth Affairs, Bishop Seraphim of Istra, who is making a pilgrimage trip to the Holy Land with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, was received by His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III of the Holy City of Jerusalem and All Palestine, the website of the Russian Spiritual Mission reports.
Bishop Seraphim's visit to His Beatitude coincided with the date when the Greek-speaking Orthodox Diaspora of Jerusalem celebrates Greek Independence Day. Asking His Beatitude's blessing for his upcoming pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Bishop Seraphim congratulated Patriarch Theophilos on the historic date of the liberation of the Greek people from the Ottoman yoke.
A prayer service was also held at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to mark this date. The prayer service on March 25 was presided over by His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of the Holy City of Jerusalem and All Palestine, who was accompanied by the bishops of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the clergy of the Holy Sepulchre Brotherhood, representatives of the Orthodox Local Churches in the Holy City, as well as Greek-speaking, Arabic-speaking and Russian-speaking clergy of the Jerusalem Church.
On behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church, Bishop Seraphim of Istra, head of the Russian Spiritual Mission in the Holy City, took part in the service. Archimandrite Vassian (Zmeyev), mission staff members Hegumen Nikon (Golovko) and Hieromonk Tikhon (Proyaev), Archpriest Sergius Shastin, assistant to the rector of the Krutitsy Patriarchal Palace in Moscow, and Deacon Makary Petukhov, mission cleric.
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