St Herman’s Youth Conference 2009 in Methuen, MA
Report on St Herman’s Youth Conference 2009 in Methuen, MA
Expected Benefits
• To educate our Russian Orthodox youth in the fundamentals of our Faith
• To give them opportunities to participate in the Orthodox sacraments of Confession and Communion
• To give them the opportunity to meet and development friendships with other Russian Orthodox youth
• To build relationships between the youth and the clergy and afford opportunities for the youth to speak one-on-one with the clergy
• To hear edifying lectures on Orthodox theology, spirituality and contemporary moral issues and benefit from question-and-answer sessions with the speakers
• To be able to participate in discussions with their fellow youth, directed by the clergy and by their elected youth representatives
• To have opportunities to learn Russian Orthodox liturgical music and participate in the choir at the divine services
• To build leaders among the youth by providing them with leadership opportunities both at the Conference and in preparation for it
• To meet other youth with a hope to make lasting relationships which have in the past in many cases resulted in marriage.
Results
Education
Last year we had three fine lecturers speaking at our St. Herman’s Conference. This year we were blessed to have four.
Fr. Alexis Duncan, rector of Our Lady Joy of All who Sorrow parish in Cumming, Georgia, is a member of the St. Herman Youth Conference Executive Committee and a professional iconographer. He gave an informative slide presentation on iconography, focusing on the historic sources of traditional Orthodox iconography, including much archaeological material.
Subdeacon Nicholas Ganson is a member of Holy Epiphany parish in Boston and a lecturer on Russian history at College of the Holy Cross, Worcester MA. He spoke on the pitfalls that a young Orthodox Christian can encounter, speaking from his own experience. The youth followed up his talk with many animated questions and discussions. It was evident that Dr. Ganson’s struck a deep chord with them.
Deacon Constantine Desrosiers serves at St. Xenia parish in Methuen MA, the hosting parish for the conference. Fr. Constantine has decades of experience as a university professor. He managed to cover the topic of two millennia of Christian heresies in one hour. Even though a lot of historic and theological ground was covered, the youth had many insightful questions for Fr. Constantine.
Matushka Ann Lardas from St. Nicholas parish in Stratford CT spoke on “How to Finish Raising Yourself”, that is, what Orthodox young people need to know as they mature, leave home, and appropriate their faith for themselves. Matushka Ann is always very entertaining and engaging, and this time was no exception.
Finally, there was an unscheduled talk given by Mitrophan (Nelson) Chin of the Orthodox Fellowship of All Saints of China. Even though this presentation was announced with little advanced notice, about half of the youth opted to attend, even though it took place during their scheduled free time. Mr. Chin gave a slide show and spoke about the current state of Orthodoxy in China and how it is being revived.
Participation in the Sacraments and Choir
Every St. Herman’s Conference includes the Vigil and Divine Liturgy for St. Herman of Alaska. All of the youth attended these services and most of them made their confession and received Holy Communion. Divine Liturgy was served by Bishop Gabriel of Montreal, along with six priests and five deacons.
The Diocesan Youth Choir was created at the St. Herman’s Conference last year in Montreal and gave a number of performances during the past year at various parishes. Usually only one choir rehearsal is scheduled for the conference, but this year we were able to hold two rehearsals. Another first this year was that four of the youth got to take turns directing the choir during the divine services.
The youth also had the opportunity to go out and sing Christmas carols in the community, as they did last year. This was another optional event scheduled during the youth’s free time. And again, a large percentage of the youth were eager to participate, despite the sacrifice of their free time.
Community Service
Another first this year was that the youth took it upon themselves to organize teams to volunteer several mornings at a local soup kitchen. The teams left each morning at 5:00am and returned to the hotel in time for morning prayers and breakfast. Many more youth wanted to participate than was expected, so in addition to those who were involved with serving the food, other youth participated by singing carols for the patrons of the soup kitchen.
Meeting and Developing Friendships
Last year we initiated a new policy of housing the high-schoolers and college-aged youth on separate floors. Each floor had its own hospitality room for socializing. This was done at the request of the older youth. The executive committee was concerned that the number of college students had been diminishing in recent years, so the committee agreed to implement this policy as an experiment. It proved to be very successful, since it gave each of the age groups more opportunities to socialize within their particular age group during certain free periods, while still allowing ample opportunities for interaction among all the youth otherwise.
