Our pilgrimage reached its final stop at the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, where we were received with a Hrashapar service and had the joy of meeting with His Beatitude Patriarch Sahak II Mashalian. As the hymns filled the sacred walls of the Patriarchate, I felt immense joy and deep humility. After traveling through the lands where generations of Armenians lived, prayed, created, suffered, and remained faithful, we ended our journey in a place that has been a beat

On our pilgrimage, we visited Antioch, present-day Antakya, one of the most important cities in the story of the early Church. There we entered St. Peter’s Grotto, the ancient cave where, according to tradition, the Apostle Peter preached and the first believers gathered for prayer and worship. And from this modest grotto, the Gospel would travel across nations and generations. The Scripture says, that “it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians” (Acts

With our pilgrims, we gathered in the Armenian Church in Iskenderun to pray for all those whose lives were lost on September 11, and for the families who still carry the pain of that day. September 11 is a date that awakens memories for so many of us. We remember where we were, what we were doing, and the disbelief with which we watched the events unfold. My own thoughts drift back to where I was all those years ago—in Sevan, Armenia, at the Vazgenyan Theological Seminary. It