JOY
Much of what we learn comes at a
very young age in our lives. For this reason it is important
to have our younger children involved in the work of the Church.
Through Joy who meet every 2nd and 4th Friday of the month
at 7:00 p.m., our children are kept in touch with the importance
and significance of the Church and faith. E-mail Argie
Smith for more information.
About JOY
The Junior Orthodox Youth, or JOY, is the
ministry to 3rd through 6th grade children of the Greek Orthodox
Archdiocese of America. The mission and goal of the JOY ministry
is to lead our young people into experiencing the Holy Orthodox
faith. By developing a personal relationship with our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ and becoming active sacramental members
of the living church, our young people will be equipped with
the tools necessary to assist them in their journey toward
salvation. Our bimonthly meetings engage and teach the children
via games, artistic projects, lively discussions and song.
Over the years it has become a tradition to
include the making of prosforon (offering bread used in the
Divine Liturgy), Kolyva (memorial wheat), artos (bread for
artoclasia) and Lazarakia into each years JOY program. During
these very popular activities the children and parents have
the opportunity to learn about these traditions and actively
participate in making their own loaves of prosforon and artos,
mixing and decorating their own bowls of Kolyva and creating
a likeness of Jesus’ friend Lazarus out of bread on
the eve of the Saturday of Lazarus. These important traditions
of our Holy Orthodox Church can easily be lost. It is our
hope and our prayer that by introducing these traditions to
our children at an early age that our JOY children and their
families will become more actively involved in the richness
of the Orthodox faith.
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