This policy was continued this year. As a result, we have brought back the attendance level of college students equal to that of the high-schoolers.
Every year we schedule an outing, and this year it was at an indoor mini-golf center. The youth enjoyed getting out of the hotel for the evening and spending time together in the informal setting, playing mini-golf, foosball, air hockey and other games.
Building Leaders
Two years ago we decided to have the youth themselves more directly involved in the planning, decision-making and operation of the Conference. To this end we had the youth elect four youth representatives, two male and two female, to serve two-year terms. The very act of giving the young people the opportunity to select their own leadership gave them a sense of empowerment and taking responsibility for their Conference. And the representatives they chose have proven to be not only mature and pious Orthodox believers, but also self-motivated and full of great ideas.
The youth representatives created a Facebook page for the Conference, and throughout the year they kept the enthusiasm going for the upcoming conference. This was key in drawing back some of the older youth who had not been coming to St. Herman’s in recent years. It was also a crucial component in advertising the conference to those who had not attended before.
Some of the most memorable events and activities of this year’s conference were initiated and organized by the youth representatives, including volunteering at the soup kitchen, caroling and the presentation on Orthodoxy in China. Also, like last year, they organized and ran the discussion groups.
Discussion Session and Interaction with Clergy
This year they used a rotating schedule, placing a clergyman, matushka, guest speaker or other adult leader at a table with an assigned topic, and then have small groups of the youth move from table to table. The youth participated actively and enthusiastic in these groups. This activity went so well that it was continued the next day. The only regret was that there was not enough time for everyone to be able to visit every table.
Clergy were also available in informal settings throughout the conference, and there were many fruitful and interesting discussions, some of them quite lengthy. The youth also had opportunities to interact with the priests during the Vigil at confession.
Finally, there was a panel discussion directed by Bishop Gabriel, where the youth could hand up written questions to the panel consisting of all the clergy. As always, there was a rich variety of questions, ranging from themes of morality, living in a non-Orthodox environment, theology, liturgics, etc. This format is always serves as a good complement to the discussions after the lectures and the small, rotating discussion groups, since the questions are completely left to the youth.
Expected Benefits
• To educate our Russian Orthodox youth in the fundamentals of our Faith
• To give them opportunities to participate in the Orthodox sacraments of Confession and Communion
• To give them the opportunity to meet and development friendships with other Russian Orthodox youth
• To build relationships between the youth and the clergy and afford opportunities for the youth to speak one-on-one with the clergy
• To hear edifying lectures on Orthodox theology, spirituality and contemporary moral issues and benefit from question-and-answer sessions with the speakers
• To be able to participate in discussions with their fellow youth, directed by the clergy and by their elected youth representatives
• To have opportunities to learn Russian Orthodox liturgical music and participate in the choir at the divine services
• To build leaders among the youth by providing them with leadership opportunities both at the Conference and in preparation for it
• To meet other youth with a hope to make lasting relationships which have in the past in many cases resulted in marriage.
Results
Education
Last year we had three fine lecturers speaking at our St. Herman’s Conference. This year we were blessed to have four.
Fr. Alexis Duncan, rector of Our Lady Joy of All who Sorrow parish in Cumming, Georgia, is a member of the St. Herman Youth Conference Executive Committee and a professional iconographer. He gave an informative slide presentation on iconography, focusing on the historic sources of traditional Orthodox iconography, including much archaeological material.
Subdeacon Nicholas Ganson is a member of Holy Epiphany parish in Boston and a lecturer on Russian history at College of the Holy Cross, Worcester MA. He spoke on the pitfalls that a young Orthodox Christian can encounter, speaking from his own experience. The youth followed up his talk with many animated questions and discussions. It was evident that Dr. Ganson’s struck a deep chord with them.
Deacon Constantine Desrosiers serves at St. Xenia parish in Methuen MA, the hosting parish for the conference. Fr. Constantine has decades of experience as a university professor. He managed to cover the topic of two millennia of Christian heresies in one hour. Even though a lot of historic and theological ground was covered, the youth had many insightful questions for Fr. Constantine.
