Easter Encounter: Three-Week Program
- April 6th, 2017 – April 27th, 2017
The Three-Week Easter program includes many of the core elements mentioned in “The Tantur Experience” but differs in that it is centred on the Paschal Mystery, Holy Week and Easter Liturgies, and has less classroom teaching. On Palm Sunday, one of the most festive days for local Christians, we join the procession from Bethphage across the Mount of Olives to the Old City of Jerusalem where the Latin Patriarch greets the pilgrims and leads them in prayer. We participate in the Holy Week Liturgies in the Old City where a wide choice of services in many languages is offered. When the date of Easter in East and West coincide, in addition to our familiar Western Liturgies, we have the amazing opportunity to experience the Liturgies of the Orthodox Churches. Such richness must be experienced. It cannot adequately be described. We also spend three nights in the Galilee and visit the main biblical sites around Nazareth and Galilee.
Important notice: The Easter Encounter program has been designed for the Easter celebration under the Western, or Gregorian, calendar which the Catholic and Protestant churches follow. As of 2015, the parishes of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem will be celebrating Easter under the Eastern, or Julian Calendar, while the principal places of pilgrimage run by Catholic religious communities in the Holy Land will remain under the Gregorian calendar. The Easter Encounter program will continue to be designed around the celebration of Easter on the Western/Gregorian calendar.