COME AND SEE!
You are warmly invited to experience authentic early Christian worship in the Orthodox Church
Upcoming Feast Days
Happy New Year! The Ecclesiastical (Church) New Year is September 1. This year it falls on Labor Day and the time of our Annual Parish Picnic.
Come join us for a day of worship, celebration, fellowship, food, and recreation!
Divine Liturgy, 9:30am Annual Picnic, 11:30am – 3:00pm, Cathedral Gardens, 6480 Elibank Dr., Elkridge, MD 21075
Picnic details: The church will provide rolls, condiments, plates, cups & utensils along with a hot grill. Please bring your favorite meat to grill and a dish to share. There will also be a Nerf war for those ages 9 and up and many other games for all children.
By marking the start of a new year in September the Orthodox Church — associated the new year with harvesting crops. As preparations for winter were being made, so too were preparations for the upcoming year.
For Christians, it was a time of thanksgiving, remembering the good weather and abundant rain the Lord provided for that year’s harvest—something we pray for at every Divine Liturgy.
This draws close parallels with the Feast of Trumpets for the pre-Incarnation people of God (Lev. 23:23–25):
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘The seventh month, on the first of the
month, rest will be yours, a memorial of trumpets; it will be a holy assembly to you. You will not perform any servile work, and you will bring a whole burnt offering to the Lord.”
This was also the day Christ entered a synagogue and read from the scroll of Isaiah (cf. Luke 4:16–30).
And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
By marking the new year at harvest time, we remind ourselves annually of our dependence on both hard work and the blessings of God. Going beyond material blessings and healthy crops, this applied (as do many of our hymns) to Imperial concerns, including prayers for protection from our enemies:
“Creator of the universe, setting times and seasons by Your sole authority, bless the cycle of the year of Your grace, O Lord, guarding our rulers and Your nation in peace, at the intercession of the Theotokos, and save us. — Troparion (Hymn)”
Our Patronal Feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross 8:15 & 9:30am Matins & Divine Liturgy, September 14
Following the legal recognition of the Christian Faith and the end of the persecutions against the followers of Jesus by the emperor Constantine, he sent his mother to the Holy Land to find the cross on which our Lord was crucified.
Our parish, Holy Cross Orthodox Church, lives under the protection of the Precious and Holy, Life-giving Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Each year on September 14 we commemorate this blessed event and give thanks for the many blessings we have enjoyed under the protection of the Holy Cross!
Please join us for this wonderful celebration!
“O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance, granting victory to Orthodox Christians over their adversaries and by Thy Cross, preserve Thy habitation.””
The Orthodox Church is the One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are a Christ-centered church. In fact, we share an unbroken history with the Faith of the first Christians, and we can trace our history back to the Apostles themselves.
This parish is part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. We are pan-Orthodox. This means our membership includes many who were born into the Faith, as well as many converts. In our parish, all services are fully in English.
Anyone and everyone is more than welcome to join us for services! If you have questions about our church and what we believe, feel free to reach out to Father Joshua, our parish priest!
Upcoming Events
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Usual Service Times
Matins - Sun 8:15am
Divine Liturgy - Sun 9:30am
Vespers/Akathist - Wed 6:30pm
Great Vespers - Sat 5:00pm
Live Streaming
While there is no substitute for gathering together in the mystery of the Divine Liturgy and partaking in Holy Communion, and participating in the other divine services of the Church, if you are unable to attend in person, you are invited to join us via live stream.
Located in Linthicum, MD, Holy Cross Antiochian Orthodox Church is a parish of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America. We began as a mission parish in early 1993 with six families who converted to Holy Orthodoxy. Today, our community numbers over 200 members, about half of whom are converts from several Protestant denominations.