When I was a young boy, I remember coming to church with my Father, who served as the priest of our small parish of less than 100 families. Growing up, I served on the altar through new parish assignments and all the milestones of life, even well into college.

Young men who serve on the altar understand the mission to serve the Lord and assist the priest with the preparation of the holy and sacred mysteries every Sunday. That was my life, every Sunday for as long as I can remember. Over the years, I began to notice a great shift in the congregation as I peered out from behind the altar – I saw less and less young people in the pews than from when I was a young boy. These changes got me wondering and got me worried. I wanted to try and make sense of the apparent drop off in participation from kids I used to see every Sunday.

I started thinking back to COVID times, which largely killed activity in the church and froze thriving youth programs. In the aftermath of the pandemic, many key auxiliary activities designed to keep Greek youth engaged in the church failed to start up again. Even worse, young people began to feel less welcome in the church by the time they entered or were graduating from college.

Why is this happening? For one, social media is the centerpiece of many young American lives. The patterns it puts people in fill them with emptiness, and as a consequence, the United States is experiencing a surging mental health crisis. We can begin to remedy this phenomenon by motivating each other to receive help for the negative and evil forces surrounding us amid the increasingly secular and godless culture we were raised in. Today, it is more apparent than ever that there are further negative changes on the horizon unless spiritual minds prevail and build the next generation of Orthodox churchgoers.

There are glimmers of hope surfacing in the Greek Diaspora community. Post-COVID revivals of Young Adult League (YAL) conferences took off across the country, appealing to thousands of young Greeks whose parents and godparents met at YAL social events in the 80s and 90s. Still, the erosion of faith from the equation is a troubling trend. Many recent attendees of YAL conferences have noticed a slight pivot away from the faith-based elements of the weekend, as young Greeks in America begin to identify more with being Greek than being Orthodox. It should be emphasized to young Hellenes that our shared faith is a sacred tradition that our parents and grandparents were gifted through the generations.

Pockets of Greek youths have noticed a similar shift toward wearing your Greek identity like a cheap costume, which consists of drinking, smoking, storytelling, parea and dancing – excluding Orthodox spiritual life from the equation entirely. As patriotic as I am for my background and as much as I enjoy having a good time with my parea, I genuinely feel like our shared religion is getting lost in the shuffle.

These changes are happening before our eyes and drive a distinct wedge between the generations. Church services today are conducted mostly in Greek, understood by the many yiayias and pappous in the pews, but falling on uncomprehending ears among the 18 to 35-year-old population. Similarly, beloved traditions like making koliva and learning the Greek language are slowly dying out, because the younger generation isn’t being taught them or putting them to use.

This is how traditions dry up in real time. Greek faith, cuisine, dance, language and general culture are history if we don’t preserve them. Sunday mornings, once a family affair, have been somewhat reduced to kid’s sports programs and occasional brunches instead of celebrating the resurrection of the Lord with His body and blood every week. Shouldn’t this be the most important matter in our lives to develop and preserve?

Young Greeks: when our grandparents pass away, who is going to fill up our churches and teach our children to Love the Lord who was mocked and crucified on the cross for our sins? We are in control of our generation, and it exists as a critical link in a dynamic, modern age. It’s not as if there aren’t modern solutions to ongoing problems – for instance, we could increase the amount of English to Greek service books found in the pews to help the younger generations understand Divine Liturgy in our ancestral language.

Given the ongoing attacks being levied upon our religion here in America, it is in the Greek community’s best interest to take greater control by bringing our lost and disinterested peers back to church. The hollowness one feels over time by partying and watering down their heritage cannot satisfy the cravings of Western civilization to simultaneously fit in and dominate. Instead, we can turn to the paradise God has offered us, by accepting his eternal and unconditional love.

All Greeks that wish to preserve their culture can do real good by setting an example for their peers. Matthew 5:16 famously says, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” We can restore our religious institutions to their former and much-needed status as hospitals for the young, hurting generations being swallowed up and spat out by modern society. After all, those generations are the ones that need to find their way back to church, and realize how much they’ve missed it.