AOYA (Albanian Orthodox Youth of America)
The mission of AOYA is to strengthen the relationship of young Orthodox Christians with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as well as create a fellowship with the St. Mary’s community.
We meet once a month in the church hall for 2 hours. Our meetings bring together the youth of the church from grades 6 to 12. We start each meeting with a general meeting about upcoming events in the church and activities that as a group we can participate in. In previous years, we have helped decorate the Petafi for Holy Friday, serve food during Presanctified services at St. Mary’s, and volunteered at St. Mary’s Sunday School.
After our general meeting, we have Christian Education. We have discussed many topics from Bible scriptures to movie’s that we watched as a group. The last part of our meeting will be followed by an activity consisting of games or participating in our annual Ice Cream Social.
During some months, we will have a group outing. We participated in the Men’s Club Bowling night for College Scholarships, went tubing, and went to Davis’s Mega Maze.
As a group we also like to help the community of Worcester. In the previous year, we participated in the Heart Association’s 5 mile Heart and Stroke walk.
We can’t wait for you to join AOYA.
For more information please contact Sydney Dionis at smchurchyouthgroup@gmail.com