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Faith as a young person in 2026 is complicated: America’s religious and secular attitudes seem to flourish in a paradoxical parallel, Orthodoxy continues to gain visibility as its online popularity grows, and culture continues to doubt young people’s potential for faith. And for many teenagers who grew up in the Church, childhood devotion now reaches a point where it must adapt— often painfully— to greet the burgeoning novelties of adulthood.
The St. John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival, a national speech competition for middle and high school student run by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America’s Department of Religious Education (DRE), distinctly equips youth for this shift. It provides space for young Orthodox Christians to engage with their faith in a uniquely academic context.
Within the festival, students aged 12-18 prepare and present short speeches on a topic of their choice provided by the Archdiocese in competition against peers at parish, regional, metropolis, and national levels. Participants spend months researching, writing, and rehearsing their speeches, with the Festival beginning around February and continuing as late as June each year.
Andrew Taxiarchos, a rising high school senior and parishioner at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Cranston, Rhode Island, is this year’s national winner of the Oratorical Festival’s senior division.
Andrew began competing in the Oratorical Festival as a seventh grader and has participated every year since. In 2025, as a junior in high school, he received an honorable mention at the national level, and, in 2026, won first place. His speech this year explored the theological significance of St. Andrei Rublev’s Trinity icon, which he chose to speak on after finding it amid a stack of icons on his church’s altar.
“I was curious what it represented in the Bible, and it was an Old Testament story,” he said. “While it is a common icon type, I think it’s very overlooked in our churches. I’ve been to a bunch of churches that have it, but it’s never really discussed.”
His speech poignantly explored the theological subtleties of the icon and expounded on their significance—a tree representing the Cross, a far-off mansion signifying heaven, an empty seat at the Trinity’s table left vacant for mankind. Since he could not display the icon during his speech, per the Festival’s no-props rule, Andrew opted to paint the icon verbally for his audience. His rich poetic language provided an immersive vision of Rublev’s icon, even for those who had perhaps never seen it.
Andrew believes that Rublev’s Trinity is a “reminder of why we’re Christian.”
“During these times of increasing turmoil, whether it may be wars, or conflict, or any of these things that may cause people to question their faith, it’s important to understand how Christ sacrificed himself for us, and how we need to live every day to the fullest by being representatives of Christ,” Andrew said. “By doing simple things, we can help others come to the Faith.”
The young speakers at the 2026 national competition, held this past June at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Northridge, California, all reflected the same intense love, care, and diligence for the Faith. Rather than a contest, Andrew simply considered the national Festival and the time spent with his competitors as “an opportunity to spread the Word.
“[The Festival] fosters a very strong sense of community, because we’re all like-minded individuals that want to get closer to God and get closer to each other in the process,” he said.
Andrew remarked that he felt honored to meet fellow Orthodox Christians his age at the competition in Northridge, even noting that he and his opponents played an escape room before delivering their speeches for the final time.
“I’m here to spread God’s Word, and that’s all that matters, because other people are going to hear the message and be impacted by it,” he said.
As a national champion, Andrew now looks forward to starting his senior year of high school in the fall. He wished to express sincere gratitude for the help of his parents, church, Sunday school, priests, and extended community.
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