Jubilee speech for 20 years of youth unity, faith and Macedonian spirit
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“WHERE I STOPPED, YOU CONTINUE!”
20 YEARS OF LOVE, FAITH AND MACEDONIAN UNITY
Tonight is a night of true pride to be Macedonian. To see us gathered here in Melbourne — from all generations and from every corner of Australia — celebrating twenty years of MOYA’s existence, is a joy and blessing for us all.
Tonight, we are living the words of our great revolutionary and visionary, Goce Delchev, who said: “I understand the world as a field for cultural competition among nations.”
This evening, young people from many different backgrounds and nations are gathered together in this hall — people with whom we share life in this beautiful second homeland of ours: democratic and multicultural Australia.
Therefore, I warmly greet everyone present tonight who came to enrich and brighten this shared celebration of ours. Thank you sincerely for being here.
I often say that a meadow is most beautiful when it is meadow (filled) with many different flowers. In the same way, this hall is far more beautiful tonight because of all of you gathered here together. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, and please feel welcome.
Tonight, I would like to take us back twenty years — to the very beginning of this beautiful story — a story that began humbly, yet by God’s grace continues today, and, God willing, may it never end.
Sometime around February or March of 2006, I gathered the small group of young people who were then coming to the Monastery of Saint Prohor Pchinski in Donnybrook, and I told them something like this:
“Imagine that what you are beginning today is like a rope stretching into the future. Every generation — your children, and their children after them — should hold onto that rope and enter the ship of Christ, escaping the temptations of this world and eternal destruction. The stronger and longer that rope becomes, the more generations will be able to hold onto it and to be saved. That rope is love. The greater your love, sacrifice, and faithfulness, the more souls you will preserve.“ Therefore, every generation must add its own strength, love, and sacrifice, so that the rope never breaks.
When I look back on these twenty years, I see them as a long journey. Along that road we have met countless people and reached many new places. The path has not always been easy. There have been obstacles, trials, temptations, and difficult moments — and there still are. But we shouldn’t be afraid and turn back. Our eyes must always remain fixed forward, because before us stands our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who is the true purpose and destination of our lives.
And perhaps it is no coincidence — because with God there are no coincidences — that tonight we also celebrate ours Holy Equals-to-the-Apostles, the brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius of Thessaloniki.
I would therefore like to conclude with the words of Saint Cyril, spoken to his brother Methodius before his repose:
“Brother, where I stop, you continue.”
So may this message be passed on from generation to generation and may this joint organization of ours never cease.
May God grant!
Father Gavril (Galev)
May 22, 2026:
Transfer of the relics of Saint Nicholas,
Kinglake
