Related Documents : Speech on the world Day of Orthodox Youth, to mark the 50th Anniversary of SYNDESMOS, by H.E. Makarios, Archibishop of Kenya, at the Parish of Ngecha [ ] Read about the icon of the Meeting of the Lord [ ] Ten ways to celebrate the World Day of Orthodox Youth [ ]   Meeting of the Lord Read about this icon 10 Ways to Celebrate The World Day of Orthodox Youth

The proposal for a World Day of Orthodox Youth was made by the XIV SYNDESMOS General Assembly in June 1992, and has received the blessing of His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and the Heads of the other local Orthodox Churches. Member movements of SYNDESMOS and Orthodox youth around the world are therefore urged to implement this celebration through concrete and appropriate activities in their own country.

The Meeting of the Lord is one of the instances in the Holy Tradition of the Church, which presents youth and childhood as an image and vessel of God's presence and of His renewing Grace. Christ the newborn baby fulfils the purpose of the Law and the proclamation of the prophets. St. Simeon and St. Anna show us the way in which we can receive Him: having seen the salvation, we are sent forth in peace, and we are called to give thanks to the Lord and to speak of His coming. God's Kingdom is near, it comes to us in the Divine-human person of Christ, the newborn child, who renews and rejuvenates our life every day. This is what Orthodox Youth ministry is always called to be: an invitation to meet the Lord and be changed by this Meeting, and here indeed the youth movement identifies with the liturgical life of the Church and Her pastoral service as a whole.