BALKAN CONTEXT

After the fall of Totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe, the peoples of the ex-communist states of the Balkans were able to enjoy freedom of expression and communication.

A great challenge is offered to the local Orthodox Churches, after years of suppression: to preach again the Word of God among generations alienated from the Church through dominant state ideology.

On the same time, these  Churches are undergoing the consequences of the traumatic spiritual and social problems caused by the fall of Communism.

Within this context, the very existence of the B.O.Y.A. is a result of the will of the young Orthodox to take advantage of the newly gained freedom of expression and communication, in order to CO-ORDINATE their activities, EXCHANGE experiences and material as well as moral assistance, and to face in the limits of their  possibilities the common problems.

Although coming from different backgrounds, cultures, and social systems, despite the barrier of different languages often separating them, the young people-founders of the B.O.Y.A. are realising  every day that their affiliation to the Orthodox Church is a bond between them, much stronger than divergences and prejudices of the past.

This stands for all the peoples of the Balkans, who for years have been brought one against the other with tragic consequences.  They are rediscovering their Orthodox identity and realise one by one their common points due to their common Orthodox legacy. They realise that their common Orthodox Tradition is their only real common bond, able to bring them closer one to the other.

We bare in mind that the Church is our common mother uniting us all, and not  a simple annex of any particular nationalism. We do not intend to make of Orthodoxy an ideology of refusal and exclusion of our neighbours, neither a mere relic of the past. She is ever living and always modern, the only solution for our time.

REPORT OF THE GENERAL SECRETARY
CONCERNING THE 1996-2000 ADMINISTRATION
ADRESSED TO THE
3RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BOYA

THE CONTEXT IN THE BALKANS
BETWEEN 1996 AND 2000

The first period of the life of the B.O.Y.A in the early nineties, was a period of enthusiasm for the people involved in the B.O.Y.A. activities: a period of rediscovering the common points uniting the young Orthodox people from the Balkans, a period of realization of the wide perspectives of common action. There were predictions that the fainting of this enthusiasm would bring an end to the very existence of the B.O.Y.A. as an organization.

`Nevertheless, the period 1996-2000 demented those predictions. It was a period of stabilization of the work, the functioning of the institutions and the widening of the acceptance of the Association. The experience of the previous triennium was used in order to concentrate on concrete activities, which were consolidated and performed on a yearly basis. New activities were promoted.
The building of our Association on more solid grounds is closely related with overcoming -through our common work and experience-a serious temptation, present in the beginnings: The consideration that our common Orthodox faith is a mean in order to fulfil the unity of the Balkan peoples. This option is a projection of the particular nationalistic visions within our countries, considering the Church as a tool in the service of nationalistic ideals, or a part of the folklore of each people.

The true option should be that our unity and co-operation be a result of our ecclesiasticity and our Communion within Christ: the understanding that the Church is the only way for salvation and not a mean serving a superior goal. We do not act as "saviours" of the Church, but in order to save ourselves within the Church.

On the same time, we are called to face a new situation in the Balkans, affecting our work:
A. The conflicts, already present in the North Western part, have expanded to the centre, with the war in Kossovo and the NATO air raids against Yugoslavia. The conflict of Kossovo has increased the hatred between Serbs and Albanians and the isolation of Yugoslavia. We express our grief, because monuments of Orthodoxy are constantly being destroyed and Orthodox people chased from their land in Yugoslavia, once more after the case of Cyprus in 1974. Our concern is not exclusive in favour of the Orthodox; we stand against any form of oppression and violation of human rights, whoever might be the victim of. Nevertheless, it seems that the international community is exclusive, either showing lack of concern when the Orthodox are victims, either demonising their involvement.
B. Apart the conflicts, new institutions create barriers between the Balkan peoples. The Schengen agreement keeps isolating Greece from its Balkan neighbours and the states of the former Soviet Union. The administration of the B.O.Y.A. has faced the enormous problems created through this agreement and the difficulties of communication it provokes; a new "iron-curtain" has been raised through the Orthodox world, one could say.
C. The late nineties are also a period of disappointment, as far as hopes, especially in the former socialist states are concerned. The new order expects full obedience and conformity. Westernisation of the political system did not bring by itself freedom and prosperity.
Apart this fact, there is a growing feeling that the so-called "New Order" is not so friendly to Orthodoxy. Apart demonisation and injustices on the level of international relations, there are aggressions on the ideological level. Samuel Huntington has been drawing borders between eastern and western civilizations and is considering that the concepts of the basic human rights can be applied only in the West; Henry Kissinger has estimated that Orthodox tradition and culture in Greece make the people of Greece insubordinate and rebellious. There are growing pressures from abroad on the Greek state against the so-called "overprotection" of the Orthodox Church; the real goal of these pressures seems to be the marginalisation of the Orthodox Church within society.

