PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY LAND
17-26 February 2024
GENERAL INFORMATION
We're taking part in a pilgrimage to Jerusalem from 17 to 26 February 2024.
The full price is about £1000 each. This includes the two flights, the hotels, two meals a day (breakfast and evening meal), transport and all taxes and charges. Please make sure your passports and visas (if you need one – Romanian, Moldovan and British citizens do not need them) are in order and valid till 26 August 2024.
We leave Luton Airport for Tel Aviv at 13.55 on 17 February by Wizzair.
We return from Tel Aviv to Luton at 1.30 am on Monday 26 February by Wizzair.
We will spend 3 nights in Bethlehem, 3 nights in Nazareth and 2 nights in Jerusalem. Accommodation is in double rooms and the hotels are three stars. We will have three liturgies while we are there, including a liturgy at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and one in Bethlehem. We will visit the Cave of Christ’s Birth in Bethlehem, the River Jordan, Jerusalem, Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives, Ein Karem (where St John the Baptist was born), Jericho, Galilee, Mt Tabor, Bethany and St George’s tomb church in Lydda and several monasteries.
The pilgrimage will be led by the main priest from the Birmingham Church, Fr Mihai Novaskovsky - and I will be coming too. The common language is English, but we shall also use Romanian and Russian.
The Church has already paid a deposit for the flight of £1010. We will be collecting the first part of the money from you shortly.
Fr Andrew
UPDATE 1
2.00 pm. 17 July 2023: Seven Months To Go
We have now increased the number of places from 48 to 55, as 43 places have already been taken since yesterday's announcement about the pilgrimage.
Please let me know if anyone else wants to come from our parish. Please contact me on 07745 298266 by SMS or on Whatsapp.
UPDATE 2
5.00 pm. 17 July 2023: Seven Months To Go
There are only 6 places left as 49 places have now been taken.
Please let me know if anyone else wants to come from our parish. Please contact me on 07745 298266 by SMS or on Whatsapp.
UPDATE 3
9.30 pm. 17 July 2023: Seven Months To Go
After 24 hours of taking bookings, we are now full. All 55 places have ben taken and we have 7 people on the reserve list. For those who have booked too late, we are very sorry. It is possible that someone will drop out. If so, we will let you know. And we are also thinking about organising another pilgrimage in 2025.
FINAL WEBSITE UPDATE
3.00 a.m. 19 July 2023:
Antonio Brailescu, the main organiser for admin, has set up a whatsapp group: all future messages will be there.
