The Outdoor Blessing of Water is celebrated annually during the Theophany season (the feast of the Baptism of Christ, Jan. 6), and it is part of the Orthodox Church's participation in Christ's blessing of all Creation, most especially through the waters. As the Jordan River was blessed of old by the entrance of Jesus Christ to be baptized there by John the Forerunner, so are all the rivers, lakes, and oceans of the world blessed every year by millions of Orthodox Christians worldwide, sharing in bringing God's dominion of peace back into the world.
The service itself is roughly 20 minutes long, and its climax is when a blessing cross is hurled into the water, symbolizing and enacting the radical retaking of this world by God, rescuing it from corruption and death. (In some places, people dive into the water to retrieve the cross, though our location is both too shallow and too cold to allow that.)
The blessing conducted by (http://saintpaulemmaus.org/ ) will be at 12pm on Sunday, Jan. 9, at the Wildlands Conservancy in Emmaus, at the Little Lehigh Creek. The location of the blessing will be next to the creek, which is reached by walking from the parking lot past the white office building (a converted house), following the creek on the right and then stopping at the first place with direct access.