THE PRIORITIES BETWEEN 1996 AND 2000
The second Board of the Balkan Orthodox Youth Association, in order to program the activities of the Association, estimated the previous experience, the proposals of the member-movements and friends of the Association, and the needs of the societies of the Balkans countries. All this should be adjusted to the possibilities of the Association.
One category of events was stabilised on a yearly basis. This concerns the Iconography Camp in Romania, the Liturgical School in Serbia and the Easter Pilgrimage. Another tendency was priority to practical assistance activities, like sponsoring of Orthodox books and publications for Bulgaria, instead of conferences or consultations. It was intended to have one major event per year without an Assembly. This was accomplished in 1997 with the Festival of Psaltic music in Romania and in 1998 with the BOYA Festival of Ierissos. Unfortunately, in 1999, the General Assembly had to be postponed. Exchanges were supported, on the level of pilgrimages in Mt Athos and hospitality to Holy Monasteries and nunneries. The humanitarian help was continued, but exclusively with fund raising instead of material assistance.
All these activities intended to accomplish the goal of the B.O.Y.A. Constitution, to bring closer together the young people of the Balkans within an Orthodox ecclesiastical basis. This could be accomplished with the improvement of personal relations and experiences in co-ordination with practical assistance. Mainly people from Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania were involved. Representatives from Albania participated in Board sessions and in the Festival of Ierissos. Comparing to the previous period (1993-1996), more young people from Constantinople took part in our events. This should be considered an important improvement in our work, and we should express our Gratitude to His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos for his fatherly attitude towards our Association.
More accurately, the activities in categories were the following:

A. MAJOR ACTIVITIES:
1. FESTIVAL OF BYZANTINE MUSIC (BUCHAREST-ALBA IULIA- CLUJ) MARCH 21-26, 1997. It was an organised tour of a combined group of Byzantine choirs of young people from Romania, Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria. The choirs were mostly closely related to BOYA member-movements: The Greek one to St. Nektarios parish, the Bulgarian one to the Plovdiv seminary, the Serbian one to the Theological school and the Romanian one to ASCOR. Therefore, the importance of this event relies on the following facts: 1. Promotion of inter-Balkan services and the Byzantine music and 2. Encounter of young people on the ground of heir common interest on Byzantine music. It should be noted that the Prime Minister of Greece assisted in one of the services.
2. FESTIVAL OF IERISSOS (SEPTEMBER 5-8, 1998)
This was also an important event, when people from all the regions, including Albania and Constantinople had the opportunity to gather. Thanks to the hospitality of the local Bishop and the work of Protosyngel Chrysostomos and the young people of Ierissos, a wonderful event was organised, including inputs from Monk Loukas Gregoriates, Fr. Ioan Stoica, Dimitar Kirov and Mirko Tomasovic, under the central topic "so that all be one". After the event, the participants had the chance to practice a pilgrimage to Mt. Athos or to receive hospitality from the Ormylia Monastery. It should be noted that for the better organisation of that event, an informative event was organised previously –before Easter- in Thessaloniki, in the Vlatadon Holy Monastery. Young people from 11 dioceses of northern Greece took part and had the opportunity to be informed on the BOYA events.

B. PILGRIMAGES AND EXCHANGES
On a yearly basis since 1994, the Easter Pilgrimage went-on. The 4th one (1997) took place in Bulgaria, the 5th one (1998) in northern and central Greece, the 6th one (1999) in southern Greece (Sparta) and the 7th one (2000) in Constantinople. There were often problems with participation from some regions, due, either to the cost of the travel expenses, either to political instability. Nevertheless, BOYA has always sponsored participation from regions except Greece. Except this main international pilgrimage, BOYA has been sponsoring the annual pilgrimage of the Bulgarian region to the Rodopa area, and helped the organization of pilgrimages of Bulgarian and Romanian groups to Mt Athos and other Monasteries:
July 1997: Bulgarian young men in Parakletos Holy Monastery
September 1997: Bulgarian women in the Holy Monastery of St. Kyrykos and Ioulitta, Serres
In 1998 the pilgrimages were combined with the Festival.
Summer 1999: Pilgrimage of Alba Iulia Seminary and Faculty to Mt. Athos and the Meteors-Pilgrimage of Bulgarian group to Mt. Athos
November 1999: Pilgrimage of Bulgarian young women in Ikosifinissa Monastery, Drama.
In January 1999, a delegation of the Plovdiv Seminary under Bishop Evlogi, visited Seminaries of northern Greece, and BOYA organised the Programme.

