On September 22, on the Sunday before the Exaltation, our parish had a beautiful celebration. In addition we observed feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God transferred to Sunday. The Divine Liturgy in our temple was served by the Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov.

After the Gospel lesson he preached a homily in Russian. The Rector pointed out that the holy parents of the Theotokos, Joachim and Anna, are an example of living a devout and righteous life without an immediate or fast-coming reward from God. Sometimes people tend to think that if they are good Christians and keep the Commandments, God should bless them all the time and reward them for their pious life. Very often it is not working that way. It is important to understand that God will certainly bless us for our fidelity and devotion, but it is not going to happen right away. It is crucial that it will happen and affect our eternal life.

The choir beautifully performed the hymns of the Nativity of the Theotokos during preparation for Holy Communion.

Following the Liturgy dismissal the Rector and the altar servers performed the rite of glorification in front of the festal icon singing the troparion, kontakion and magnification of the feast. Then the Rector preached a brief sermon in English addressing the ideas of his Russian homily and made some announcements.