RPT - ROCOR To Convene North American Forum To Discuss Youth Engagement In Orthodox Church Life

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th May, 2022) The Russian Church Abroad (ROCOR) will hold the first All-North American Youth Orthodox conference in June to discuss different aspects of engagement of young people in church life, ROCOR's Synod Youth Department Vice Chairman Andrei Sommer told Sputnik.

"We received a blessing from our Synod to organize the All-North American Youth conference in the United States. We proceeded from receiving a blessing to organize this conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, in our ROCOR parish of St. George, June 13-19," Sommer said.

This is the first time that ROCOR has decided to hold an All-North American conference instead of a traditional All-Diaspora international conference that takes place every 4-5 years since it was first organized in 1972, he added.

The ROCOR Youth Department, along with the Prince Vladimir Youth Association, started working on organizing this conference a year ago, when the majority of countries had imposed strict limitations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizers reviewed the possibility of holding the conference in Europe, but ultimately decided to focus on a regional event in North America, Sommer said.

However, Sommer added that many international flights from Russia are not available now because of the ongoing special military operation in Ukraine.

At the Utah conference, approximately 100 young men and women from 23 US states and from Canada will discuss different topics related to youth participation in church life.

"The conference is focused on trying to organize youth to participate in the parish communities. All the youth have different talents and all of them can contribute to parish activities. We want to engage them more in participating in their parishes," Sommer said.

Small groups of ten participants each are expected to review different topics and make presentations to the entire panel then.

Sommer emphasized that young people can contribute to their local communities of faith not only by serving at the altar, or singing in the choir during liturgy, but in many other ways.

"Different youth talents can be used to set up websites for parishes as well as social media platforms to engage other people to participate in the church. Another topic of discussion is catechism groups - when the youth can assist priests with the catechizing people who want to become Orthodox Christians," he added. "The priest is usually busy with the services and sometimes he can not explain to them what is going on during the liturgy, so the young adults can help him in preparing people for becoming Orthodox."

Other topics may include fundraising and social services in the communities, which is also a way to introduce people to Orthodox Christianity, he said.

During the conference, ROCOR plans to start a new project - a special Orthodox youth podcast about the life of young people inside the church.

"The youth will be interviewing other young people on topics concerning faith. We want them to talk about different challenges that they have in their life in regards to keeping their faith, how to balance secular life and keeping strong in faith, how to have Orthodox point of view and have to deal with non-Orthodox friends, for example," Sommer said.

Organizers also plan to hold a Zoom meeting with participants of a similar conference that takes part in ROCOR's German diocese.

Sommer said the church hopes to resume All Diaspora Youth conferences in the future but it has no specific immediate plans. Meanwhile, ROCOR also seeks to hold similar meeting on the local level.

"We are trying to encourage a more of a grassroots approach whereby the parishes become stronger regarding the interaction of the youth community and from there it will go to the deaneries, to the dioceses," Sommer said.

All presentations and lectures at the upcoming conference will be streamed on the Prince Vladimir Youth Association's YouTube channel, he added.