Congresul tinerilor din Mitropolia Ortodoxă Română a celor două Americi (ROYA)
Youth Congress of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Church of the Americas (ROYA)

Summary/Abstract: With God’s help, last weekend ROYA organized the Youth Congress. It was a blessing to have His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae, His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian, and the new abbot of St. Demetrios the New Monastery in Middletown, NY, Father Ieremia with us. The Congress was preceded on Friday evening by an Akathist dedicated to Saint Catherine, the patron saint of our organization, which was attended by many young adults, together with Father Dean Mircea Panciuk from Edmonton, Canada. At the end of the Akathist, Father Mircea spoke to us about the importance of youth activity. Young adults at this point in their lives tend to have many things going on, and having Christ in their mind has an importance that cannot be put into words. The Congress officially opened on Saturday morning with a word of encouragement and greetings from the two hierarchs, after which roll call was done: 38 parish delegates, in addition to the other participants. A presentation of the organization led by Pompiliu Gîrlonța followed. Bogdan Manga then presented the events of the organization since the last Youth Congress, 2019. This was followed by a session in which delegates discussed changes to the organization’s Statute. The Board presented the overall changes, and then let the delegates ask questions and discuss the changes. A few things were added, such as that the majority of the Board members must be of Romanian heritage. Then, the new Statute was voted and passed with a majority vote. After a short break, the parish reports followed, at which the board briefly presented the first part. Here participants had the opportunity to speak from their experience, from their communities. The next day, Sunday, November 15th, the session started with the rest of the parish reports, followed by free discussions about what activities the delegates felt they had done best in their parishes with the participation of the parish priest. Next point on the Agenda was a presentation on the state of the entire organization. The Board described how the ideas proposed at last year’s Congress were implemented, and then described the “challenges” ROYA still faces: the distance between parishes, the lack of visibility and the restriction of activities due to the pandemic. Plans for next year were also discussed. After thanking the previous Board, His Eminence Nicolae and His Grace Ioan Casian congratulated the members of the new board and left them with this message: to establish relationships with young adults from all parishes of the Metropolia, so as to ensure the participation of at least one delegate from each parish at the ROYA Congress in 2022. Rareș Răducu, the former president, expressed his gratitude to the Board he had worked with for the last two years, and showed everyone the gift he will leave to our organization: a wonderful icon of Saint Catherine, painted in Romania by a young lady, with the ROYA logo in the background. After a short pause, Father Ieremia, from St. Demetrios the New Monastery, began his conference, with the theme “He who is holy, let him be holy still.” A true mission cannot be sustained without a permanent inner fire. Related to this, he urged ROYA members to pray for one another daily, because when two people maintain a spiritual relationship through mutual prayer, God is almost automatically softened toward them. This prayer can best be worked on when we carry others in our hearts during the Divine Liturgy, so he urged participants to attend as many Liturgies as possible and to approach the Holy Sacraments often, especially in these troubled times. Father ended his conference with two encouraging messages: the first from Archimandrite Melchisedec, abbot of the Putna Monastery, to perceive not the outward appearances, but the heart of every man; and the second from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians, to cultivate a spirit of peace and love for one another.

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