By Lielt Samuel,
For those who don’t know, a three day Oriental Orthodox Youth Conference, organized by our own Deacon Andualem, took place at St. Michael Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Debre Meheret St. Michael Church in Garland, Texas this past week (July 7th-9th). Visitors from other oriental orthodox churches around the Dallas area that attended the event included those from St. Thomas Indian Orthodox Church, St. Mary Syrian Orthodox Church, St. Philopateer Coptic Orthodox Church, and St. Mary Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Guest speakers including priests and professors came to preach to the youth from these churches as well as St. Mary Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Los Angeles, and the University of Toronto in Canada.
The first two days of the conference were divided into three sessions daily (according to age) which were composed of lessons, prayer and mezmur, icebreakers and activities for the youth to get to know one another and enjoy, and a grand dinner to finish off the day. On the third day of the conference, for the first time at St. Michael, the divine liturgy was given in English so that all youth attending could understand and take part in the mass.
The youth conference was a great experience! It was refreshing to have an event at church that was centered around the youth, as well as one in which we could meet brothers and sisters in Christ from other Orthodox churches. We learned a lot about the importance of our tradition and religion as well as the similarities in our churches from the wonderful speakers that came to talk to us. The Diving Liturgy being given in English was an outstanding part of the conference that allowed us to really understand the significance and importance of the Kidasse that takes place at our church every Sunday.
I thank Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Debre Meheret St. Michael Church for their great support of the event as well as Deacon Andualem for organizing the conference and always thinking of the youth. I look forward to the youth conference next year being even bigger and even better event!
