Those who believe in the mission of ARCL gathered On Saturday, 27 April, 2019, at 11:00 a.m. at New Sis Sourp Sarkis Church for a requiem in order to pay their respect to the deceased members and benifectors of ARCL, who through ARCL left their print by benfiting financialy or serving the community.

Member of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia Father Vicken Dalekelejian presided to the requiem and preached as suitable for the occasion. He said that the human being grows when he decorates his life and serves the other. The person grows when he puts his interests aside and thinks about the interest of the other, and he is tormented for the sake of establishing the interests of the others. Christ taught us that a person grows by humility.

Then the holy father talked about service (helping the other) and indicated that service is a part of human morality. The servant is not greater than the master, but two are equal, said the Christ. Our acts of assistance, which remain and are remembered are the fire of our love that makes us infinite, bridges the love that leads us to life, and keeps us unfading. He then mentioned the memorial service of the founders, philanthropists and members of the ARCL and said that it contains their selfless work, sacrifice and love towards their alike otherwise they would not have been figures in society. They have turned to figures by their work in the society. Their activity would not have been under the spotlight of history of the Lebanese-Armenian community, without the service, love and self-sacrifice that existed in their souls. If these virtues are absent in the human soul, the soul would be just a remembrance of what is happening today.

Father Vicken Dalkelejian also said that the people who were loyal to ARCL found their rest near God, and the peace of soul was accomplished through the requiem. The name of the ARCL Armenian Relief Cross of Lebanon was not accidentally named by the founders, but they knew very well that the Cross of Christ was the only means of relief and they professed the cross of Christ as a beacon of victory and resurrection. The cross is always a source of comfort to those who need help. Before Christ, the cross was symbol of death, but with the shed of the blood of Christ and the victory of the resurrection, it turned to a pillar of consolation, power, and hope. This vision was made the starting point of ARCL by the founders, benefactors and members, and by this they reached out to the aid of the Armenian people, while they had emigrated and by a hair’s breadth escaped from the Genocide to Lebanon. The holy Father quoted the saying of Christ, "My true brethren are those who cloth the naked, feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, and stand for the despised." The titans of ARCL did not seek their glory but the glory of God. They did not seek their own greatness, but they created true brotherhood with Christ, and father and son relationship with God.

At the end his sermon he prayed that God may bless and elevate their souls to the alters of light, and we take their example as ideals ahead of us to continue the same mission and to further transfigure their memory and soul.

After the holy mass and requiem, the attendees gathered together at the Ataian Hall of St. Sarkis Church where a sacramental meal in the memory of the death was served.