RUSSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION IN JERUSALEM: October 17, 2007
The Celebration of the 10 th Anniversary of Mother Moisseia As Abbess of Ascension of the Lord Convent on the Mount of Olives

On October 7, 2007, Ascension of the Lord Convent on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem marked the 10 th anniversary of the service of Mother Moisseia as its Abbess. Divine Liturgy on that day was led by His Eminence Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany, Overseer of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, who was visiting with a group of pilgrims from his diocese.

During Liturgy, Archbishop Mark awarded Abbess Moisseia with an ornamented cross "in view of her earnest labors," in accordance with a decision of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

After divine services, Archbishop Mark congratulated Mother Abbess on her anniversary, and addressed the worshipers with a sermon on the importance of Christian unity, stressing the need for obedience in genuine monastic life.

A unified choir consisting of singers from the three convents of Jerusalem sang Many Years to Matushka Abbess. Archimandrite Tikhon, representing the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission of the Moscow Patriarchate, gave Mother Moisseia a gift of a copy of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God.