Was it ever hot! Four straight days of 90 degrees plus with very little relief. However, the temperatures and humidity did not deter our dedicated workers. A tremendous number of our members came to offer their time and talents to make this year’s edition of the festival a success. Our Festival Committee and the Booth Chairs did a great job in organizing and making our preparations. Then our volunteers came, three generations working side by side in the heat to greet and serve our tens of thousands of guests. Two of the things that impress me the most are our demeanor in greeting our guests and the joy on the faces of those who visit our festival. They come back year after year, and sometimes several times the same year, because the festival is such an enjoyable experience. Another impressive aspect of the festival is the smoothness of operation, considering that we are amateurs and the rush of guests at prime hours is crushing. Thanks to those responsible in each area, the work gets done in an orderly fashion and the waiting lines seem to move right along. In addition to all our volunteers, I also want to recognize our dancers in those beautiful but very warm costumes performing so nicely as well as young adult men who worked before the festival setting up, labored the entire festival, and cleaned up so well after the festival. To one and all, I express my sincere appreciation for a Festival superbly done. But foremost, thanks be to God for blessing us with success.

Let us all remember that the festival is a community event. As such, we encourage all of our members to participate. The more who show up to offer their time and talents, the less the burden on everyone else. There may be some who philosophically are not in favor of the festival. Their opinion is respected. Yet as Christians, Saint Paul tells us to “Bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). You can be of great help in relieving a fellow church member who has spent hours under a hot tent serving our guests. Part of our profit goes to paying off the loan for our new building which everyone uses and enjoys. We should all work together and share the burden for the well being of our church community.

Prayer in Celebration of our Nation's Birthday

O Lord our God, you preserve and uphold all things by Your power and dominion.

By Your omnipotent and Divine Will, you rule over all creation and every nation on earth.

You have been especially benevolent and merciful to our own Nation by bestowing upon it the knowledge of Your truth and guiding it to the light of true freedom.

You have shown forth in the ages past and present the Fathers and ecumenical teachers of the Church, and You have preserved the Nation in freedom for centuries by Your Divine Grace.

In a time of crisis and oppression, You preserved our Nation, and You blessed it with dignity and freedom.

Accept now, O Holy Master, our prayer of thanks on the festive occasion of the celebration of our independence and national self-respect, stability, and security.

Give rest to the souls of our departed loved ones who valiantly fought in the good fight and the supreme sacrifice in our nation’s increasing struggle for justice and peace.

O Lord, make us worthy of the gifts of your loving kindness.

Preserve our constitutional freedom and inalienable rights.

Guide us into a national life and conduct that is well pleasing to You.

Protect and enable our president and all government officials of the federal, state, and municipal levels and enable them to serve the cause of a world community living in harmony and love.

For You are the Author of life, the defender of human rights and the Savior of our Souls, and to You we ascribe glory, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen

Archbishop Iakovos of Blessed Memory