Processions of the Cross Continue Towards Moscow

From Interfax:

2007-05-29 14:24:00

The world longest procession with the cross has covered 210 km of its journey

Vladivostok, May 29, Interfax - The participants in the world longest procession with the cross marching from Vladivostok to Moscow are moving strictly according to the time-table and have already covered 210 km of their journey, the organizers of the march from the St. Andrew’s Flag foundation told Interfax on Tuesday.

The procession is welcomed with the traditional bread and salt everywhere. On the Trinity Day, the participants prayed at the Church of Archangel Michael at the Sibirtzevo village in Primorye.

The head of the local administration, Vladimir Segin, welcomed the procession and carried the cross for two days, leading the march of prayer and repentance through his district. At the regional center, the procession was led by the local regional executive Vladimir Semkin.

The procession through the region involved 44 people including 20 permanent participants. They came from Primorye and other regions in Russia, such as Irkutsk, Tver and Moscow.

There are also Cossacks and marines from the 55th Pacific Division. They are carrying church banners from the Moscow Church of St. Nicholas-at-Tolmachi and the main shrine of the procession - the Icon of Our Lady the Powerful.

Local monasteries have given copies of venerated icons to the procession. Clergy from all the five deaneries of the diocese have taken pastoral care of the participants at certain points on their way.

The program Under Our Lady’s Star symbolizing the eight rays of the Bethlehem Star provides for eight long processions with the cross in Russia.

The aim of this international program, organized jointly by the St. Andrew’s Flag foundation and the Russian Athonite Society, is to promote the unity of Russian peoples.

With the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, the faithful set off from the four cities in Russia - Vladivostok, Barnaul, Yakutsk, Rostov-on-the-Don, St. Petersburg and Arkhangelsk and from the two centers of universal Orthodoxy - Jerusalem and Mount Athos.

Walking through Russia, the participants in the prayerful march will cover dozens of thousands of kilometers to converge in Moscow.