Solidarity Visit to the Holy Land, October-November 2025

We are writing to you because you have traveled to the Holy Land with Lightline in the past, and we wanted to let you know about how things are out there at the moment, especially in the Christian community that Lightline does its utmost to support.

We are sending this once again due to the very sparse response we had to this trip. We have been hearing the eagerness of people to return and to be in solidarity with our siblings in the Holy Land, but the very sparse response so far suggests that the interest is there but not the will to actually go. So, we are trying one more time. Though this seems like a long way off it actually is not, and for planning purposes we will need to have a solid list together fairly soon. I hope you will take a serious look at this opportunity and if possible send us notice of your interest as soon as possible.
 
I (Dominic) was in Jerusalem for a weekend just over a month ago. While I was there I had dinner with Archbishop Hosam, worshipped at St George’s Cathedral, and spent time with Dean Richard Sewell (the English priest who runs St George’s College), Habib and George Khoury (who run our operations in the Holy Land with such care and precision), and two of our guides – Ghassan and Ranya.
 
I realized various things while I was there. Firstly, since Israel effectively neutralized Hezbollah and made the northern border secure, all the principal areas which we spend time in on a Christian pilgrimage are, in fact, perfectly safe and accessible. Even before the ceasefire, rocket attacks that reached as far as the Jerusalem/Bethlehem area had stopped for about the last year, and since the positive developments in Lebanon, the area around the Sea of Galilee is perfectly secure as well.
 
Secondly, I realized how very badly the Christian community has been hit by this war. Pilgrimage is about the most important source of income for the hard-pressed Christians, and it has totally disappeared as a result of what happened in the Hamas attack and subsequent repercussions. This is true both for the people employed in the travel industry, but this has also hit St George’s Cathedral and the diocese – on the Sunday morning I was there, I was one of 12 people (including the clergy) at the main Eucharist.
 
Talking this over with Greg, we realized that it is time to return! If the ceasefire continues to hold, we think that 2026 will be a very busy year for Holy Land pilgrimages.


However, we are going to offer a special Solidarity Pilgrimage this fall from 28 October to 6 November, led by Bishop Rickel and Marti, which we hope you will consider joining.
 
The basic plan will be to spend three nights at the Pilgerhaus, and five nights at one of our regular Jerusalem hotels. During this time we will visit some of the key sites/shrines beloved to all Christian pilgrims, but we will also put together an itinerary in which we have more contact with Christians and other locals, so we can see some of the impact of the war, and how Christian ministries have responded. The itinerary will, of necessity, have rather more flexibility than might be normal.
 
We think the cost will be $6,495 (plus tips and, we hope, generous charitable donations), based on sharing a room, and using Delta’s non-stop flights between JFK and Tel Aviv.
 
We are writing to you now simply to ask if you think you would be seriously interested in coming on this. If the response is positive, we will put arrangements in place, and send out booking information very quickly. But we do not want to raise false hopes with our partners in Jerusalem and put things in place if we do not have a viable group.
 
We are therefore asking you, if you think you are genuinely interested in this possibility, on these specific dates, at this kind of price point, please send an email to Greg at [email protected] or [email protected] let us know. Obviously we will help with flight connections to JFK, and any other aspects of the itinerary that are needed.
 
With our warmest wishes,


+Greg & Dominic