EDLYA holds retreat and AGM

WATERLOO, Ont. – On November 18, 2023, East District Lutheran Young Adults (EDLYA) met in Waterloo for their first post-COVID Annual General Meeting, during which time they elected a new president and discussed the future of EDLYA. Former president Josh Gajdos and his wife Erika flew in from the far reaches of Florida to guide the election, and Patric Laub of St. Luke’s in Ottawa was elected to the presidency. 

The EDLYA’ites also discussed perplexing issues such as approaching LGBTQ people with love while keeping a Scriptural view, and catering to young folk curious about Christianity while keeping EDLYA unabashedly Lutheran. 

The retreat featured an invited talk from guest speaker Dr. Daniel Smilek, a renowned Lutheran professor of psychology teaching at the University of Waterloo. In his talk, Dr. Smilek described how people process external information and how it has a profound impact on their beliefs and how they think. Dr. Smilek discussed the value of self-restraint, the dangers of instant gratification, and the ways in which external information shape peoples’ deepest opinions. It is very important that God’s Word remain Christians’ source of truth against the barrage of conflicting information which we encounter in the outside world.

After supper, EDLYA joined in Grace Lutheran’s quarterly evening square dancing. Next came a service of compline and worship songs, followed by board games. In one game—Telestrations!—a person writes a prompt, the next person draws a picture, the next puzzles out what the original prompt was, and so on. Misinterpretation leads to great laughs.

If you are a Lutheran aged 18 to 35, you are invited to attend EDLYA’s next quarterly retreat! Information about retreats can be found at www.edlya.ca.

———————

Print this article