Developing programs to help our youth keep the faith

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Maria
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Developing programs to help our youth keep the faith

Post by Maria »

Many children are losing the faith as they grow into their teenage years. How can we help our children to keep the faith?

Surely, it is important that parents pray with their children especially at night time. In my family, we always said meal time prayers and evening compline together. Before we retired for the day, we would read from a life of the saint, and/or from a book recommended by our spiritual father.

For many years now, involvement in Boy and Girl Scouting has not been an acceptable alternative especially with the rampant ecumenism present.

Orthodox do have camping facilities and many jurisdictions not only have summer programs at a lake, but also they have winter skiing options.

It would be awesome if Orthodox camping/sports organizations could be formed for all areas, not to overtly counter the BSA and GSA programs, but to help the youth stay in our churches.

In some of my former parishes, we had soccer moms who would bring their children to Sunday Divine Liturgies dressed in their soccer, little league baseball, or basketball outfits. However, when the various athletic groups started having practice earlier on Sundays, they quit attending church altogether.

Bible Bowls - Antiochians are famous for their Bible Bowl groups which could be included as part of a year round program only without the intensity that often conflicts with academic programs that all converge around St. Nicholas Day in December. In these study groups comprised of Junior High (10 to 13) and Senior High students (14 to 18), students are asked to read and study a passage from the Old Testament, a passage from one of the epistles, a gospel selection, an ecumenical council, and an Orthodox Saint or two. Adults who sponsor these teams are asked to send in questions. Students come together from different parishes and are then subjected to intense examinations very much like a game show. The winning team receives an icon of the saint.

Biblical studies

Parishes could work together to develop Bible machine embroidered badges based on Old Testament Saints, Prophets, Judges, and Kings (using Icons for these saints when completing Old Testament Studies), and New Testament Saints (using the Icons for Sts. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, and James when completing sections of the Bible).

Church Fathers - icon badges for different church fathers

Church Saints - icon badges for demonstrating knowledge of our saints

Angels - icon badges for demonstrating knowledge of the angels

Ecumenical Councils - icon badges for demonstrating knowledge of each Seven Ecumenical Councils and the heresies that were condemned

Sports - Badges could be provided for sports participation and cheer leading activities for boys and girls throughout the year

Camping - Different camping badges can be offered as children progress in their skill levels.

Church praxis - knowledge of divine services, altar bread, wine, oil from olives, incense, church beeswax candle making, and ethnic cooking

  • As a young man progresses in the knowledge of serving on the altar and reading the epistle, he could be presented with different badges or recognized by the Bishop. Both boys and girls could help with the chanting at the chanter's stand, or the singing in the choir and receive a badge for each year of participation. Young men and women could also get badges for making altar bread and helping out during coffee hour to make food. There could be badges for pressing grapes and helping to make wine. In warmer latitudes, where bushes can be grown to harvest the ingredients for making incense, children could be taught to make the various flavors of incense. Also olives can be harvested and/or pressed into oil for the church. Beeswax can be collected from hives to make candles. Honey can be used to make the essential baklava.

Prayer badges - awarding badges to children who can pray morning, meals, and evening prayers, not from memory, but who can prayerfully read from the Orthodox prayer books available, and who can faithfully follow a simple prayer rule. Thus, parents would need to work with their priest who can verify.

Gardening and Bee keeping - at the parish level or utilizing properties owned by parishioners to help feed poor and elderly parishioners and the hungry.

Sewing - aprons for church hall use; quilts for the elderly and sick members; more advanced seamstresses and tailors could learn to make liturgical vestments for altar servers or even a priest.

Carpentry - Boys and girls could learn to make chanter's stands and Icon stands. Perhaps with a good router and lathe, these children could make wooden crosses for the church or for sale.

Other badges could be offered for:

Knowledge of Electricity
House building - taking trips to Mexico
Computer skills
Reading and writing competence
Math
Ethics

It would be important to insure that children have a balanced program of activities, which would includes award badges from different life activities which focus on personal health, spiritual health, physical activities, family, and community activities (largely but not exclusively within the parish as we need to take care of our own).

Looking at the old BSA, GSA, and Campfire books would be very helpful. However, care should be taken not to violate copyright laws so that we can help establish our own Orthodox ethos in our children.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

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Barbara
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Re: Developing programs to help our youth keep the faith

Post by Barbara »

Wow, you have been doing some great thinking and planning while computer-less, Maria !
This sounds SUPERB !

