International meeting of Orthodox youth

From Tuesday 6 to Friday 10 October a meeting of Orthodox young people (International Youth Exchange) was held at the Monastic Fraternity of Bose at Ostuni. The meeting, which was entitled «Implementing Conciliarity in Our Life», was organized the Orthodox Youth Association "Syndesmos" (http://www.syndesmos.org/). The participants (around ten) came from Greece, England, France, Finland and Bielorussia.

Ostuni, 6-10 October 2008

Ostuni, 6-10 October 2008

The aim of the meeting was sharing the life of prayer and work of the monks of Bose and implementing the knowledge of some elements of the Roman Catholic Church. Sr. Theoktisti of St. John the Baptist Monastery in  Anatoli (Greece) introduced different topics of discussion, such as reconciliation, the relationship between law and freedom, and ecumenism in practice. Sr. Raffaela and Br. Raffaele of the Monastery of Bose also attended to the whole meeting. Fr. Arsenio and Fr. Giovanni of the Greek Orthodox parish of Brindisi celebrated an Orthodox Vesper service and the final Divine Liturgy. On Thursday 10 October all the group visited the Basilica of St. Nicholas in Bari, where it was welcomed by Fr. Rosario Scognamiglio, the Dean of the Institute of Patristic and Ecumenical Studies "St. Nicholas." The group visited then a Catholic parish in Bari, where Fr. Enrico D'abbico, the parish priest, introduced it to the pastoral activities of the parish. Then the group visited the Benedictine Monastery of Noci, where it met the Abbot, Fr. Donato Ogliari, and had a look to the library. Finally they attended an ecumenical service in a parish at Locorotondo, where they were welcomed by the parish priest Fr. Franco Pellegrino and several parish faithful.  Before the group left Ostuni, Spyros Tsimouris, General Secretary of Syndesmos, on behalf of all the participants expressed his joy for the good proceedings of the meeting and stressed the great importance of this kind of events for the actual reconciliation between the Christian Churches.