The 2017-2018 Church School year officially began on Sunday, September 17th with the blessing of the children, teachers, and parents. Immediately following Divine Liturgy, the children gathered around Fr. Aleksa Pavichevich in the center of the church and offered prayerful thanksgiving to the Lord.
Fr. Aleksa reminded the community that the true work of Christian Education takes place as a family at Divine Liturgy, and as a family at their home-church. It is there where the children are nourished and fed. The classes offered by the parents and stewards of the St. George parents are a supplement, meant to offer children an opportunity to explore their faith in new ways. If they do not reinforce those lessons at home in prayer, repentance, and love, modeled and taught by their families, then the lessons offered at church will struggle to form deep roots within them.
The following Wednesday, Fr. Aleksa and a few children from St. George joined the children of St. Archangel Michael Serbian Orthodox Church in Akron, Ohio to begin a new season of Folklore and Church School education. Fr. Aleksa and Fr. Milan Pajic offer lessons to the Folklore children between lessons.
On Saturday, the children of St. George began their Serbian Language lessons. Parents and community members expressed a sincere desire to learn Serbian so that they might better communicate with faithful from other communities, and to prepare for a future pilgrimage to the holy sites and locales in Serbia. Under the direction of Mira Lazic, the children began learning the Cyrillic alphabet, along with beginning conversation.
On the following day the students had their first lesson on “Charity”. This year the St. George students will complete an OCEC curriculum with interspersed lessons on “the virtues”. They will not only learn about their faith, but they will also learn about how to practically live out that faith in a positive way.
Their first activity was to create donation boxes that they will use to collect money throughout the year. After the St. Sava break, our students will submit that money to a charity or cause that is important to them – and their families.
Many thanks to our church school instructors and volunteers including: Kathy Tobias (Pre-K organizer), Svetlana McCully (Elementary), Rajko Radonjich (Middle), and Mark Resanovich (High School and St. Sebastian). God-willing, this will be a wonderful year of Christian Education for the St. George parish community!
