Youth Committee Mor Yohanon Church, Hengelo (O)

The Netherlands

April 15th 2000

Announcement: from reality to ideal!

It’s not going well with the youth of the Syriac-Orthodox Church of Antioch. The fact that the younger generation hardly know each other anymore (outside the Syriac-haflat/ Syriac parties), is a question which causes a lot of anxiety. Let alone knowing their parents and their church(leaders). Everyday our churches are loosing members, especially those who grew up in the Diaspora. Another important thing is that we Syriacs just can't succeed in putting our "Syriac-stamps" upon the societies where we live in. In past history there were founded a lot of Syriac unions who tried all this and a lot more, but alas, this has never been reached…yet!

Why do we think we can manage goals where others have failed in? Well dear reader, this time we will use you! And time is just too perfect at this time of life not using the youth for problems which they might have eyes and solutions for. That’s why we call up to the younger generation this time. Let’s change this situation for God’s sake and help us get back "the Syriac charisma" we had centuries ago. Our intentions are definitely not to start a revolution against both, our elderly generation and our clergymen. On the contrary dear reader, we try to help them understanding this so-called "modern-world-spirit" and work together in a brotherly combined union in our common battle against terrifying developments like assimilation, acculturation, alienation of the youth from their parents and their church, etc. What our exact goals are will be shown in short underneath.

Our temporary goal is to unite all the eight Syriac churches in the Netherlands. We believe that if we don’t carry on a campaign against those developments such as assimilation for example, there will be no assured future anymore for the Syriacs here in the Netherlands. How many times have we, the younger generation, heard that we are the future? True, but in reality we are being ignored. Is there actually someone who understands us, let alone listens to our voice at any field in life whatsoever? Don't we all believe that they can’t compare us anymore with the youth of some decades ago living in our home countries? And aren't we much more educated in most things?

Therefore we ask each one of you to stand up and help us organize ourselves and show everyone they are wrong about us. Furthermore, let us help the elder generation that we know very well how to handle terrifying developments like assimilation, acculturation etc in this Diaspora we’re living in today.

That’s why we have sent all our eight churches (without counting our monastery) here in the Netherlands a letter. In these letters we asked the churches if they would like to invite us, so that we can (re)present our future plans at the churches in the presence of their youth. Some of our plans will be revealed already to give you a short impression of our ideas.

Intentions are that of each Syriac church here in Holland there will be chosen three representatives who represent the wishes and needs of the youth of the churches they will represent. (First we believe that it will work out better when we organize the youth, then we can and shall focus on other generations among our people). This will be the so-called "Central-Committee" (CC). This CC can be seen as a national overall organization which will discuss the wishes and needs of the Suryoye here in our country. This CC has to come up with all kinds of activities (e.g. interchurch sport events, common church masses, etc. etc.) aiming at the unity of the Syriacs. In this way we hope to create a feeling of unity and hope in our common Christian faith, nationalism and culture, along with other elements not mentioned here.

With the help of our Lord Almighty, we can extend this project in the future to an international level, so that we might create a sort of "Syriac World Central Committee" which represents our whole nation. It’s comparable with our brothers and sisters of the SUA (Syriac Universal Alliance) and the SAEYC (Syriac Aramean European Youth Center). But the difference is that we have a different goal(s) and that we work from another perspective. We like to work from a kind of "church-perspective" where they rather work from a "nationalistic inspired" perspective. Our main goal is in essence unifying the churches all over the world and bring some of our people, mostly youth, back to their "homes" where they belong.

We express our hope to the Lord of heaven and earth, that He will help us to make our churches and our Syriac nation flourish again; as in earlier times!

What we expect from you dearest reader? First of all, your presence in the church you belong to when we will be invited by our sister churches to present our ideas by means of a presentation. On the exact date of presentation you will be kept updated. Secondly, we hope to get that same very night, after the presentations, to get a good impression of the representatives of your church. So prepare yourself, because we hope that it just might be you! Thirdly, we hope that our brothers and sisters in other countries will wake up with us and protect their families and friends too from the dangers of the Diaspora. We really hope they will show a same sort of endeavor for our people too, so that we might work together someday soon in the future.

Every one knows and says that the youth is the future. The time has come to show courage and guts doing something for our Syriac community, which belongs to one of the oldest in the world. Nevertheless, we have to realize that we can not achieve our goals without the help and blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The time is right to demand the future, before the future will demand us!!

The youth committee of the Mor Yohanon Church in Hengelo (O), The Netherlands