Source: Orthodox Church in America
Suprasl, Poland [SUPRASL]
For the third year in a row students and clergy of the Orthodox Church in America participated in the annual World Gathering of Orthodox Youth – Suprasl 2024 – organized by Suprasl: A World Fellowship of Orthodox Youth at the Monastery of the Annunciation and the Suprasl Academy in northeastern Poland from June 30 – July 8.
Participating from the OCA were Father Nilos Nellis of Saint John in the Wilderness Orthodox Sanctuary, Birchdale, British Columbia; Caleb Hooper from Saint Nicholas Church, Mogadore, OH; and Jacob Simms from Saint Paul Church, Dayton, OH.
Father Nilos was one of the key-note speakers who delivered a series of reflections on the topics of gratitude, resilience, creation and the spiritual life.
Gathered under the theme, “It is Time for the Lord to Act: Liturgy and Creation,” Suprasl 2024 brought together 90 students from twenty-five countries. Through lectures and practical workshops, participants looked at the ways the Lord acts in our lives, especially through the Divine Services, and contemplated their own relationship with Jesus Christ through the creation and natural environment.
Suprasl 2024 was organized with the blessing and support of His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland, in conjunction with OrthNet and the Fellowship of Orthodox Youth in Poland. Participants represented ten of the world’s autocephalous Orthodox Churches.
“Suprasl was a unique experience for me. I was able to encounter the Orthodox faith through many cultures very different from my own,” said Caleb Hooper from Mogadore, Ohio. “Even with all the differences between my own culture and those cultures with a larger Orthodox presence, we all shared a commonality within Christ and communion with all Orthodox Christians. With the ongoing growth of the Orthodox Church in America, I hope we can bring the same joy and commitment to Christ into our own culture.”
In bringing Orthodox young people together from around the world, Surprasl 2024 created an opportunity for the participants to taste and celebrate the unity found within the Orthodox Faith regardless of nation, politics or culture.
Speaking about the importance of Suprasl, Father Heikki Huttunen from Finland said, “Politics presently stifles the relations among our Church hierarchy. Luckily young people are able to meet, listen to each other, build trust and forge friendships, united by our common faith. The inspired persons who prepare and run the [Suprasl] event render great service to Orthodox Christianity worldwide through this initiative.”
Suprasl 2024 benefited greatly from a group of speakers and workshop leaders who worked for half a year to develop an engaging program. The group included Dr. Elizabeth Theokritoff (UK), Dr. Aleksandra Stevanovic (Serbia), Dr. Ari Koponen (Finland), Father Nilos Nellis (Canada), Ksenia Medvedeva (Belarus), Father Dr. Seraphim Makhoul (Lebanon), Father Vladimir Misijuk (Poland, Mikhail Khotyakov (Germany), Father Panteleimon (Karczewski) (Poland), and Sisters Theohariti and Theosemni from the Chrysopigi Monastery in Crete.
“This is my second time participating in Suprasl’s World Gathering of Orthodox Youth,” said Sophia Chiriac from Romania. “I am really impressed to see how the event has grown and I appreciated the cohesiveness of the workshops and lectures this year. From Dr Theokritoff’s lectures on the Eucharist and the natural world; to Father Nilos’ reflections on living a life of gratitude, and Dr Alexandra’s lecture which explored the ways we can negotiate between the pace of the modern world and our need to care for God’s creation, the speakers were not only inspiring but gave me practical tools which I can use in my community.”
Apart from lectures and workshops, the participants were able to visit and experience the richness of Orthodoxy in Poland, through visits to the Monastery of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Zwerki, Poland, and the Monasteries of the Great Martyr Catherine and Saint Demetrios of Thessaloniki in Zaleszany and Saki respectively. While at the monastery in Saki, a Trisagion service was sung by the Lebanese participants for a Syrian Orthodox refugee who was found on the Belarussian/Polish border in 2022 and who was buried by the monastic brotherhood.
The participants also visited the famous monastery of Saints Mary and Martha on the Holy Mountain of Grabarka where, following tradition, they added a large hand-painted cross to the forest of thousands of crosses brought to the monastery by believers for the past 300 years.
“Suprasl was a great experience. As Americans we often complain about our minority position, the seeming loneliness of being Orthodox in such a big country. Well, it is not exactly different everywhere else, and the virtues we must practice are the same,” said Jacob Sims of Dayton. “By meeting together we are able to encourage each other and be reminded that Christ is active in His Church no matter how scattered we may be. Participating in Suprasl has helped me to understand that I am not alone in the Church, and not alone in whatever struggles I might have as an Orthodox Christian in the world. And that is very comforting. I hope more of my American peers can experience Suprasl in the future.”
A final highlight of the week was the midnight Divine Liturgy in the monastery’s cathedral church. Prior to the Divine Liturgy, Father Vladimir Misijuk, an alumnus of St. Vladimir’s Seminary, served the Proskomedia in the nave of the Church where the participants could witness and participate by verbally offering the names of departed and living faithful to be commemorated. This followed a presentation Father Vladimir offered earlier in the day on the Proskomedia and the silent prayers of the liturgy.
“I can’t find the words to express the joy I felt during the Divine Liturgy where we all sang and chanted the responses and hymns in our languages creating a harmony which I have never before experienced,” said Anna Berbati from Albania.
Suprasl is a unique project in the Orthodox world and inspirational for the participants who used the meeting to dream about more projects to manifest the unity of Orthodoxy. “In difficult times, times of crisis in the world Orthodox Church, it is the youth who will shine its unity,” said Maxim Fionik of Poland. “That is what he did here this week, and that is what we will continue to do and inspire in our parishes and communities.”
Suprasl is a non-profit organization that acts with the blessing and support of Orthodox hierarchs worldwide while being administratively independent. Its projects are made possible by the generous contributions of the Orthodox Vision Foundation, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Minneapolis, MN., Saint Mark Church, Bethesda, MD, Holy Ghost Church, Bridgeport, CT, Orthodox Journeys, and many individual donors. Suprasl 2024 was also made possible in large part thanks to a grant from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs under its “Public Diplomacy 2024” grant competition
Suprasl’s next events include a two-day walking pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain of Grabarka for the feast of the Transfiguration, August 15-20, and a student trip to Cappadocia led by Father John Behr, January 19 – 26.