On Sunday, August 12, 2012, the parish of St. Gregory the Illuminator of St. Catharines, Ontario, celebrated the feast of Assumption of Sourb Asdvadzadzin, Mother of God, with a great day of spiritual and festival of picnic after the Divine Liturgy.
The day was initiated with the offering of the chants, hymns and prayers of the Morning Service offered by Rev. Fr. Serop Azarian. Following the service, the Divine Liturgy was offered by the Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Canada, His Eminence, Bishop 
Bagrat Galstanian. His Eminence was assisted by a number of deacons from St. Catharines, Hamilton, Mississauga, Toronto, Laval and Montreal. Serving alongside Srbazan Hayr was Fr. Serop Azarian and Rev. Fr. Myron Sarkisian, Pastor of St. Vartan Armenian Apostolic Church. Similarly, the choir also was composed of singers from the said communities who came to chant for the Lord.
There was a guest group of children from the Laval parish who came to the church as pilgrims and participated in the Divine Liturgy as singers and altar servers. Their presence made the day more elaborate. Srbazan Hayr encouraged them and gave words of fatherly advice to all who were present to be more in service of God and the Holy Church and had words of hope and encouragement to the Armenians of Southern Ontario for the decades of faithful following to our Armenian faith and heritage.
There were more than 200 people gathered at the picnic following the conclusion of the Liturgy. The participants were served with delicious traditional Armenian dishes and desserts, dance and music. The blessing day of the Assumption of the Holy Theotokos, Mother of God is a great high holy day in the Armenian Church and thus it was celebrated and enjoyed in St. Catharines by the descendants of the people who built that church with that same faith, hope and love.
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