The sole identity of the Orthodox Youth Movement is the life in Christ. Its sole constitution is to live by the Gospel. It thrives on love, fellowship and evangelization. This is what makes OYM a vocational movement animated by the Holy Spirit that dwells in Christ.
We exist in order to reveal the Lord and to be, with the other seekers, the leavened of the whole bread. We are servants who endeavor to permanently confess our sins and to be always repenting and to be the ambassadors of Jesus Christ in the world, always inventing new ways to introduce Jesus to the public.
This is how the founders wanted the OYM to be, with a divine inspiration. This is how we got to know its identity and how it must continue: a fellowship of people who consecrate themselves fully to God, and to Him alone, whether they are priests, monks, or lay people; a group of people who experience His love and feel His presence in His Holy Gospel, in the Eucharist, in individual and collective prayers, in the common life they lead and in serving humankind inside the church and everywhere in the world.
George Khodr, Albert Laham, Dimitri Qas’aa, Edward Laham, Michel Khoury, Marcel Morcos, Gabriel Saadeh, Gabriel Debs and others were the founding members .They were first schoolmates and then they studied law at the Saint Joseph University in Beirut. George Khodr, Gabriel Saadeh and Gabriel Debs were commissioned to draft the constitution of OYM. It was adopted and made public during a meeting held on the 16th of March 1942. The attendees of that meeting elected George Khodr as the OYM general secretary.
N.B. For more information kindly refer to our documentary: “I believe therefore I have spoken” produced my MJO Media.