News

Friday 26 June 2009

Delegations arrive. Accommodation in two hotels in the Old City

2000 Concert by the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra in the Greek Orthodox Patriarchal Cathedral


Saturday 27 June

0800 Holy Mass in the Church of Saint Ananias

0930 Hotel breakfast

1030-1230 Study sessions in the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate on the following topics:
Paul, spiritual son of Damascus
Christian remains in Syria: churches and other ancient buildings

1230 Departure for Saidnaya (visiting the Greek Orthodox monastery of the Mother of God) and Maaloula (visiting the Greek Catholic Monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus) Restaurant lunch

2000 Recital of Christian music at the Damascus Opera, by different communities in indigenous languages

2200 Dinner at a villa in the Damascus hills


Sunday 28 June

0840 Holy Mass at the Memorial Saint Paul

0930-1015 Hotel breakfast

1030-1230 Study session in the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate:
The Church in Syria today (round table)

1300 Restaurant lunch

1500 Visit to the Umayyad Mosque and the Old City of Damascus (from Bab Touma to Bab Sharqi)

1600 Visit of His Beatitude Ignatius IV (Hazim), Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch

1800 Vespers at the Greek Orthodox Monastery of Tel Kawkab in the presence of the Greek Orthodox and Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchs and of civil authorities

2100 Dinner hosted by the Minister of Awqaf (Islamic charitable endowments)

2215 Showing of the Syrian film on Saint Paul, Damascus, at the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate


Monday, 29 June

0830-900 Hotel breakfast

0915 Leaving Bab Sharqi for the audience granted by His Excellency the President of the Syrian Arab Republic (1000) to His Eminence Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela, Envoy of the Holy Father, and the Representatives of the Episcopal Conferences

Free time

Restaurant lunch (if wished)

1700 Solemn Divine Liturgy in the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchal Cathedral of the Dormition, in the presence of His Eminence, Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela (Archbishop of Madrid and President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference), Representative of the Holy Father, of the Apostolic Nuncio, the Right Reverend Archbishop Mario Zenari and of Bishops of Syria and other countries (delegated by their Episcopal Conferences), then a procession to Saint Ananias’ and Saint Paul-on-the-Wall.

2000 Cocktail buffet at the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate

2100 Concert at the Citadel of Damascus


Tuesday, 30 June

Departure