Mass at historic monastery after 87 years

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (C) officiates at a Dormition of the Virgin (Theotokos) church service outside the entrance to the historic Panaghia Soumela Monastery in the Macka region of Trabzon province -- on Turkey's Black Sea coast -- for the first time after 87 years, on Sunday Aug. 15, 2010. Thousands of ethnic Greek Pontian pilgrims from Greece, Russia and around the world arrived in Trabzon for the religious feast day, as the religious service was attended, among others, by deputies of the Greek Parliament and the Russian Duma.