2026 Saint John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival
Greetings everyone,
I pray you all had a blessed New Year and that our Lord continues to bless you throughout the rest of 2026! I write to inform you about this year's SJC Oratorical Festival.
To those of you who may not know or may not remember, the SJCOF is an Archdiocese wide ministry that gives our youth an opportunity to study and research theological and spiritual questions and deliver their findings to our community at large. It is a wonderful ministry that teaches our children how to conduct research as well as honing their public speaking skills. There are the junior and senior divisions (middle school and high school, respectively) with a number of topics they can choose to write and speak about. Also, we can get the HOPE/JOY involved by talking about their Patron Saint within a one to three paragraph article to be delivered along with the Saint John participants.
Our date for the Parish level is Saturday, February 28th @ 10 AM in the Sanctuary (speakers can use the Pulpit if they wish!) If we can get every abled body youth to commit, this would be a great success to our community. All parents and Sunday School teachers should talk with their children about participating. We must inspire our children to participate in these events and ministries to nurture their growth towards Christ! I have attached a link to the Archdiocese website for more information.
Ideally, I would like everyone's topics to be submitted to myself and Lisa Siokis, our Event Chair, no later than January 15th, and papers submitted by February 14th. This way Lisa and I can help them in their writing and delivery.
I implore all our children to make an effort to participate as it helps to expand what they already know about the Faith and to explore even more of its aspects! The more we learn about Christ and His Church the more we grow closer Them!
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