“A Lamp to my feet.”
ACOY QLD Hosts it’s 2019 Retreat
To mark the beginning of the Dormition Fast, ACOY Queensland held their Youth Retreat at St Andrew’s Theological College Retreat and Recreation Centre on Bribie Island. Young adults from across South-East Queensland and a handful from interstate were in attendance from the 2nd – 4th of August.
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my Path”
Psalm 118:93
The theme of the weekend, taken from Psalm 118, was, “A Lamp to my feet.” The attendees were joined by Fr. James Savage, Fr. Andrew Smith, and Fr. Romanos Stergiou, who conducted three spiritual talks providing much insight and inspiration and real-life examples on Orthodox living. Fr James had an in-depth discussion with us about the Theotokos and the main theme of the retreat. Father Romanos spoke about the various scriptural names given to Christ and how they can show us a way to live out our lives as Christians. And Fr Andrew spoke about the passions and confession, specifically how to combat them.
The weekend also consisted on games, activities, workshops and a Q&A session which brought forth great enlightenment. There was a great attendance and some extra youth and young families joined the retreat during the day on Saturday. It was great to be able to cater to the young parents to join; the children played and interacted while the parents were able to attend talks.
Worship and Fellowship
A Paraklesis service on Friday evening and several the youth participated in the Choir throughout the weekend. On Sunday morning the Divine Liturgy was celebrated, to which the youth welcomed the attendance of the parishioners of St Mary Magdalene’s Mission. It was a blessing to share in worship and fellowship with our brothers and sisters from the Sunshine Coast.
It was a beautiful weekend filled with bonding, new friendships, a wealth of knowledge and blessed times. We sincerely thank Fr. Romanos, Fr. James and Fr. Andrew for their insight and experience. We would also like to thank the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia for the use of their wonderful facilities. Lastly the weekend would not have been a success without several volunteers from St Paul’s Antiochian Orthodox Church in Brisbane who worked tirelessly to support the youth throughout the weekend.
We pray to continue to grow and to strengthen our Orthodox family in Queensland by the grace of God.