Matushka Ann Lardas from St. Nicholas parish in Stratford CT spoke on “How to Finish Raising Yourself”, that is, what Orthodox young people need to know as they mature, leave home, and appropriate their faith for themselves. Matushka Ann is always very entertaining and engaging, and this time was no exception.
Finally, there was an unscheduled talk given by Mitrophan (Nelson) Chin of the Orthodox Fellowship of All Saints of China. Even though this presentation was announced with little advanced notice, about half of the youth opted to attend, even though it took place during their scheduled free time. Mr. Chin gave a slide show and spoke about the current state of Orthodoxy in China and how it is being revived.
Participation in the Sacraments and Choir
Every St. Herman’s Conference includes the Vigil and Divine Liturgy for St. Herman of Alaska. All of the youth attended these services and most of them made their confession and received Holy Communion. Divine Liturgy was served by Bishop Gabriel of Montreal, along with six priests and five deacons.
The Diocesan Youth Choir was created at the St. Herman’s Conference last year in Montreal and gave a number of performances during the past year at various parishes. Usually only one choir rehearsal is scheduled for the conference, but this year we were able to hold two rehearsals. Another first this year was that four of the youth got to take turns directing the choir during the divine services.
The youth also had the opportunity to go out and sing Christmas carols in the community, as they did last year. This was another optional event scheduled during the youth’s free time. And again, a large percentage of the youth were eager to participate, despite the sacrifice of their free time.
Community Service
Another first this year was that the youth took it upon themselves to organize teams to volunteer several mornings at a local soup kitchen. The teams left each morning at 5:00am and returned to the hotel in time for morning prayers and breakfast. Many more youth wanted to participate than was expected, so in addition to those who were involved with serving the food, other youth participated by singing carols for the patrons of the soup kitchen.
Meeting and Developing Friendships
Last year we initiated a new policy of housing the high-schoolers and college-aged youth on separate floors. Each floor had its own hospitality room for socializing. This was done at the request of the older youth. The executive committee was concerned that the number of college students had been diminishing in recent years, so the committee agreed to implement this policy as an experiment. It proved to be very successful, since it gave each of the age groups more opportunities to socialize within their particular age group during certain free periods, while still allowing ample opportunities for interaction among all the youth otherwise.
This policy was continued this year. As a result, we have brought back the attendance level of college students equal to that of the high-schoolers.
Every year we schedule an outing, and this year it was at an indoor mini-golf center. The youth enjoyed getting out of the hotel for the evening and spending time together in the informal setting, playing mini-golf, foosball, air hockey and other games.
Building Leaders
Two years ago we decided to have the youth themselves more directly involved in the planning, decision-making and operation of the Conference. To this end we had the youth elect four youth representatives, two male and two female, to serve two-year terms. The very act of giving the young people the opportunity to select their own leadership gave them a sense of empowerment and taking responsibility for their Conference. And the representatives they chose have proven to be not only mature and pious Orthodox believers, but also self-motivated and full of great ideas.
The youth representatives created a Facebook page for the Conference, and throughout the year they kept the enthusiasm going for the upcoming conference. This was key in drawing back some of the older youth who had not been coming to St. Herman’s in recent years. It was also a crucial component in advertising the conference to those who had not attended before.
Some of the most memorable events and activities of this year’s conference were initiated and organized by the youth representatives, including volunteering at the soup kitchen, caroling and the presentation on Orthodoxy in China. Also, like last year, they organized and ran the discussion groups.
Discussion Session and Interaction with Clergy
This year they used a rotating schedule, placing a clergyman, matushka, guest speaker or other adult leader at a table with an assigned topic, and then have small groups of the youth move from table to table. The youth participated actively and enthusiastic in these groups. This activity went so well that it was continued the next day. The only regret was that there was not enough time for everyone to be able to visit every table.
Clergy were also available in informal settings throughout the conference, and there were many fruitful and interesting discussions, some of them quite lengthy. The youth also had opportunities to interact with the priests during the Vigil at confession.
Finally, there was a panel discussion directed by Bishop Gabriel, where the youth could hand up written questions to the panel consisting of all the clergy. As always, there was a rich variety of questions, ranging from themes of morality, living in a non-Orthodox environment, theology, liturgics, etc. This format is always serves as a good complement to the discussions after the lectures and the small, rotating discussion groups, since the questions are completely left to the youth.
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