Feast of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives

The site of the Ascension, as is the case of many holy places, is in the hands of Muslims, and access to these sites is not always available. Once a year, on the feast day of the Ascension of the Lord, permission is granted to perform a liturgy on the ancient altar tables under the open sky around the chapel over the Savior’s point of ascension. On this day, tents are erected over the altar tables by Orthodox Greeks, side by side with Copts and Armenians. A noisy crowd of worshipers gathers in the gates above the chapel.

Near this holy site is the Russian convent dedicated to the Ascension, where the feast day is celebrated by a large contingent of worshipers, officiated this year by Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany, Overseer of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem. He was joined by the Deputy Head of the REM, Hegumen Andronik, Hieromonk John and Deacon Boris, who accompanied Archbishop Mark from Germany.

Priest Roman and a group of worshipers came from Nazareth; after their own liturgy, the nuns of Gethsemane Convent hastened to the Mount of Olives. Regular churchgoers attended, as well as workers from Romania and Ukraine. Entire families also came from Bethlehem.

The choir of the nuns of the Mount of Olives sang beautifully under the direction of Mother Veronica.

Archbishop Mark gave a profound and insightful sermon on the significance of the feast day.

The celebration concluded with a procession of the cross and a trapeze feast.

On the eve of the Ascension, two new novices joined the Gethsemane Convent: Sister Svetlana from Kiev and Sister Margarita from Stuttgart (photo above: Archbishop Mark, Abbess Elizabeth of Gethsemane along with the new sisters.)