Ishtartv.com - Patriarchate of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East

On the evening of Friday, September 11, 2026, the annual ecumenical festival celebrating the Feast of the Finding of the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ was inaugurated in Ankawa, with the participation of His Holiness Mar Awa III, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East worldwide. Also attending the event were His Excellency Mar Bashar Matti Warda, Archbishop of the Chaldean Diocese of Erbil; His Eminence Mar Nicodemus Daoud Matti Sharaf, Archbishop of Mosul, Kirkuk, and the Kurdistan Region of the Syriac Orthodox Church; His Excellency Mar Nathnael Nazar Semaan, Bishop of the Syriac Catholic Diocese of Adiabene; His Excellency Ghattas Hazim, Metropolitan of Baghdad, Kuwait, and their Dependencies of the Greek Orthodox Church, together with local clergy and faithful from the sister Apostolic Churches present in Ankawa.

The program of the first day included liturgical hymns performed by choirs from the Assyrian Church of the East, the Chaldean and Syriac Catholic Churches, the Syriac, Armenian and the Greek Orthodox Churches. The evening also featured spiritual reflections delivered by the participating hierarchs and clergy.

His Holiness delivered a speech in both Assyrian and Arabic, congratulating the faithful on this blessed occasion and expressing his gratitude to the participating hierarchs for their efforts in manifesting this beautiful ecumenical witness and reminding the faithful that we are all one, gathered under the banner of the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of our strength and the symbol of our eternal salvation.

The first day’s festivities concluded with the lighting of the ceremonial flame, followed by the opening of the traditional food section. The festival will continue through the evening of September 13.