[VYholden]

I think the important thing with youth (I am speaking of those who are a bit troubled, and they can even be children of religious people) is that they feel loved and feel that they are important and that they matter. Again I am not speaking of those who have direction and stability in their teen souls...but those who are confused and enticed by the subcultural life....This is why many youth get enthralled by Evangelicals in the U.S. and elsewhere and leave the Church.

One comment made by the parents of teens at a dinner party here in Athens I was at the other day, is that church services are way too early for teens (who medical science has proved need more morning sleep). I don't think it would be a strange thing to have a later Divine Liturgy here and there. I heard that the Metropolis was going to do this (have two DL's, the latter one being for the sake of the youth) on Sundays, but you hear alot of things here in Greece that never materialize, and right now there are renovations being done on the Church, and they have moved to another church temporarily, so there is no way to check.

I listen to a religious talk show every Sunday which is on television here, right after the live Divine Liturgy is aired, hosted by a Bishop who has guest speakers. A priest and well known youth worker were his guests, and they were saying so many of the same things I am. The youth here in Athens have so much enticement of the 'world', and it is not a conservative society, to say the least. They also mentioned the example of a teen who went to church and commented: "no one said hello and I said hello to no one"...in other words, no one went out of their way to greet him, not the people manning the candle stand, not one congregant, not the priest. I think that Arch. Christodoulos was on the mark in that we need to give youth our priority and we need to reach out to them and show them that we love them in a non-judgemental way. We are religious people here or we would not be here, and I am assuming that to some degree or another, in one denomination or another, we always thought about God... We cannot judge what the majority of teens are going through and feeling by how we were as youth. Too many youth will *never* come to the Church if the church does not *come* to them through gestures.

In Christ,
Alice