Each year, a dedicated group of volunteers has put in a huge amount of time and energy to organise two main events:
- The Teen Retreat for 13-17 year olds
- The Syezd for 18-29 year olds
We are truly grateful to these volunteers who give up so much of their own time, not just during the events, but throughout the whole year, to make them happen. The Diocese also provides significant financial support and fundraising so we can keep the costs as low as possible and make the events accessible for young people from all our parishes.
Over the past few years (since events restarted after the lockdowns), we’ve carefully reviewed what’s worked well and what hasn’t. After reading through all the feedback from our 2025 Youth Events, it’s become clear that we need to make some changes to keep these events strong and positive into the future.
These events have always had a strong faith focus, but they’ve also given young people from different parts of the Diocese a great chance to meet, make friends, and socialise. They are held during the Nativity Fast (the time leading up to Christmas in the Orthodox Church), so everyone is asked to take part in the spiritual side of the event and keep a respectful, calm atmosphere.
Unfortunately, in recent years a minority of attendees have not followed the Code of Conduct that they (and for under-18s, their parents) agreed to before coming. At the Teen Retreat especially, this kind of behaviour has become more common — including ignoring curfew and instructions from supervisors. This has made it much harder for the volunteers and organisers, who often end up feeling exhausted and disrespected. Many have said it’s making them less likely to volunteer again in the future. Some attendees have also told us this behaviour has spoiled their experience and made them less keen to return.
We’ve tried to improve things each year by updating our policies, communicating expectations more clearly, and adding more chaperones. We also worked with our safeguarding partner, Kooyoora, to learn from their experience and from other organisations.
We want our youth and young adult events to be safe, spiritually enriching and enjoyable. For these reasons, we are adjusting our strategy going forward:
- The Syezd (for 18-29 year olds) and Teen Retreat (13-17 year olds) will no longer run in its current format.
- Instead, we will be creating new Spiritual Retreats for this age group, to be held at several different times throughout the year.
- We will keep building more cross-parish youth activities throughout the year to give young people more chances to connect across the Diocese.
We will be updating our policies, including introducing a participant eligibility and acceptance process that may take behaviour history into account for the new Spiritual Retreats when they are established.
We have a lot of work ahead to prepare for these changes, but we’re excited to create a new and better era of youth and young adult activities.
More details will be shared as plans develop. If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at: youth.rocor.anz@gmail.com
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