Southern
Regional Sunday School, Youth, & Parents Conference
by MGSOSA Southern Regional Advisor
By the grace of God this season's regional conference continues to show how God has showered his blessings on our youth community. This year the winter regional conference was held at St. Ignatious
Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church in Dallas on Feb 3rd, 2007. For the first time we had the privilege of conducting a joint conference with our regional Sunday school association. This brought much more parental and parish interest to our meeting. Under the leadership of Southern regional Sunday school Director, Mr. Ckutty Andrews, a regional committee of elected Sunday school teachers initiated the plan to conduct a regional
conference for the Sunday school association. They decided to have a special session for
the parents during this conference. MGSOSA coordinators suggested conducting our
regional conference simultaneously. The Sunday school teachers wholeheartedly embraced this idea and took care of all the planning and co-ordination for the event.
Participants included St. Mary's SOC Houston, St. Mary's SOC Dallas & St. Ignatious SOC Carrollton. The other parishes in this region were also invited to send delegations but were prevented by hardships. In total there were 160 participants.
The overall theme of the conference was "The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth" Psalms 145: 18. The Youth group concentrated specifically on leadership development with Moses as the chief example.
The session opened with prayer at 10am lead by the priests and deacons in attendance. These included Very Rev. Fr. Joseph C. Joseph, Rev. Dr. Varghese Manikat, Rev. Fr. Shinoj Joseph, Rev. Fr. V.M Thomas, Rev. Fr. Alias Aramath, Rev. Dn. Zacharia Varghese, Rev. Dn. Martin Babu, Rev. Dn. Abin Puravathu.
The keynote address was delivered by Rev. Dr. Varghese Manikat. Achen elaborated on the theme for the conference tying together Sunday school and youth group age issues in a meaningful way. Then the youth began a focused session on leadership facilitated by Dn. Varghese after an icebreaker session by Ms. Thomas. In this session the participants were encouraged to define leadership, what traits leaders possess, and employing leadership skills to better each members lives as well as the growth of the church. Most participants were able to draw parallels between the development of Moses' leadership abilities and the trajectory of our
own.
During the focused sessions, Sunday school students, youth league members and parents spend time in learning about Bible hero. Devotional songs were taught during these sessions, which were carefully chosen to highlight the noticeable character of the groups Bible hero.
After lunch another youth session dwelt upon introducing the numerous new members that had graduated into the youth league about the different activities we recently have engaged in. All members were educated about the responsibilities of MGSOSA leaders.
The final joint agenda items included a panel discussion with parents and youth moderated by Rev. Fr. Manikat. The topic dwelt upon women's roles in daily church activities. The majority of attendees felt very comfortable with women taking leading roles in various church organizations and ministry activities, managed ultimately by the Vicar and leaving the Eucharistic service in traditional form. The conference ended with a brief cultural show and closing prayer.
Conclusion
This Winter Conference was a success due to the perseverance and Christian spirit of participants and organizers. We thank Almighty God for a wonderful atmosphere of learning and spirituality. May God grant us more opportunities to bring our young people together for His glory.
