Meet the new SYNDESMOS Board

New SYNDESMOS President

  • Manos Koumbarelis /SYNDESMOS President

    Manos, age 33, is a biologist with a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics. For many years he has been actively involved in Orthodox youth ministry as a catechist and a professional youth worker. At present he is the youth director for the Orthodox Church of Greece and resides in Athens.
        Manos has served as SYNDESMOS Vice President for the past seven years, and he has been responsible for implementing many projects in the Southern European region and elsewhere. At the XVI General Assembly in Valamo, Finland, he was elected SYNDESMOS President.
        Asked about his vision for SYNDESMOS, Manos offered the following insights.
         "SYNDESMOS is, was and should continue to be a youth organization. Our answer to the pressures to include non-youth members movements should be to assist them to establish their own pan-Orthodox associations, with which we should co-operate closely.
        "SYNDESMOS is a federation, not a club of individuals. SYNDESMOS is its member theological Schools and youth movements. The richness of SYNDESMOS's service to the Church depends primarily on involving as many Orthodox youth as possible, members and non-members alike, in the life of the Fellowship.
        "SYNDESMOS's central aim was from the very beginning to promote unity among the Orthodox youth from all over the world. Divisions of nationalistic origin still exist in our Church and often lead to indifference or mistrust. Without a consciousness of the catholicity of Orthodoxy, our Orthodox Christian identity remains incomplete. It is our task to spread further this consciousness throughout the whole Church through its youth." New Vice Presidents

New Vice Presidents

  • Hildo Bos
    Vice President
      

    Hildo was born in the Netherlands in 1969. In secondary school he became acquainted with Russian culture, and he went on to study Russian at the University of Amsterdam and to make numerous trips to Russia, where he first came into contact with Orthodoxy. In 1991 he was received into the Orthodox faith in a small village near Novgorod.
        Hildo became active in SYNDESMOS in 1992, and since then he has been extremely involved, especially in leadership training programmes. In 1995 Hildo was elected Western European representative, and from 1995 until 1999 he studied theology at the Institute of St. Sergius in Paris. After graduation Hildo and his wife Tania moved to Holland.
        Hildo hopes that SYNDESMOS will stimulate bilateral and multilateral exchanges among member movements. He also feels that SYNDESMOS should identify, train and gather motivated youth leaders in and beyond the member movements and that special emphasis must be placed on training a new generation of leaders who are willing to accept the challenge of bringing Orthodox youth together.

  • Natalia Koulkova
    Vice President
      

    Natalia was born in 1966. After completing secondary school she studied for one year at the Moscow Institute for Archive Researchers and then entered the Moscow State University's Department for Classical Studies. Upon graduation she worked at the Department for Religious Literature at the State Library for Foreign Literature.
        In 1990 Natalia entered Saint Tikhon's Theological Institute in Moscow, Russia, from which she received a Bachelor of Theology degree in 1994. At present, she is preparing her candidate dissertation on the Sacrament of Confession.   
        Natalia was elected Eastern Europe representative in spring 1998 and has participated in numerous SYNDESMOS activities during the past few years.

  • Milivoj Randjia
    Vice President
      

    Milivoj was born in Belgrade, Serbia in 1970. At present he is in his last year of studies at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Belgrade University.
        Milivoj has been involved in organising Church youth work since 1992. He is a founding member of what is today the largest Serbian Orthodox youth organisation, the Saint Savva Youth Community of the Archdiocese of Belgrade-Karlovai. He is completing his second term as Executive Secretary of that organisation. In 1995 he was elected SYNDESMOS Balkan Region representative.

  • John Elanjickal Jacob
    Federated Vice President

 

New Regional Representatives

  • Bohumil Voprsalek
    Central European Region

    Born in Michalovce, Slovakia in 1972, Bohumil received his M.A. in Orthodox Theology from the Orthodox Theological Faculty of the University of Presov in 1996. He has been involved in the Fellowship of Orthodox Youth in Slovakia since 1993, serving as Vice-President for internal affairs from 1994-1995 and President from 1995-1997. In 1999 he was named director of the newly-established Orthodox Academy in Slovakia.
        Bohumil has been very active in numerous SYNDESMOS training courses in Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, and elsewhere and has organised numerous English language training courses in various countries. In the next few years he plans to have his Region conduct a variety of programmes, including a conference on youth work in Presov, 29 August - 4 September 2000.

  • Spyros Tsimouris
    Southern European Region
      

    Born in 1976 in New Jersey, USA, Spyros completed the French College of Piraeus, Greece and then graduated from the Theological School of Athens University. He has also studied sign language and the Braille system.
        Since 1997 Spyros has served as President of the University Student Association of the Metropolis of Piraeus. He teaches Theology at the Catholic French College of St. John the Baptist de la Salle in Piraeus.
        Spyros sees SYNDESMOS as a vivid society of young people, characterised by their strong love for Christ and His Church. SYNDESMOS offers a great opportunity for young people to overcome the disputes and the unacceptable jurisdictional problems facing the local churches.

  • Nina Loimi
      Northern European Region
       

    Nina Loimi, 27, has had a wealth of experience with SYNDESMOS, having worked in the General Secretariat in Bialystok, Poland from January 1998 until July 1999.
       

