2023
About Ankawa Youth Meeting (AYM)
AYM is the largest meeting for Christian youth in Iraq; started in 2013 by the Archdiocese of Erbil, the initiative has been met with wild success resulting in subsequent celebrations in 2018 and 2019 and resumed in 2022 following COVID-19 delays, until this year 2023.
The dedicated Chaldean Youth Committee organizes it. The festivities are normally for three days and include catechesis for participants and time for prayer and community.
Drawing together young Catholics from different parishes around the country to celebrate their faith has incredibly impacted the Chaldean Church. Connecting more as the Body of the Church and allowing for testimony and experience to be shared at the Youth Meetings has contributed to young adults becoming the boulders lifting the Chaldean community and helping to impact the world.
Overall Mission
The meeting aims to allow youth of different dioceses of Iraq to live and work together, listen to the work of God, participate in the communion that Christ establishes between us, and exchange views and recommend initiatives to decision-makers at the Church. It will bring solidarity among all Chaldean Catholic dioceses and parishes.
This event will allow the young Christian Catholic leaders to promote evangelization activities, work together to make the change, and strengthen their belief in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. This is the only event that gathers all the Christians from all over Iraq in Erbil. The communication between the Christian youth from different parts of Iraq is very weak. This event gives them hope and empowers Iraqi young Christians to be the change of their world through witnessing, worshiping, and strengthening their belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
The motto of this year’s meeting was “Do This in Memory of Me”. The title of this year’s AYM, helped the youth to understand that their faith comes from Jesus’ command to “do this in memory of Me.” They debated about why Eucharist should be “the source and summit of our Christian life’’ and how that helps them to communicate with their brothers and sisters in the community.
The reason behind choosing this title is that the Eucharist affects the way we see others. It brings us together with others – young and old, poor, and affluent, neighbours and visitors. The Eucharist calls us to see all of them as our brothers and sisters and to see in them the face of Christ. It is from the Eucharist that the Church receives continually her identity and mission. The event purpose was a call to speak and listen to each other and for each other . All human beings are created alike in the image of God, have equal dignity as children of our Father in heaven, are equal before him.
About the Organizer
The Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Syriac particular church of the Catholic Church, under the Holy See of the Catholicos-Patriarch of Babylon, maintaining full communion with the Bishop of Rome and the rest of the Catholic Church.
The Archdiocese of Erbil is a diocese of the Chaldean Catholic Church led by His Excellency Archbishop Bashar Warda, CSsR. The see of the archbishop is the Cathedral of St. Joseph (Mar Yousif) in Ankawa, a suburb of Erbil. The language of the Church and community is Modern Aramaic, descended from the language of Jesus.
In 2013, Archbishop Warda established the Youth central committee. Which organized the first AYM in Erbil in 2013. After the first-year success, the Youth central committee was assigned to accompany the Christian youth at the archdiocese and gather them in the name of the Christ. The committee meets monthly with the following specific all-year-round aims to form youth in:
- Being witnesses to Jesus Christ
- Helping the parish youth to get closer to God and the Church through distinct spiritual, cultural, and social activities.
- Planning big archdiocese events
- Catechist education and training and Spiritual Education
- Preparing the youth to be leaders
- Evangelisation training
- Missionary work
- Building community
- Care for the elderly and sick
- Planning workshops
- Understanding social responsibility and care
The sub-committees that participated in leading this year’s AYM event are:
- Spiritual Committee
- Registration Committee
- Media Committee
- Transportation Committee
- Accommodations Committee
- Financial Committee
- Social activities Committee
- Sports Committee
- Volunteers Committee
1. Preparation Phase
The preparation started six months prior to the launch of the event. The youth committee, a group of 20 young leaders started the preparation in January 2023. The first few meetings mainly focused on brainstorming and sharing ideas about the program and activities. The meetings also reflected on the learnings acquired from the previous year’s gathering to ensure to prevent mistakes. Later the committee was expanded by inviting other leaders from different youth gathering at Archdiocese (fraternities of different parishes) to join the work and prepare for the event.
These brainstorming meetings were concluded by designing the first draft of a three-day program detailing the requirements, activities, events, expenses, facilities, locations, capacities, and other concerns.
The preparation continued by forming new sub-committees dedicated to the three days event to organize the work and better distribute the tasks. After that, the organizing committee invited individuals from the youth-dedicated fraternities of different parishes of Erbil Archdiocese to volunteer and join the organizing team. In a few days, more than 100 young individuals joined to help prepare for the event. The central committee invited the 100 volunteers for a lecture to introduce the work to them and let them learn about the event. The meeting also presented the learnings and experiences of some young leaders from the past years’ events to gain a better understanding. The work and activities were divided among the sub-committees to allow better distribution of work and enable better time management to accomplish the work.
2. Detailed Program and Activities
Under the title of “Do This in Memory of Me”, the Youth Committee launched AYM 2023 on the 29th of June that lasted for the duration of three days, bringing together youth from different Chaldean and other dioceses across Iraq. Just under 1300 young people aged 18-40 participated in the event this year.
The first day started with a gathering at Mar Elia Shrine in Erbil. The event began with the Hymn of this year’s meeting, this was followed by the welcoming speech by the Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil, Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda, presented his welcoming speech to the youth. The evening continued with short lectures presented by eight lecturers including priests and Laities interspersed with hymns by Father Peter Hana who came all the way from Lebanon. Following the evening, the day concluded with a documentary video about all the previous AYMs that were held by the archdiocese. The video was followed by a dinner and traditional and cultural activities presented by participants from different parishes.
The second day started with the holy Mass in the morning, as the participants were divided into four parishes of Ankawa to celebrate and participate in the communion that Christ established between us. Priests from different dioceses joined the youth and celebrated the mass. The mass was followed by two Catechism sessions in each of the four parishes. The participants were optioned to participate in two of 16 different group discussion topics of one hour that priests and Laities facilitated. After a half-hour break, the second hour of discussion was offered for the participants to join and participate in a different topic.
After lunch in the CUE, there were sport activities organized by the committee that included football matches, table tennis matches, and entertainment activities. The sub-committees prepared several activities and distributed the participants into groups. Later, the participants were transferred to Saint peter and Paul church for a holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament and private confession, with a mediation delivered by Father Peter Hanna.
The third day started with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy in Saint Joseph Cathedral. After Mass, His grace, Archbishop Warda, thanked all the ones who were part of making this event happen and ended the day by announcing for next year’s AYM 2024.
