Immediate ActionYouth and the RSE

Ours is a powerful voice. And our belief in the unity and interconnectedness of all things constitutes a strong argument for

immediate action-Patriarch Bartholomew, October 2009

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Background Proposal Key Milestones Potential Issues Next Steps

Contents

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His All Holiness, Patriarch Bartholomew, has been recognized as one of the leading advocates for the environment in the world.

His Symposia on Religion, Science and the Environment have laid a strong foundation for us to build upon.

He has called upon all of us to take “immediate action.”

Background – Ecumenical Patriarch

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Summer program at Brown University for High School students focusing on Leadership

Participants called upon to establish personal plan for leadership program back at home

Includes resources to provide advice as projects take root

Background – Leadership Program

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Engage Orthodox youth in religious and environmental projects

Increase environmental awareness Grassroots level promotion of the message

of Patriarch Bartholomew Provide community service for youth

Goals of Program

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Initiate an annual Greek Orthodox Youth and Family RSE Research Project, using the Patriarch’s RSE Symposia as our foundation

Engage as many parishes/teams as possible Conclude our research with a mini-

Symposium

Proposal - Overview

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Projected Timeline

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Kickoff◦ Insufficient response

Will need to work with parish priests to encourage participation Encourage family participation if youth feel this is “too much”

◦ Overwhelming response Be prepared to support larger teams Limit teams to one per parish Be prepared to add additional topics

While underway◦ One or more teams not making progress

Work with team members to recruit additional help Stress importance of initial symposium having enough teams to not

compromise success Impact of symposium

◦ Need to ensure sufficient coverage to maximize impact◦ Work to provide coverage in parish bulletins, Observer, GOYA E-bulletin

Potential Issues

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Department/Ministry Pros Cons

Inter-GOYA •Structure already in place for inter-parish communications•Within each parish, GOYA meetings provide opportunity to discuss & plan

•In all likelihood, only 1-3 youth per parish will participate in symposium•Beginning with entire GOYA may be too broad an audience to keep them engaged

Church & Society •Could assist with publicity via Facebook, blog•New department with significant focus

•Formal mechanism does not exist to work with each parish

District Youth Ministry •Office is responsible for coordinating youth activities within district•This would help emphasize the importance of this project

Religious Education •Dept already has resources on education, Patriarch

•May conflict with SJCOF in terms of priority

Support / Leadership Options

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Determine best path of support/leadership within Archdiocese District◦ If he is interested, we could kick it off through his

department and then use support structures of Inter-GOYA and Youth Ministries to help engage parishes

Prepare proposal to be presented to wider audience

Begin to recruit volunteers from Resurrection

Next Steps

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Detailed phases of program

Appendix

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Determine most appropriate organizational structure, working with one or more of:◦ Inter-GOYA◦ Department of Religious Education◦ Department of Society and Culture

Propose topics for symposium◦ For first year, we should mirror Patriarch’s symposia◦ Each parish/team would select one of the eight bodies of

water covered by RSE Symposia◦ Each team would then focus on

Original symposium Updates since that symposium Recommendations

Initiation

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Work with one or more of the departments on slide 8

Approach priests and advisors of the District parishes◦ Possible Parishes to approach are Babylon, Bridgeport,

Brookville, Hartford, Hempstead, New Rochelle, Roslyn, Rye, South Hampton…

Establish 3-8 teams, each with 3-5 students◦ May have more than one per parish if demand exists◦ Neighboring parishes may collaborate on one team

Each team to create a presentation on their given topic◦ Students would be encouraged to involve their families as

means of further “spreading the word” ◦ This can count for community service hours

Engagement of Parishes

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Distribute topics among parishes Agree to time frame for research and

preparation of results, likely 5-6 months Schedule periodic checkpoints during that

period to determine whether teams are on schedule or assistance is needed

Research Phase

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One parish would host symposium where all results would be presented

This would also be used to promote environmental goals of His All Holiness to a wider audience

Results would be made available online and for publication (e.g. Orthodox Observer?)

Conclusion

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Evaluate success of program Determine feasibility of expanding to

additional Metropolises Choose topics for following year

◦ Rivers, Forests, Energy, etc...

Post Conclusion

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