It IS a huge and probably growing problem.

Boy and Girl Scouts are totally impossible to be involved these days.
I saw you were quite diplomatic. But I encourage parents to shun those organizations
and put energy into creating new, vibrant ones as Maria is sketching out here.

Well done ! May it work !!

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arcmode
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Re: Developing programs to help our youth keep the faith

Post by arcmode »

What about a Chivalric order devoted to the preservation and defense of True Orthodoxy?

Everyone else has them, even the Greek Church, but now they let heterodox in too.

The young people could be squires. I would have liked that a lot when I was a boy.

I got kicked out of cubs for fighting, never made it to scouts.

Do not be shocked by those who teach new doctrines but seem to be worthy of credence. Stand solidly like an anvil under blows. A good athlete suffers blows but wins. St Ignatius.

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Barbara
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Re: Developing programs to help our youth keep the faith

Post by Barbara »

Chuckling at that last !

I think chivalric orders is a GREAT idea !

But squire sounds boring, don't you think ? Or am I thinking of a country squire ?

Is a squire really more like the assistant to a Knight, then they graduate to a Junior Knight
and then more Senior categories of Knights ?

One has to appeal to the romantic element in young men of a dreamy world of brave Knights, defending the Ladies from Dragons & other bad specimens!

Way more effective than anything in today's "Boy Scouts", I am SURE>

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arcmode
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Re: Developing programs to help our youth keep the faith

Post by arcmode »

I really liked the idea of scouts as a kid, and I think these ideas of Maria's are great too, especially the badges for displaying different forms of knowledge. I remember when I taught my son the Lord's prayer. I wrote it down so he could memorize it. I told him to say it every day until he knew it. One of my best memories is the day he walked into the room and announced he was ready to recite it for me. He was very serious and reverent. It would have been good to have a reward prepared in the form of a badge to mark the occasion and also to maintain zeal for further tasks in learning the faith by having another one to follow. It's hard sometimes to encourage these things in kids without some external framework or order to it. Just talking about things and suggesting he read something has not gone very well due to the overwhelming power of the world that does these things much better.

Here are a few ideas that we can steal from video games that are already familiar to kids, or at least most boys, that might be good in addition to badges and the scout type things:

Ranking up -This when you achieve a certain proficiency, or earn a certain number of points, or kills, in a game. It is usually designated by a number. A similar system is xp, short for experience points, earned gradually as you repeat a certain action or complete quests. Another function of xp is that the higher it goes, the tougher the enemies you can fight, or the higher the level of quests you can take on. Often people will 'grind' at simple repetitive tasks for a long time just to level up and access new abilities, quests or areas that require it. It would be nice to see this kind of devotion to tasks like washing the dishes. Boys love having a rank and earning xp. It gives them a sense of where they are at and where they want to get to.

Achievements - This is when you fulfill a certain task, or quest, or complete them to a certain standard. One task can have multiple achievement levels. For example, in a shooter, you might complete an infiltration mission, and get the achievement for it, but it might also be possible to complete it without being seen by, or engaging the enemy (this is called ghosting) and that would earn a higher achievement. This encourages the desire to do things as well as possible.

Perks/unlocks - These are temporary or permanent bonuses earned in-game such as better weapons, armour, items etc. or a time limited, or one-off ability to use a power or weapon or something in reward for some achievement or exemplary performance. These are often awarded when a certain rank or xp level is achieved.

When I catch up with my son or other young (or even old) gamers they usually share their latest achievements with me or tell me their new rank or items they have obtained in games they play. They are meaningful systems of encouragement and reward that boys take very seriously and that could be made to apply to many things other than games. May as well build on whats already there.


I'm glad you like the idea Barbara, I've been thinking about it for years. I thought perhaps the Order of the Southern Cross, because I'm aussie, but the Brazilians beat me to it. What would be a good name for a TOC order? Perhaps Order of St Athanasius? Or the Order of the Holy Angels? Someone who stands for true confession or ministering to those in need.

Yes, squire does sound boring, and the meaning changed over time to mean something pretty boring to do with English people, who probably only stole the title to make themselves seem less boring.

On squires from wikipedia:

Squire is a shortened version of the word Esquire, from the Old French escuier (modern French écuyer), itself derived from the Late Latin scutarius ("shield bearer"), in medieval or Old English a scutifer. The Classical Latin equivalent was armiger, "arms bearer".

