Six young people from St Innocent's -- Michael Blocksom, Jeremy & Christopher Butler, Neil Larkin, Olivia & Christian Morton, and Alex Zdinak (from St Theodosius) -- made the long, tiresome trip to St Vladimir's Seminary in Crestwood, NY, on the day after Christmas. They went for a service oriented youth retreat co-sponsored by the seminary and Orthodox Youth Outreach. They took with them bags full of clothing for the homeless that they would be distributing sometime during the retreat. 35 young people, most of them from New York or eastern Pennsylvania, took part in the retreat.

Rather than presenting a lecture and reflection style retreat, this one had a minimum number of presentations, and most of the time was spent either preparing for, or going on, service projects.

On Thursday afternoon, the young people were divided into two groups. One group sorted and labelled all the donated clothing that had been brought, while the other prepared sack lunches for the homeless.

Thursday evening, half of the participants went out to an Indian ethnic restaurant, while the other half went to a nearby soup kitchen to serve the hungry. The point was emphasized over and over again: the young people were not simply to serve the hungry disinterestedly, but to sit down with them, talk with them, and interact with them. They did this well, and everyone came back with stories to tell about the people they met. (Roberta, the director of the soup kitchen, commented on the willingness of our groups to interact with the people they came to serve; it seems that our degree of involvement was not the norm.)

On Thursday night came what was probably the highlight of the retreat: a Midnight Run. Midnight Run began in the 1980's, a program that brings clothing, blankets, hot food and sack lunches to the homeless in New York City. We left the seminary at 10 p.m., arriving in lower Manhattan at about 10:45 pm. Again, we were divided into two groups, and each group made a series of stops where homeless people were known to congregate at night. We passed out clothing, blankets, hot coffee and soup, and a couple of sack lunches to anybody who wanted them. We also took time to talk with the men whom we served.

One of the most moving stops was at St Francis Church in mid-town Manhattan, a couple of blocks from Time Square. Here there were over a dozen men sleeping on the sidewalk on or in cardboard boxes. One man identified us as a Midnight Run and commented, "You guys keep us alive." Another, who had been homeless only a month, didn't know what a Midnight Run was, and when he was given a hooded sweatshirt (which he badly needed), he burst into tears. "I thought God had forgotten about me, and then you showed up," he said. He was seen kneeling in prayer in front of the closed church as we drove away.

On Friday morning, the young people were taken back into the lower East side of Manhattan, where they were divided into small groups and instructed to find a homeless person to take to breakfast. They were directed to a couple of parks where the homeless were known to congregate. They all met together at the OCA's Holy Protection Cathedral at lunchtime. Here everyone had a chance to talk about both the Midnight Run from the night before and about the homeless they took to breakfast. After the debriefing, the small groups were given $2 per person and sent out to find lunch for themselves, as an exercise in poverty.

On Friday evening, the group that had not gone to the soup kitchen was able to go, while the first group went to a Thai restaurant for dinner.

On Saturday morning, the retreat concluded with the Divine Liturgy, served by Fr John Behr, the Dean of the Seminary. After that, it was a long drive home.

Thanks to Richard and Catherine Morton, and to Fr Michael, who drove the participants to and from the retreat, and to the Larkins, who loaned us their SUV for the trip.