It's good that so many young men in Australia responded. Fifteen readers is a lot, especially for the diaspora. In Rostov over the past year, only three people have been tonsured, and even then they were found with difficulty.
That's encouraging to hear—fifteen at once is a real commitment from those young guys. We could use that kind of turnout here in Denver; our last reader tonsure was two years ago and he was already in his forties.
Makes you wonder what they're doing differently down in Sydney to draw them in.
Good to see that many young blokes stepping up in Sydney. Fifteen is a solid number—our parish here in Sydney only had four readers last I counted, and two of them are pushing sixty. Wonder if the archbishop’s youth group nights had anything to do with it.
In Nizhny last year, we also tonsured three readers, but all of them were already over forty. And here are fifteen young people in Sydney - I wonder if such a response is true from the Archbishop’s youth evenings. Good deal.
Happy for the Australians, really solid. In Samara, not a single new reader has been tonsured in two years, although there are plenty of men in the church. Are there really no young people in Rostov or are they simply not coming?
In Krasnodar this year, too, only two people were tonsured, although there were more people willing. I wonder, in Rostov, what is the main reason - the parents don’t let them in or the guys themselves don’t see the point in it?
Here in Munich, too, they don’t often tonsure, but when they take young people, it’s usually those who have been serving at the altar for years, and not just “there are enough men.” Maybe in Samara they simply don’t find people who are willing to come and study regularly? And in Rostov, by the way, I wonder if they tried to work with seminarians?
In Nizhny, too, only three readers have been tonsured over the past year, and all are already over forty, as Irina writes. Fifteen young people in Sydney is really significant for the diaspora. I wonder if Archbishop Macarius has been having these youth evenings for a long time or just started them recently?
If it is true that the youth evenings of Archbishop Makarios have helped, then it is a good job. Here in Gjirokastra last year only one young man became a reader, and he had been serving at the altar for five years. I wonder if in Australia they even teach them how to sing properly, because here it often depends on that.
In Novosibirsk, too, in recent years, young readers have hardly been tonsured; mostly mature men come. Fifteen in Sydney is really rare, especially for the diaspora. And youth evenings at Macarius, judging by what they write, have been going on for about five years now, not for the first year.
Yes, in Gjirokastër we had the same problem, Elena – a young man after five years at the altar and only then became a reader. It seems to me that in Australia they prepare them more systematically, because Makarios has organized youth evenings that keep the boys close to the church. Do you think it would help us if we did something similar for the young people who are already serving at the altar?
Fifteen does seem like a good turnout. Our little parish in Boston scraped by with just two readers for years—one was my late husband who could barely see the page by the end. Did those youth nights in Sydney mix in any chanting practice or was it mostly talks and pizza?
Yes, Elena, in Elbasan we had the same thing - the boys stay at the altar for years but they don't make them readers immediately. I liked what you said about singing, because without the right voice the service comes off as dry. Do you think youth nights would help us to keep the boys more interested?
In Minsk, over the past couple of years, no more than three or four readers a year have been tonsured, although there are plenty of people willing to do so. I think that in Rostov, like here, most often the guys themselves are not eager - fishing, work, girls, and serving in the church is postponed until later. Do your parents often interfere in Krasnodar or is this rare?
