St. Sophia Cathedral teens complete pilot Rite of Commitment program

Fr. John Bakas, dean of St. Sophia Cathedral, presented 23 teens to the St. Sophia community at the end of the Divine Liturgy April 9, 2006 marking their completion of a pilot program called the Rite of Commitment, a religious rite of passage from childhood to adulthood.

The Rite of Commitment is a personal declaration of faith in Jesus Christ through the Orthodox Church after a period of preparation and religious study with adult mentorship. The voluntary program’s sole intention is to help the youth embrace the Orthodox Christian faith in a deeper personal way through an exciting program of practical study prayer and preparation with the supervision of a religious mentor.

The teens, who spent seven weeks in study and preparation, walked in procession to the front of the altar, carrying lit candles, preceded by their teachers and mentors. Fr. Bakas described the structure of the program and the necessity and importance of itl the time in every child’s life as they enter adulthood where a personal religious choice and commitment must be made by them. This was done for them in their baptism by the godparent.

Fr. Bill Tragus, recently ordained assistant priest, taught the course, and will continue in coordinating ongoing community service projects for the teens.

The original presentation for this program was based on four words of Archbishop Demetrios, "to admire, to wonder, to think, and to create" and presented at the National Philoptochos meeting in Chicago, IL by Majorie Moyar, Ph.D. of Cleveland, OH and Helen L. Lambros of Los Angeles. This was also presented at the Archbishop’s Roundtable for Family meetings and Metropolitan Gerasimos encouraged and supported the program.

Two pilot programs in Cleveland at Sts. Constantine and Helen and St. Sophia Cathedral in Los Angeles would follow.

The teens recited the Lord’s prayer in Greek, the Creed and sang the Apolikion of the Holy Trinity "Evlogitos O Theos" which was taught to them by Michele Patzakis Prappas, an operatic soprano of international acclaim. They verbally proclaimed their faith in Jesus Christ. Three of the graduates gave a short speech on how the program affected them. It was enthusiastically received by the parishioners with both tears and applause. The group will also be involved in service projects in the neighborhood and at the Cathedral.

Parents attended a similar class taught by two graduate seminarians, Andrea Bakas, and John Coroneus and a bible teacher, Charlotte Miserlis.

Helen Lambros directed this effort assisted by Viktoria Kaye Amini.