NEW YORK: June 12, 2009
Message From the Chancery of the First Hierarch 

The approaching Day of All Saints is the Day of Youth in the Russian Church Abroad. This celebration is intended to include all three main socio-cultural groups of the youth of our Holy Church: young people living in Russia, abroad and those who converted to Orthodoxy in the countries of the Russian Church Abroad. In connection with this, our clergy is called to special prayers on this day for our young people and to organize edifying events for them. 

His Eminence Metropolitan Luaus of blessed memory, at the opening of the 12th World Russian People’s Council in Moscow, said: “The youth is not only our future, but also our present. Young people deserve our special attention by virtue of the fact that they are called upon to open new paths to disseminate the truths of the Gospel. Without the youth, we would not only be deprived of the ability to progress, we would stagnate.” And further: “But if we attract and unite our youth, especially those young people who burn with love for God and the desire to serve the Church and Fatherland, we will be able to accomplish great feats to the benefit of the Church, Orthodoxy and our much-suffering Motherland.” Our late Vladyka added: “The Russian Church Abroad, scattered throughout the world, can especially fulfill this mission, fostering the expansion of Orthodoxy and its great legacy among the peoples, spreading the good news to those ‘which were afar off, and to them that were nigh’ (Ephesians 2:17).”