The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America (ACOB-US) declared the year 2021 as the Year of the Youth.
The decision was made at the annual meeting of the assembly, which took place online on October 6-7.
The goal is to recognize the youth as the future of the Church. “Our young people need us to collaborate on their behalf, and I am grateful for the work being done to expedite and innovate new ministries,” said Archbishop Elpidophoros of America.
The Archbishop added he wanted the action “to go beyond words and platitudes and really do something special for our youth… something that looks to the future with realism and faith in our increasingly complex and complicated world.”
The first measure towards this goal is creating a new Youth Agency.
38 out of the 51 the representatives of the Canonical Orthodox Churches from the United States attended the online meeting. This was the first meeting chaired by Archbishop Elpidophoros.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the ACOB-US Executive Committee has met on a weekly basis. Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Nicolae of the Two Americas is a member of the Executive Committee and the Chairman of the Committee for Canonical Regional Planning.
