On Sunday, September 11, 2022, St.Stepanos Armenian Church celebrated The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The Feast is one of the five Major feasts days in the Armenian Church calendar, and it is a very important celebration among the feasts dedicated to the Holy Cross. In fact, the Armenian Church dedicated it to the history of the return of the Holy Cross from imprisonment, its elevation, and glorification at the church of Jerusalem in 614 A. D.

We were happy to have with us two three dozen faithful who were in attendance and as Alter servers, we had with us Dn. Maurice Lahham, Dn. Ara Karakashian, Dn. Chris Kesici.
The Choir sounded tremendous and was led precisely by Dn. Maurice Lahham.

At the end of Badarak, we held the traditional Blessing of the Four Corners of the earth service (Antastan).
Our Pastor and the Altar servers blessed the four corners of the earth, inside of the church, asking God to bless the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church, our families, nation, and country with peace and prosperity.
The power of the cross was invoked during the Antasdan by our prayer with the words: “By the Holy Cross, let us beseech the Lord, that through it he may save us from sins and save us by the grace of his mercy”.

Those who attended our church services received a brunch of sweet basil leaves blessed by the Cross just to be used as sweet incense to burn at home as a blessing to the house and the family.