Russian Patriarch calls for powerful Orthodox youth movement

The new Patriarch of Moscow called for creating a powerful Orthodox youth movement in Russia which would have a grassroots group in "each of our educational institutions." "I would be happy if you and I could start a congress at Luzhniki [a stadium in Moscow] with 100,000 young people present. But we have to work very well for such a congress to become a reality," Patriarch Kirill said at a meeting in Moscow with Orthodox youth.

He urged the clergy to "build up work with youth at parish, deanery, diocese level," but it should be the main task, he said, to train both clergy and laity to work with youth.

"We should build a network for youth work. We should have a grassroots group, organization, in each of our educational institutions. How can one engage in Christian work among youth if a college has no youth organization of its own?" Kirill said.

Russia is "an open society, where all this is permissible, feasible," he said.

"We should consolidate our ranks at this grassroots level, where youth congresses would bring together tens of thousands of people and would not be a lot of window dressing or a television show but a genuine manifestation of our work, of what is happening in Church and society," the Patriarch said.

Source: Interfax religion