Millennials afraid to love? Youth speak out
Some 15,000 young people worship and sing praise songs at the Relentless: Singles & Youth Faith on Fire (SYFOF) 2017 event at the Smart Coliseum, July 1, 2017. NATALIE QUIMLAT
QUEZON City – “Walang forever.” Are young people really cynical and jaded about love and relationships?
A workshop cum one-on-one sharing during the Relentless: Singles & Youth Faith on Fire (SYFOF) 2017 event Saturday, July 1, aimed to plumb the depths of the Filipino youth’s deep-seated sentiments on the L word.
Through a series of highly personal questions, 15,000 youth from parishes, schools, and communities got to share their thoughts on love, attachment, and faith with a new friend.
Bianca Santos, a SYFOF participant, said the set of questions made it easy for two complete strangers to discuss a “hard topic” that millennials are “very eager to talk about.”
“..Like when the question was about what do you fear about love. It was a bit embarrassing to reveal your real fears on love but in the end you’ll realize that your fears on love aren’t irrational, that there are also people with the same fears as you and that makes you stronger somehow,” she explained in Filipino.
The workshop gave participants questions like “What do you expect from love?”; “What is your greatest fear about love?”; “Do you think God’s love can take that fear away?”, among others.
According to Al Flores, head steward of the New Generation International, the Lord Flock’s youth ministry, making most of the event program interactive rather than one-sided was a conscious effort on the organizers part.
“Usually our conferences are centered on the youth. Usually we have a lot of games … interactions. We don’t bombard [them] with talks because they have a really short attention span. We also have plays and skits, Christian-themed,” he explained.
For the most part, it seems to work.
“The game was just witty. Araneta is just so big right, there are a lot of people, it’s fun, but at the same time it’s sad because all of you have the same reason for being there but you can’t talk to each other,” said John Michael Claridad in an interview with CBCPNews.
According to a press release, the event was organized in “response to the challenge of the Catholic Church to bring back the young people to be active in attending and serving the Church”. (With reports from Ira Taylo)
