Members of the St. Anthony Youth Hope Samoa based at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral at Mulivai have launched a music channel on global video sharing platform YouTube.

The group has so far uploaded cover versions of two of their favourite praise and worship songs originally sung by Australian gospel band Hillsong.

The President of the St. Anthony Youth Hope Samoa, Augustas Vaifale, told the Samoa Observer that their YouTube channel went online in April this year, when the doors of the nation’s churches were closed and they had to cancel all their planned activities for this year. “We have gotten some interest from mostly members of our church. They have been subscribing and commenting and liking our video,” he said. “We have two videos up right now, just two songs from Hillsong, the acoustic versions.”

The Hillsong songs are: “What a beautiful name it is” and “Broken vessel.”

The musician group consists of 12 youth members, nine young men and three young women aged between 18 to 26 with two of the young men currently off-island for studies.

While many of their activities were affected over the past few months due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown, their members continued to find ways to be of service to the community.

They presented a monetary donation to Mapuifagalele on 11 April, which is where their members often volunteer their time to clean, take out the trash and help the elderly residents.

Prayers for the nation and for the world during the global pandemic continue during the group’s early morning novena, which is held at the chapel in the back of the colossal Cathedral.

“We do the Novena every hour and our Church members come. It’s our youth members who lead the prayer that happens every hour,” said Mr Vaifale. “One member leads prayer, the rosary and we also do the songs.”

Local Priest, Father Patele Kolio Kolio oversees the St. Anthony Youth Hope Samoa group.

The youth group will lead Novena this Friday morning, starting at 6:30am with prayers taking place every hour on the hour through to 6 pm in the afternoon. The public has been invited.

The group's last Novena was held on 21 March but it was disrupted when the Police went in with state of emergency (SOE) enforcement orders.

“They told us that there were too many people there,” Mr Vaifale said. “A lot of our programmes were canceled because of the state of emergency but we obeyed. A lot of programs we had planned throughout the year were all cancelled. We also lost members…at the moment we are still looking for some kids.”

During the day Mr Vaifale works for the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration (M.J.C.A.) as a records assistant.

Unmarried young men and women ages between 16 to 29 are invited to join the St. Anthony Youth Hope Samoa.

Mr Vaifale, who is from Taufusi, said: “So many kids are lost, they have taken the wrong path…they are stealing and some of them, they have talent but they are afraid to share it,” he said. “I want to bring them into the church just to showcase and use their talents for the Lord…and it will bless them abundantly.”

The St. Anthony Youth Hope Samoa comes under the St. Anthony Parish of the Apia Vicariate. The youth group is currently looking for funds to attend the 2023 World Youth Day in Portugal.