The First Youth Orthodox Forum in the Presidential Library: a serious talk about the moral values and the future of the Fatherland

Today, February 17, 2018, the First Youth Orthodox Forum took place in the Presidential Library. Representatives of the younger generation, clergy, historians, psychologists, demographers, and cultural figures gathered together to discuss the actual issues of the Orthodox faith in the modern world in the historical building of the Synod on the Senatskaya Square.

"A new good tradition in our city is the holding of the Youth Orthodox Forum. It will become a platform for serious discussion about moral values, moods in the society, about what we can do to change the world for the better", - said St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko, opening the event. He also noted the symbolism of the place chosen for the meeting, since it was in the historical building of the Synod that the fate of the Church and Fatherland was being formed for three centuries, and the atmosphere itself has important discussions about the fate of the country.

Metropolitan Varsonofiy of St. Petersburg and Ladoga in his welcoming speech stressed the importance of holding such events and noted that such actions serve a fruitful dialogue within a generation on which the future of not only the Church but also the Fatherland depends on.

One of the important events of the forum was the signing of an agreement between the Committee on Youth Policy and Interaction with Public Organizations of the Administration of St. Petersburg and the Committee on Youth Policy of the Leningrad region on the development of cooperation in the field of youth policy and youth exchange.

Within the framework of the Youth Orthodox Forum, a discussion was held in the format of an open dialogue on the topic "Orthodox family: questions and answers", a round table "Mercy as a vocation", an interactive lecture "Church online. Dialogue of the Church with modern youth", as well as the lecture hall "The language of communication with modern youth". A cultural program was also prepared for the guests: a multimedia photo exhibition of the Orthodox photo school "Transfiguration" and the performance of the bishop's choir of the Tikhvin Diocese.

The Presidential Library and the Tikhvin Diocese are linked by long-term fruitful cooperation. Among the implemented joint projects: video lectures, exhibitions, the opening of a children's multimedia studio "There was the Word in the beginning" for Sunday school students in the parishes of the Diocese of Tikhvin and correctional schools, and much more. Recently, the Presidential Library digitized and donated electronic copies of ancient manuscripts and church services donated to the funds of the library of the Russian Academy of Sciences as a gift to the Tikhvin Eparchy. In addition, today in the building of the Tikhvin Spiritual and Educational Center the remote electronic reading room successfully functions, where everyone has access to the unique library of the Presidential Library, numbering more than 600 thousand items.

The Presidential Library portal features the thematic collection "Orthodox Russia. Monasteries and Icons". The collection contains materials from the period of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century that describe the history of individual Orthodox monasteries located on the territory of Russia and especially revered icons. There are such rare books as "Historical and statistical description of the first-class Tikhvin Bogoroditsky Large Monastery, consisting of the Novgorod diocese in the city of Tikhvin" in 1859, "Tikhvin and its shrine: a description of the city, the Tikhvin Monastery and the sanctuary in it" in 1888 and many others among them.