youth retreat report
DESCRIPTION
SAINT NICHOLAS CONVENTSUMMER YOUTH RETREAT 2011TRANSCRIPT
SAINT NICHOLAS CONVENT SUMMER YOUTH RETREAT 2011
For two weeks from Sunday July 31 until Saturday August 13 St Nicholas Convent was host to a number of young people for our first annual summer youth retreat. The first week 22 teenagers ages 13‐20 gathered for a week of religious instruction, prayer, work for the Convent and social events. Morning and evening prayers were held every day. Wednesday August 3 Mr. Adam Foley, choir director of the Holy Ascension parish (SiR) in Rochester, NY kindly volunteered his services and led some music workshops. Archbishop Andronik also visited and worked with the less experienced singers. That evening the young people served as the choir and readers for the Vespers/Matins service to Saint Mary Magdalene and the next day participated in the Divine Liturgy. Nearly all the participants received Holy Communion having prepared with Holy Confession in the preceding days. The following week 25 younger children ages 6‐12 visited the Convent for a week of activities. The kids were a great help to the Convent doing numerous jobs such as cleaning the pond, painting a wooden fence and polishing church vessels. Between trips to the nearby lake for a swim the children kept busy with various arts and crafts activities and learning more about their faith with talks by Convent priest Fr Anthony and monk Theophan on icons. Besides daily prayers the group also took part in evening services and Divine Liturgy on St Panteleimon Day. The Convent chapel has a large icon of St Panteleimon which previously belonged to St. Philaret of New York. As a parting gift each retreat participant received a small icon print of St Philaret as a remembrance of their visit to the Convent. We look forward to seeing you all again next summer and the older ones for our Nativity retreat this December! Special thanks to all the parents who helped including matushkas Alexandra Dobrovanov, Christine Chernjavsky and Ruth Hinton; Mrs. Olga Majewski and Mr and Mrs Philip Rapp. Below some photos from both sessions. Additional photos will appear on the Convent website (www.stnicholasconvent.org) in the near future.
WEEK 1 -- 14-20 year olds
Fun at the beach
Taking a break from sanding the fence The Greek gardeners at work
Music workshops with Adam Foley and Archbishop Andronik
WEEK 2 -- 6-12 year olds
Cleaning the pond Painting the fence
Some of the brave mothers at work
Preparing for holy communion Decorating eggs