C. CONFERENCES AND ENCOUNTERS
The main style of international Conference organised by the BOYA is the Liturgical School, in different places of Serbia:
1996: Belgrade Theological Faculty
1997: Cetinje, Montenegro
1998: Fruska Gora, Vojvodina.
In 1999 and 2000 the event was postponed, due to the organisation of the General Assembly in Serbia.
Another two international conferences were organised in Chania (1997) under the auspices of His Eminence Metropolitan Irineos on Catechism of the young people and the other in Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria on "Society and religious education", in co-operation with "Syndesmos". In the automn of 1998, in the Theological Faculty of Veliko Turnovo, inputs on the Liturgical life were organised by lecturers from Bulgaria, Greece and Romania.

D. SEMINARS
From the various ideas expressed in the beginning of the Association, the one on Iconography Seminars survived and started to be practiced again. It took place in Romania, in Putna Holy Monastery (September 1997), Brancoveanu Holy Monastery (September 1998 and 1999), with international participation. It is programmed to take place also in next September.
E. PUBLICATIONS
The sector of publications was taken care much more than in the period 1993-1996, despite the fact that the previous Board had made the preparation of those programmes.
The sponsored publications consist for the time being of:
1. The life of St. John the Russian.
2. Orthodox miracles in the 20th century, both sponsored by the Parakletos Holy Monastery.
3. Orthodox Monasticism of Fr. Sofronii, sponsored by the association "Steki" of Ioannina.
4. Orthodox mysteries, sponsored by the publications "Armos".
Through the budget of the BOYA, the 1st part of translated texts of prominent Serbian theologians in Bulgarian was promoted and completed. Also, the programmed from before cassettes with Church music from the Balkans was completed. As far as the publication of the above mentioned book is concerned, money is being raised and there is a strong possibility that the project become self-supported.

F. HUMANITARIAN ACTIVITY
Almost immediately after the 2nd General Assembly, on October 25, 1996, Bishop of Herzegovina Athanassije visited the office of the BOYA and awarded the Association with the order of St. Sava of the Serbian Patriarchate, for its spiritual and material assistance to the people of Serbia. We express our gratitude for this great honour.

In fact, most of humanitarian activity in this period consisted of gathering money. After the NATO air raids in 1999, there was fund raising in favour of the victims of that war, given to the Diocese of Batchka and the Holy Monastery of Kovilj. The sum of 3.709.000 GRDRS (equal to 22.210 DEM) was gathered in 1999, and the fund-raising still goes on in the year 2000.

A symbolic amount of money was given to the parish of St. Constantine and Helena in Ano Liosia, ( Attiki Diocese, Greece), for the relief of the victims of the Earthquake of last September, and a cultural event was organised in that parish.
The campaign for the spiritual youth centre in Albania, although not over, cannot give any more result than it has already, and therefore should either be closed, or renewed on another basis (f.e. a second stage of the building after completing one part).

G. OTHER ACTIVITIES
It should be noted that during the period 1996-2000, only once was a youth camp promoted by the BOYA, in the case of Veliko Turnovo in 1997, when answering to our appeal, the Holy Diocese of Ilia sponsored the event. Other projects have also been sponsored, as the building of a Chapel in the Sofia seminar and children hagiography course by Pokrov Association.

ADMINISTRATION
At first it should be mentioned that the office of Athens moved in March 1997 from the address of Solonos 83 to Themistokleous 54. The new apartment is very close to the centre of Athens, about 80 m2 large. It provides the following facilities:
1. Seat of the central BOYA office, archives and computer facilities
2. Place for storing the post cards and sending them
3. Meeting place for events concerning up to 50 persons
4. Possibility for giving hospitality to 1 person
The office is open every working day from 9.30 to 13.30. In the evenings, courses of psaltic music are performed.
Apart this office, the Association has been supporting the office of Sofia (Pozitano 8 Str), of Belgrade (sharing it with Syndesmos and "St Savva" community) and Bucharest, (sharing it with ASCOR).

