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| Thursday, September 09, 2010 |
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| Carrying the Flame |
Sunday, May 01, 2005
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By Fr. Vahan Hovhanessian
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.jpg) This diocesan theme for this year is the “Year of the Youth – Carrying the Flame.” The various interesting and thought provoking programs and discussions during the Annual Diocesan Assembly sessions clearly demonstrated the desire of our youth to be part of the Church and our need to help them achieve that. The sessions made me personally reflect upon our challenges locally here in Holy Martyrs.
During the past several years, our parish has been blessed to have a strong ACYOA chapter. Its members are always visible in the life of the parish, not only through their programs and volunteer works but also through their participation in the liturgical life of the Church. I recently met with them in a very casual day-long biblical retreat where we discussed challenging issues related to their understanding of the faith as preached and celebrated by the Armenian Church. Thank God our parish has been blessed also to have three very active schools: Sunday, Saturday-Language and Day Schools. Furthermore, many parish programs target our youth and have the objective of bringing them into the family of the Church. Among them, with thanksgiving to the Lord, I mention the Youth Dance Group, Youth Choir, Deacons’ Training Program, Vacation Bible School, Hayr Soorp’s Café and other activities.
As I reflect upon these programs a question comes to my mind: what is the main objective of all these programs and activities? As an Armenian community of faith, what is it that we want to achieve through these activities? In other words, really, what is the “flame” that we want our youth to receive from us and continue carrying it long after we are gone? Is it the challenge of physically bringing Armenian children and youth to a building we call “the Church”? Or, is training them to be good meeting-moderators, chairmen and secretaries, and sometime experts in Roberts Rules? Is it preparing them psychologically so when they are parents, they also force their kids to come to Sunday School while they, as parents, spend Sunday morning watching TV or having their breakfast at the local diner? Or is it training them to be good singers or athletes? Obviously, most of the above are very good and important things to do, but how does the Church differ in training our kids in these aspects than any non-Christian organization? Isn’t the essence of the flame and its energy, light and strength, our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel as lived and celebrated by our forefathers for centuries?
Our parish is to be commended for creating, funding and promoting all these programs. But, we do need to challenge ourselves to make sure that all these programs have in their heart the message of the Gospel and our faith in the Lord. The challenge is not to make an organization built upon 1700 years of Christianity relevant to our youth. It is, rather to make 1700 years of Christianity, as lived, celebrated and defended by the lives of millions of Armenians, relevant to our youth through a Christ-centered organization we call the Armenian Church.
In Christ’s service,
Fr. Vahan Hovhanessian
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