    Nina holds a Master's degree in Russian and is currently completing her teacher training at the University of Joensuu, Finland. She has been actively involved in Orthodox youth work on the local, national, regional and international levels. She has also been an active member of the Finnish Orthodox youth organisations ONL, OOL and PISTIS.

  • Cornelius Gulere Wambi
    Africa Region
      

    Cornelius was born into an Orthodox family in 1968, the second of nine children. He is beginning his second term as Africa Region Representative.
        A professional high school teacher, Cornelius serves as the Acting Youth Co-ordinator of the Holy Metropolis of Kampala and All Uganda. From 1992 to 1999 he was General Secretary of the Ugandan Orthodox Christian Youth Association. He also serves as a contact person for the East Africa Urban Rural Mission of the World Council of Churches and Orthodox representative to the Uganda Joint Christian Council.

  • Father Anastasios Bourantas
    American Region
      

    Father Anastasios serves as National Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
        Ordained in 1995, Father Anastasios's experience with SYNDESMOS includes participation in the XII General Assembly in Moscow. He also serves on the Youth Committee of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas.
        Father Anastasios plans to promote SYNDESMOS at youth functions, activities, and training conferences in the US, and he hopes to encourage members of the Greek Orthodox Young Adult League and young people of all Orthodox jurisdictions to incorporate the vision of SYNDESMOS into their activities.

  • Father Daniel Na Chang-Kyu
    Asian Region
      

    A native of Korea, Father Daniel is a 1980 graduate of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, Brookline, USA.
        From 1980 until 1989 he served as a missionary priest in Seoul, Korea. The following year he was appointed Dean of Saint Paul's Church, Incheon, Korea. In 1992 he was appointed director of the Administration Department of the Exarchate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
        Father Daniel was elected SYNDESMOS Asian Region Representative in 1997. Father Daniel hopes to bring a new awareness of SYNDESMOS to his region. He plans to co-ordinate youth leadership training programmes annually and to gather youth leaders from Asia and Oceania to develop a unity among SYNDESMOS's member movements in the region. He is also planning a series of annual seminars for the next three years on "Christianity and Shamanism."

  • Evgeny Petrovskiy
    Eastern European Region
       Evgeny Petrovskiy was born in 1971 in Dzerzhinsk, Russia. In 1988 he finished secondary school and then served for two years in the army. He was baptised in 1990, and the following year he entered the Department of Oriental Studies at the St. Petersburg State University, from which he graduated in 1997 as a specialist in Chinese Philology.
        Evgeny is a member of Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg. In August 1998 he entered the Moscow Theological Seminary and was soon appointed lecturer in the History of Religion and the English Language. He currently works as a lecturer while continuing his studies by correspondence.

  • Lydia Obolensky
    Western European Region
       Lydia Obolensky was born in 1970 in France. Since 1988 she has lived in Paris, and at present she is a university lecturer in Russian in Clermont Ferrand. She is also pursuing her doctorate degree in Russian Literature.
        Lydia has been involved in Orthodox activities since childhood through the organisation Vitiaz. Later she became a member of the Russian Christian Student Association [ACER], in which she has been actively involved in numerous activities for children and students. She is also active in the Orthodox Fellowship in Western Europe and on occasion writes short articles for the Orthodox Press Service.
        Lydia has participated in many SYNDESMOS events, including the 1995 exchange in Mexico and a similar programme in Albania the following year. She was also on the staff of two SYNDESMOS events in France and participated in the study visit to Argentina in 1998.

  • Plamen Sivov
    Balkan Region
       Plamen was born in Bulgaria in 1970. He is the Executive Director of the Pokrov Foundation, editor-in-chief of Mirna magazine, secretary of the Bulgarian National Christian Committee, and a fellow of the World Bank. Plamen has also published a number of articles and essays on various topics and has translated and edited several books on theology. He is a specialist in not-for-profit organisations.

  • Dr. Fadi Abou Mrad
    Middle East Region
       Born in 1964, Dr. Fadi Abou Mrad is from the parish of Saint John the Baptist in Wadi Chahrour, Lebanon. For many years he participated in the MJO, which helped him grow and develop skills to better serve the Church.
        Dr. Mrad graduated with a doctorate in medicine in Lebanon and Paris, specializing in neurology and neuromuscular disorders. He is a member of the American Academy of Neurology.
        Dr. Mrad, who is beginning his second term as Middle East Region representative, strongly believes that Orthodox young people must witness to Jesus Christ and be loyal to world Orthodoxy. He encourages SYNDESMOS member movements to "work locally and think globally."

  • Deacon Sami Labib Mitri
    Federated Region
       Deacon Sami serves Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church, Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt. He is a member of the Ecumenical Youth Committee of Egypt and is active in the Youth Bishopric of the Coptic Orthodox Church, especially in the fields of recent graduates, ecumenical work, youth participation in public national life, and youth participation in Church life.
        Deacon Sami also serves as Director of the Philopatron Translation and Publication House for Patristic Publications and is Chairman of the Society of Coptic Heritage.