The Young Adult League, a ministry of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, has set a goal for its members to assemble 5,000 health kits to aid victims of the disaster. The “Gift of the Heart” health kits will bolster the efforts of IOCC to deliver life-saving relief supplies to areas hardest hit by the tsunami.
    
A humanitarian aid agency of Orthodox Christians, IOCC is participating in ongoing Church World Service airlifts of humanitarian supplies to South Asia. The shipments contain medical supplies; shelter and sanitation kits; blankets and emergency foodstuffs; and other critical supplies.
    
“We will continue to support these very concrete airlift efforts in the coming weeks,” said IOCC Executive Director Constantine M. Triantafilou, “along with Orthodox church-based efforts in the United States – such as assembling and sending thousands of ‘Gift of the Heart’ health and school kits.”
    
Health kits assembled by the Young Adult League will be collected at a warehouse facility in New Windsor, Md., and delivered through ongoing humanitarian airlifts to the tsunami-affected countries.
    
“We are grateful for the outpouring of support from Orthodox Christians across the country,” Triantafilou said, “including this generous commitment by Orthodox young people.”
    
Young adult chapters throughout the U.S. will be assembling and collecting the health kits at various functions, social gatherings and parish events through Valentine’s Day, Monday, Feb. 14. The “Gift of the Heart” kits include basic materials such as soap, toothpaste, Band-Aids and washcloths.
    
“The packages may be small, but they’ll make a huge difference,” said the Rev. Fr. Mark A. Leondis, national director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. “Just knowing that so many neighbors from across the globe are extending their hands has to provide hope and comfort to the victims.” Fr. Leondis added that service and witness are two of the pillars on which the young adult ministry bases its activities.
    
“The national young adult service project is especially appropriate this year because His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios has proclaimed 2005 as the ‘Year of the Family’ throughout the Archdiocese,” Fr. Leondis said. “This is a perfect example of how our Church family can and must reach out to others in the name of Christ, especially during challenging times like these.”
    
To learn more about assembling the health kits, please visit www.iocc.org/healthkits. For more information on the young adult initiative, contact the young adult ministry at info@yal.org.
    
Donations for IOCC’s “Asia Disaster Response” may be sent to IOCC, P.O. Box 630225, Baltimore, MD 21263-0225. Donations may also be made online at www.iocc.org or by calling toll-free 1-877-803-4622.
 
For media inquiries, please contact IOCC Communications Associate Stephen Huba at 1-877-803-4622 or shuba@iocc.org

In announcing the “Year of the Family,” Archbishop Demetrios stated, “Through this special emphasis on the family, our goal is both to affirm the importance of the family as a blessed gift of God and to address the specific needs of families as they try to live in a very challenging culture and world.  As Orthodox Christians we know that each and every family needs to be connected to the Church, a place where true relationships with God and one another are nurtured and sustained.  Thus, through this program we will be working to bring more aspects of our faith into the home and to bring more families into the Church.”

The theme for the “Year of the Family” will be “Family as Church,” a program that follows the biblical phrase used by the Apostle Paul, kat’oikon ecclesia, “the church in the home” (Romans 16:5, Colossians 4:15). In explaining the significance of the theme, Rev. Father Constantine Sitaras, coordinator of the Archdiocesan Center for Family Care, stated, “We know the early Christians met in homes for worship, teaching, and fellowship.  This undoubtedly formed a unique connection between Church and Family.  We hope to renew this relationship by showing families that the Church and its attributes are essential to the well-being of the family.”

To assist this effort, resources for use in the home and the parish are being prepared and distributed. One resource is a table prayer guide that encourages families to pray together. Another is a brochure on establishing a home iconostasion, a place for regular family and personal prayer. Parishes will receive resources for planning and conducting a monthly parish family night.  Further, regional retreats and one-day family conferences will be held throughout the year to provide additional support and training.  To distribute these and other resources, an extensive “Year of the Family” web site has been established at http://www.familyaschurch.org.  Currently, the site includes introductory material for the “Year of the Family,” and more resources will be added as they are produced or made available.

The “Year of the Family” is the first initiative of the Archdiocese toward the establishment of a national center for family care.  This major effort was announced by Archbishop Demetrios at the 2002 Congress in Los Angeles.  Following the Congress, the Archbishop appointed a Roundtable on the Family consisting of clergy, marriage and family specialists, physicians, and other professionals.  The Roundtable has met regularly over the past two years to plan and implement this national campaign.

For more information on the “Year of the Family” visit the web site at  http://www.familyaschurch.org or contact the Center for Family Care at 845-424-8175 or by email at familycare@goarch.org.

Contact: Rev. Fr. Constantine Sitaras
Center for Family Care
Tel. 845-424-8175
Email: familycare@goarch.org