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The Office of the Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America announced the publication today of the 2020 Youth Report that was prepared for the Orthodox Church in America. Mr. Dimitrios Rentel researched and wrote this report in early 2020, after he had spent the previous summer visiting Church summer camps across the United States. At these camps, and also through the use of online surveys, Dimitrios solicited input directly from children, young adults, parents, and clergy on what was desired with regard to youth work in the Church (see story here and related story here).
This work was done in response to the generous pledges that were made to support youth work in the Church at the end of the 19th All-American Council in July 2018. Subsequent to this Council, with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon, Archpriest Alexander Rentel, Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America, and Archdeacon Joseph Matusiak, then Personal Secretary to His Beatitude, decided to have someone go out and ask the Church directly how to best use the money, before it was spent.
The present report does not attempt to solve problems, or provide one answer to the questions involving youth work. Rather, it collates the answers and responses that were received, and presents them in a synthetic manner
Dimitrios presented this report to the Metropolitan Council at its regular meeting in Spring 2020, right before the onset of the pandemic. His Beatitude had intended that it would be formally presented to the Holy Synod at its Spring 2020 meeting, which did not take place in person because of the pandemic. Only recently did the Holy Synod have an opportunity to consider this report.