In the central office, one part-time employee, Miss Afroditi Vouza has been employed since December 1995. She is paid according to the previsions of the Greek laws, concerning the salary and social insurance. An accountant is also invoved, in order to look after the obligations concerning the commercial activity of the cards' promotion. The General Secretary, contrary to the previous period, has received no payment.

It should also be mentioned that according to article 7 of our Constitution, the Association "Martyria" continues to function and fulfil any activity where a legal subject is needed.

In the above mentioned Regional Offices, regional secretaries have been employed till December 1999, receiving a small monthly allowance (half of the average salary of every country). From January 2000 and on, the Board has decided to award the Secretaries according to their work, and not on a monthly basis.

The financing of the overall BOYA activities continued to depend on the Easter and Christmas post cards activity. About 4.200 subscribed friends of the Association have been receiving every Christmas and Easter a set of 8 postcards with wishes in all Balkan languages and English, accompanied by a leaflet containing the programmed and accomplished activities. In the period 1993-1996, the leaflet was a mere photocopy. Immediately after the new Board was elected, the leaflet was improved into a printed two-coloured document. The list of subscribers was enrichened and the net output improved.
The cards are also sold in the market on a commercial basis. Despite this fact, the expenses have also increased; as a result, there is a constant loss in every budget of the Association since 1996. 1999 had a small surplus, but a big part of the money gathered is committed to humanitarian help for Serbia. We need extra-ordinary financial measures, in order to cover the cumulated loss and stabilize the input, so that the money gathered by the previous Christmas and Easter covers the budget of the year.

The reasons of the loss: Except the cards, no other important source of income has been added. No subsidies, neither considerable donations of important size have been added to the income. Of course, one should have in mind that if there were no hospitality to our events by the Church and Holy Monasteries, they would have cost four times more. One other reason is the relative devaluation of the Greek Drachma compared to other currencies, in view of its admission to the European Monetary Union. In 1997 1 USD was equal about to 280 GRDRS, while today, the rate is bout 360 GRDRS. The DEM was equal with about 165 GRDRS at that period, while today it equals 174 GRDRS.

As far as our administration is concerned, losses came due to underestimation of budgeted costs and especially the travel expenses for the various events.
Nevertheless, the possibilities of the cards activity are not fully exploited. There is a growing difficulty for the Greek region to find models alone; as a result, the printing is late and income is lost, especially in Easter. If all regions help in providing models on time, both the quality will rise and the cards will be printed on time. We should also seriously consider the option of promotion of the post-cards in other regions except Greece.

Except as a fund-raising activity, the post-cards have been proved important for the following reasons:
1. As promoting Byzantine art and young artists.
2. As a publicity activity.
3. As an activity gathering subscribers expressing their constant support. In Easter 2000, the cards were published and posted to the subscribers very late, and received even after Easter. Despite this fact, the subscribers did not act as "clients", but as friends of BOYA and gave their donation. More than 20% of them are Holy Dioceses, Holy Monasteries, Parishes and clergymen.
4. In order to prepare the sets for the subscribers (folding, packing, etc) there is a possibility to pay and thus help people taking part in this process.

EXTERNAL RELATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
Up to now, the Association has avoided to intervene openly in social events. Nevertheless, after the NATO air raids against Serbia, a common statement with the President of the BOYA was issued against this kind of intervention and in favour of preservation of human rights of all the peoples of Kossovo.

After the changing of the Archbishop in Greece, the relations with the official Church authorities have been promoted even more.. There was a first meeting with His Beatitude in July 1998, and another one of all the Board in February 1999. The existing blessing was renewed in written, and two meetings were organised with Fr. Pavlos Ioannou, secretary of the Youth committee of the Holy Synod. During the on going trouble between the Hierarchy of the Church of Greece and the Government, due to new identity cards without the indication of religion, a statement of solidarity to the Archbishop signed by myself was sent.
We should also note the importance of the encounter of the BOYA Board with His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos in February 1998, and the fact that the Board meeting received hospitality by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople.

The meetings of the Board have been an occasion, for several times, to improve the relations of the Association with Church authorities.
Closing this report, I would like to express my gratitude to the President and all the other members of the Board, for close co-operation, mutual understanding and support.