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Named “Lighthouse,” the ministry was developed through the Metropolis’ Office of Youth & Young Adult Ministries (Y2AM Chicago) and is intended to be the natural next step for campers who attended both St. Mary’s Orthodox Camp and Fanari Camp. The ministry was created to address and respond to the troubling reality that approximately 60 percent of youth are leaving Christianity (including the Orthodox Church) in America today.
Specifically, Lighthouse will organize, promote, and execute an annual camp staffed with clergy and laity trained to proactively engage the age group and foster an authentic sense of community among campers as Orthodox Christians. The first Lighthouse camp will run from June 7 - 14 at Carthage College.
“As the Light of the world, it is Christ who shines within us,” said His Eminence Metropolitan Nathanael. “Through Lighthouse, our emerging adults will learn how to kindle that same Light as they enter the rough waters of adulthood."
Registration for Lighthouse will open at 10 a.m. on Thursday, December 5, 2019 at www.chicago.goarch.org/lighthouse-camp. For questions and more information, please email Y2AM Chicago at y2am@chicago.goarch.org. Please follow Lighthouse on Instagram and Facebook @lighthousechicago).
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We are all Benedict Option Christians now...
ReplyDeleteWhat's Greek for lighthouse? Oh, yeah....
ReplyDeleteCurious to see how effective this will be. It seems to me that those children raised by members of the church who live the faith actively, end up doing fine more often than not. Whereas I’ve seen plenty of secularized kids raised nominally Orthodox, attending Orthodox events just to get drunk or find a romantic partner.
ReplyDeletePoint being, how helpful can a program be when the damage is mostly already done by the time a young adult is ready for college?
Well stated. It's not that these sorts of efforts are "bad", its just that they are on the one hand a small part of actual real (Orthodox) Christian formation, and on the other hand they uncritically borrow the forms of secular formation (i.e. is the Christian mind really form and made in "camp"?).
DeleteIf the Greeks or any other jurisdiction think these sorts of efforts are real counter-cultural formation to the TV in all these kids living rooms (bedrooms often), they are merely comforting themselves...
I know well the St. Mary summer camp. It has a long history of mentoring future leaders for the twin cities Orthodox churches.
ReplyDelete