Ymca Transylvania

Diverse, missional, youth work, volunteering, physical and spiritual education, belonging, God and youth, alternative perspective. We can describe IKE with these key words. To all of these, the foundation is the 1855 Paris basis of the YMCA which still is the common creed of the worldwide YMCA family: “seek to unite those young people who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples in their faith and in their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of his Kingdom amongst young people.” YMCA is an international movement, which operates in more than 120 counties and has almost over 45 million members. The IKE Transylvania was founded in February 1921 as a youth initiative by a few young people in the city of Cluj-Napoca. During the communist regime along with many other Christian organisations, IKE was banned. Following the 1989 revolution, the activity in IKE was restarted and in 1993 the General Assembly held in Illyefalva adopted the constitution of the organisation. In 1994 IKE is officially registered under the name ‘Transylvanian Christian Youth Asociation’ which continued to take on the youth work of the Hungarian Reformed Church in Transylvania. Following a restructuring in 2015 IKE officially became the youth council of the Hungarian Reformed Church in Transylvania. These new structures consist of the youth work of 15 church districts, each with their own local youth leadership. The ministry within IKE is diverse, including bible teaching, community building and development, mission activities, sport, music festivals. IKE is an ecumenical fellowship and its programs are open to all and follow the call of our Lord with young people ministering to young people.