Teenagers from St. Sophia Cathedral in Los Angeles were the first to complete a new program call the "Rite of Commitment" in the spring of 2006. The goal fo the "Rite of Commitment" is to guide teens to embrace and experience the Orthodox Christian Faith in a personal way. This is done through an exciting and challenging program that offers academic study as well as physically going out and acting upon our Christian Faith. The Very Rev. Father John Bakas, Dean of St. Sophia Cathedral, and Helen Lambros oversaw the west coast version of the new program.

The program was developed to try new ways of introducing our teens to the life of Jesus Christ. One of the goals that our planning committee set for ourselves was to break the trend of allowing our youth to become the next generation of "consumers" within the community, who have become accustomed to and come to expect basketball tournaments, Greek dancing, social parties, glendis, ski trips and other social excursions as the main interaction with Church. As an alternative, this program redirects the focus of Church and community on the teachings of Jesus Christ, which was presented to these students in a challenging and dynamic way.

The students were treated liked adults wince we asked them to give their own personal commitment to completing the program. Each student was given a mentor that he/she contacted once a week. The mentors and students reviewed and discussed the ongoing curriculum and shared personal thoughts and experiences that pertained to that week’s lesson. The course answered questions important to teenage students such as: "Why should we go to Church?" and "What does God save us from?"

Service projects within and out of the Church community were also part of the program’s curriculum. One early morning, the students met at St. Sophia to fulfill the diakonia/service portion of the program. That morning, wearing St. Sophia t-shirts they walked through the neighborhood picking up all the trash on the streets and sidewalks while they introduced themselves to neighbors, shop owners and curious on-lookers. It was a chance to witness their faith while serving the neighborhood that surrounds St. Sophia Cathedral.

A time comes in every child’s life as they approach adulthood when a personal religious choice must be made. As program leaders, we asked ourselves this question: Have we given our teens the information and experience needed for them to choose the Christian struggle as a major part of their daily living? Our reply was to offer a program that lets us come together in an environment of honesty, where even doubts were shared without the teenagers being judged. It was not our goal to turn them into the type of adults that we think they should be. Rather, we looked at the teachers, mentors and parents as the vessels that God is using to help Him develop these young people into mature adults that God is in the process of creating.

It was a difficult and challenging task to kick-off this ministry in Los Angeles. We began planning for it only weeks after I had been ordained a Priest. We were successful thanks to many dedicated faithful people who always kept in the forefront the importance of a program like this. We completed our first year with 23 teens declaring what they believe in front of the Church congregation.

Rev. Fr. Bill Tragus