A few dozen people braved Sunday’s cold and windy conditions to attend the 14th annual Blessing of the Waters gathering at Mill Creek Park’s East Newport Boat Launch area. Correspondent photos / Sean Barron

BOARDMAN — It may have been cold and snowy with an uninvited, unwelcome biting wind but, despite those conditions, a few dozen people undoubtedly felt the warmth of the occasion.

“Jan. 6 is the Feast of the Epiphany, and the Orthodox Church blesses the water and blesses homes with it,” the Rev. Thomas Constantine of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in New Castle, Pa., said.

In this case, however, a portion of Mill Creek Park’s Lake Newport next to the East Newport Boat Launch received a few blessings, because it was the site of the 14th annual Blessing of the Waters holy gathering Sunday afternoon.

The location was moved to the boat launch area from the other side of the park because of the $40 million Mill Creek Sewer Improvements project, which got underway late last month and is designed to upgrade wastewater infrastructure in the park.

By extension, the 45-minute gathering in snowy, 30-degree weather was to bless the city and the Mahoning Valley before a cross was tossed into the water, Constantine added.

The gathering also consisted of a litany that featured spoken call-and-response prayers and blessings for the country and its government, the presbyterate, the diaconate of Jesus Christ, area residents’ salvation and health, those who travel by air, land and sea, those who are in public service and others who suffer from various afflictions, to which attendees responded with “Lord, have mercy.” Also part of the litany was the importance of the sanctification of water, along with prayers that the water may receive the blessing of the Jordan River, as well as for its deliverance from affliction, wrath, danger and constraint.

A reading came from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, which, to a significant degree, provides a more complete insight into the life of an early Christian community of the first generation of which Paul had founded.

“Paul established a Christian community in Corinth about the year 51, on his second missionary journey,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website states.

Even though the letter reveals key details about Paul’s teachings and the apostle himself, it also raises certain questions because of the one-way correspondence. Nevertheless, without the letter, “our knowledge of church life in the middle of the first century would be much poorer,” the website shows.

Another reading was from Mark 1:9-11, which discusses how John baptized Christ in the Jordan River after the latter came from Nazareth in Galilee. The passage goes on to say that after Christ came out of the water, he saw the sky open and the Holy Spirit coming down to him like a dove before a voice from heaven expressed being pleased with him.

In addition, a hymn was sung twice. During the first time, the cross was immersed three times in a bowl of Holy Water.

During the second singing, Constantine sprinkled Holy Water upon the larger body of water before the cross was thrown into it.

On a grander scale, the gathering asked those who attended to realize that Christ is baptized with them and that he infuses sanctification into the water that becomes a purifying agent of their souls. In a broad sense, such an immersion points to how people’s ascent to God will come to pass, according to one of the readings.

Also, the event pointed to the greatness of God’s benevolent deeds, and mentioned that he alone “is clean and undefiled, cleansed in the cleansing that is meant for us. … For those who draw with faith, the grace of the Spirit is invisibly given by Christ, our God and the Savior of our souls,” one of the hymns states.

In many cases, the cross that is tossed into water may stay there for some time, but in other places such as Tarpon Springs, Florida, which has warm weather as well as a large Greek population, it can be retrieved by divers or swimmers, Constantine said.