On Saturday, October 19, hundreds of community leaders and grassroots advocates from throughout the Eastern United States gathered at the Armenian National Committee of America’s 18th annual gala at Terrace on the Park, Queens, New York, organized by the ANCA Eastern Region Endowment Fund.
On behalf of His Eminence Archbishop Anoushavan, Prelate, Rev. Fr. Mesrob Lakissian, Pastor of St. Illuminator’s Cathedral in New York, conducted the invocation for the evening. In his message, Fr. Mesrob said, “I bring you heartfelt greetings from H. E. Archbishop Anoushavan, our beloved Prelate, who wanted very much to be here but was unable to join us because, as most of you know, he is accompanying H.H. Aram I, our beloved Catholicos, on his visit to the Eastern Prelacy and the parishes of New England and the Midwest.”
Fr. Mesrob thanked ANCA’s board, staff, volunteers, and donors for making the ANCA what it is today, “not just the fearless and full-throated voice that roars every day for our Armenian cause and has done so for three decades, but one of the most effective advocacy organizations in Washington, period.” He called on everybody to contribute to advancing the work of the ANCA, “because to do so is to do the necessary work of the Armenian Nation.”