The most common definition of 'squire' is that to which refers to the medieval times. A squire would be a teenage boy, in his training to become a knight. A boy became a squire at the age of 14. This was the second stage to becoming a knight, after serving first as a page. As part of his development to that end, he served an existing knight as an attendant or shield carrier, doing simple but important tasks like saddling a horse or caring for the knight's weapons and armour. The squire would sometimes carry the knight's flag to battle with his master. But a squire did not stay a squire forever. A knight would take his squires (a knight could have multiple squires but a squire could only have one knight) into battle with him and that was a squire's chance to prove himself. If he proved his loyalty and skill in battle, he would have a dubbing, an official ceremony to become a knight.

The typical jobs of a squire

Carrying the knight's armour, shield, sword,
Holding any prisoners the knight takes,
Rescuing the knight should the knight be taken prisoner,
Ensuring an honorable burial of the knight in the event of his death,
Replacing the knight's sword if it were broken or dropped,
Replacing the knight's horse or his own horse, if either be injured or killed,
Dressing the knight in his armor,
Carrying the knight's flag,
Protecting the knight if needed,
Taking care of the knight's horses,
Accompanying the Knight to tournaments and during the time of war to the battlefield,
Ensuring the armor and weapons of the knight were in good order

Most boys and young men would be more familiar with the term 'Padawan,' the word for a Jedi Knight in training. The Jedi knights are the main characters from the Star Wars films, a kind of warrior monastic order. They are celibate and devoted to the light side of the force and are meant to live for others and not themselves. They cannot love (erotic love,) hate, or fear. They are the defenders of the Galactic Republic and keepers of Jedi tradition. Probably the word wouldn't go down too well for use in a church organisation, I'd imagine, but I prefer it myself.

More on Knights from wikipedia:

The Knight's Code of Chivalry was a moral system that stated all knights should protect others who can not protect themselves, such as widows, children, and elders. All knights needed to have the strength and skills to fight wars in the Middle Ages; they not only had to be strong but they were also extremely disciplined and were expected to use their power to protect the weak and defenseless.

Knights vowed to be loyal, generous, and "of noble bearing". Knights were required to tell the truth at all times and always respect the honour of women. Knights not only vowed to protect the weak but also vowed to guard the honor of all fellow knights. They always had to obey those who were placed in authority and were never allowed to refuse a challenge from an equal. Knights lived by honor and for glory. Knights were to fear God and maintain His Church. Knights always kept their faith and never turned their back on a foe. Knights despised pecuniary reward. They persevered to the end in any enterprise begun.

If I were to start a Chivalric order it would be open to both male and female (but segregated), and focus on education in faith, survival skills/emergency preparedness and charitable works. I even think weapons training and martial arts would be good, I'm into archery. There could be a certain level of Church attendance to maintain membership also, and a special prayer rule with a special time for it, so all knights would be praying together, wherever they were.

Do not be shocked by those who teach new doctrines but seem to be worthy of credence. Stand solidly like an anvil under blows. A good athlete suffers blows but wins. St Ignatius.

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Maria
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Re: Developing programs to help our youth keep the faith

Post by Maria »

I would like to suggest these names:

For young boys (6 to 10): The Squires of St. Michael


For older boys (10 to 18): The Knights of St. Michael

For young ladies (6 to 10): The Handmaidens of St. Gabriel

For older girls (10 to 18): The Ladies of St. Gabriel

Boys like St. Michael and his powerful sword.
St. Gabriel brings good tidings, warnings, and protection since he brought the good news to the Theotokos,
spoke to Joseph in dreams, and guided the Holy Family to Egypt and then back into Nazareth.

The younger boys and girls could have semi-monastic training (learning the faith, following a prayer rule, guarding the senses, and bringing the passions under control) necessary to sustain the more rigorous training as Knights and Ladies of the True Faith.

The goal of these groups would be to attain the status of Knights and Ladies of the True Faith, much like Eagle Scouts. However, the ultimate goal would be to attain the True Crown presented by Christ as saints, martyrs, virgins, and confessors.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

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Re: Developing programs to help our youth keep the faith

Post by jgress »

I don't know about the RTOC, but HOTCA has a summer camp, St Xenia's (run by former HOCNA members who are now with us). We have also run a youth conference for many years now, usually taking place in October.

http://saintxeniacamp.com/
http://www.hotca.org/youth/426-youth-fa ... rence-2013

But it's good to think of more activities, especially for those on the West coast who may not be able to afford to travel East.

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