Warsaw, July 16, 2013
With the blessing of Bishop Ignaty of Vyborg and Priozersk, from August 13 to 19 the 28th walking pilgrimage to the holy mountain of Grabarka—the main Holy site of the Orthodox Church of Poland and the most famous centre of international youth pilgrimage activity—will take place, reports the website of the Synodal Department for Youth Affairs.
Youth groups from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Belarus, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Russia will take part in the pilgrimage.
The organizer of the event is the Synodal Department for Youth Affairs of the Patriarchate of Moscow. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, who visited the Cross procession to the mountain of Grabarka in 2012, has stressed its significance, noted active involvement of Polish young people in it, and blessed Orthodox young people from different countries to take part actively in the next walking trip.
The Cross processions will walk from Belostok, Sokolka, Siemiatycze, Hajnowka, Bielsk Podlaski, Jableczna and Warsaw. These difference processions vary in durations and start dates, but they all meet on Grabarka.
In order to take part in the pilgrimage, it is necessary to send an application before July 18 (surname, name, patronimic, date of birth, diocese, parish, availability of/need to get a visa) to E-mail address smirnova.odm@gmail.com. The approximate transportation cost from Moscow to Grodno (Hrodna) and back is 6000 rubles ($185, by train), then from Grodno to Belostok and back, 1500 rubles ($46, by bus).
All request may be sent to staff member of the Synodal Department for Youth Affairs Lia Smirnova via E-mail: smirnova.odm@gmail.com, or by telephone: 8-926-460-10-21.