Yakutsk, Republic of Sakha-Yakutia - July 2024 - The 26th Far Eastern Youth Conference will take place in Yakutia from 7 to 14 July. This is a meeting of the eastern part of the diocese of St Joseph based in Irkutsk. This diocese is the largest Catholic diocese in the world in terms of area. More than thirty participants from different parishes, thousands of kilometres apart, met in the Salesian house in Yakutsk. The theme of the meeting was the search for the vocation and dream of God for each person, in connection with the strenna 2024 of the Rector Major. In speeches and informal moments testimonies were heard about the vocation of priests, religious, Salesian Cooperators, active lay people, and also the testimony of a missionary volunteer. Invited guest Oleg Voskresensky enriched the programme with a series of talks on the historical-scientific foundations of the Christian faith. Conference participants learned the history of the city of Yakutsk, the largest city in the world built on perennially frozen ground. They visited The Kingdom of Eternal Ice and The Mammoth Museum. The event took place in Yakutsk as part of the double jubilee, as this year as the city marks 30 years since the arrival of the Salesians and the establishment of the parish, and also 15 years since the consecration of the only Catholic church in the Yakutia territory.

(Ján Krupa SDB)