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4 THE SHEPHERD • JANUARY 2026 • SAINT SPYRIDON GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH OF SAN DIEGO January’s quick tip for families: have a family meeting! Start the New Year out with a fam- ily meeting set around a favorite meal and geared toward making goals for the year. If you are feeling ambitious, you can even do a check-in family meeting each month. Here’s one format you could use: one goal helpful to the world (recycle more, turn lights off, use less plastic), one goal for mental/physi- cal health (go for walks, start a journal, get more sleep, join a sport, play an instrument), one goal for spiritual growth (go to Church more, join a Christian club at school, join the Choir or the Acolytes), and one goal for fun (go on a couple road trips, go to the beach, have a game night). This month, Chanter Michael Haddad, be- gan training up new chanters: Theodore Almaraz, James Dennis, Kosta Mellos, and Kosta Mellos. Keep an eye out for them at the analogion! SAVE THE DATE - March 7, 2026 for Icons in Progress: Navigating Faith and Mental Wellness in the Modern World. This will be a day-long program of workshops, speakers, and interactive activities that will provide concrete tools for teens and parents centered around mental health and Orthodoxy. We have an expert lineup of presenters includ- ing His Grace Bishop Athenagoras of Na- zianzos, PhD, George Papageorge, LMFT, and Michelle Moujaes, Faithtree Resources. Sessions will include How to respond to a friend in Crisis, Reconnecting with your Teen, Self-Esteem and Identity, “Mind, Body, Soul,” and Digital Balance and Boundaries. The symposium will be held at the St. Spyr- idon Campus and all Orthodox Jurisdictions in San Diego and Murrieta/Temecula are in- vited! Tickets for this event are only $25 per person. We encourage St. Spyridon teens and their parents to get their tickets today! This event will sell out! We are also seeking sponsors for this event! Do you have a passion for the mental health of our teens? Have you or one of your family or friends been impacted by mental illness? We hope you will consider donating to this first-of-its-kind symposium connecting our teens and parents to real solutions rooted in Orthodoxy. Donate or purchase tickets via the Youth Ministries website “Icons in Prog- ress” page: https://tinyurl.com/teenmhsym- posium If you have questions about Youth Minis- tries at St. Spyridon, call or text Julie Den- nis, Youth Ministries Director, 619-618-5116 or email youthministries@stspyridon.org Learn more about St. Spyridon Youth Min- istries on our website: https://tinyurl.com/ stspyridonyouth Follow us on social media: Facebook - St. Spyridon GOC San Diego and Instagram - @youthstspyridon Little Angels Playgroup Little Angels Playgroup will resume on Janu- ary 7th. This month, we will meet on January 7th and January 21st. Playgroup meets on Wednesdays, from 9:45am-11:00am, in the Lower Education Building. If you have a baby or toddler age 4 and under, we hope you will join us for playing! Email Julie Dennis to get on our contact list: youthministries@stspyr- idon.org. Sunday School “Christ is Born, Glorify Him!” This Christ- mas season, our Sunday School was over- whelmed with blessings! Our St. Innocent Orphanage food drive brought a record number of boxes of food to St. Innocent! Thank you all so very much for your gen- erosity! We also had our beautiful Christ- mas Pageant that featured all of the Sunday School students and Youth Choir! Thanks to our Parish’s generosity, our Sunday School gives Christmas gifts to each of the Sunday School students that include a youth Ortho- dox book and a toy (younger kids) or gift card (older kids). It has been a wonderful school year so far! We look forward to begin- ning the new year of Sunday School Classes on January 18th. The Oratorical Festival Topics have been announced! St. Spyridon will host our Par- ish Oratorical Festival on March 1st, 2026. Students research and deliver an original speech on the Orthodox faith based on top- ics selected by the Archdiocese. The event is divided into three levels: Elementary (exhi- bition, 4-6th grade), Junior (competition, 7-9th grade), and Senior (competition, 10- 12th grade). This year’s topics include (high school) Icons in the Orthodox Churches, Feast of Pentecost, St. John’s teachings of Light and Darkness, The Witness of Mar- tyrs, and Orthodox teachings about death and eternal life; and (middle school) Hymns, Saints, Ecumenical Patriarch, Old Testament Stories, and Orthodox feast days. Thank you, Ms. Tina, Sunday School Director Sophia Thiros, Asst. Sunday School Director GOYA (Greek Orthodox Youth Association) At our annual GOYA Christmas Party, GOYA and their families enjoyed great company, delicious food, and fun activities including decorating cookies, a gift exchange, and a ser- vice project stuffing stockings for the Angels Christmas party. We even finished the night with a little Christmas Karaoke! A big thanks goes out to the Brown Family for hosting over 50 people at their house for the party! Coming up in 2026: Epiphany Cross Dive (Jan 11th), Ski/Snowboard trip (Jan. 19th), Game Night (Feb. 27th), Teen Mental Health Symposium (Mar. 7th), All GOYA Lenten Retreat (Mar. 22nd), Palm Sunday Luncheon (Apr. 5th), Great GOYA Bake Off Cookie Ep- isode (Apr. 25th), and more! YOUTH MINISTRIES