Nick Makrides – Assistant

2008/09 Sunday School Message from Father Stavros

Beloved in the Lord,

I hope and pray that this letter finds you all well.  I hope that this summer has afforded you some quality time with your families and also some time to relax.  As we begin the new school year, we also enter a new Ecclesiastical Year (September 1) and look ahead also to the start of Sunday School (September 7). 

Having served as a priest for many years now, I continue to feel a strong conviction that our faith is strengthened most greatly through worship and through the sacraments.  My message in the Messenger this month is a reflection from my recent summer camp experience.  The theme of the summer camp was “I believe. Do you?”  And we spent each session studying the Nicene Creed.  As Orthodox Christians and Orthodox parents, the most fundamental question you ever answer is the question, “Do you believe?”  Assuming the answer is yes, the second question is of equal importance:  “How does what you believe affect your life and the lives of your children?”  If you believe in God, and you believe in the salvific message of Jesus Christ, (which is John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”), then how do you plan to work your way through life to God’s kingdom, eternal life?  Orthodox Tradition provides the roadmap for the journey, which includes first and foremost, the sacramental life of the church.  The pinnacle of the sacramental life is receiving Holy Communion in Church each Sunday.  But Sunday worship and Communion do not alone comprise “the sacramental life.”  Rather, the concept of the sacramental LIFE is a life based around the sacraments.  It means at some point every day, we are thinking about the Sacrament we receive on Sunday—and we do this through daily prayer and scripture reading.  If our spiritual life is compartmentalized into two hours each Sunday, then it is hard to look at this as a way of life.  Marriage is a way of life, children are a way of life, exercise is a way of life, eating is part of life—because these things are done every day.  Mowing the grass is not a way of life because it is restricted to once a way.  Same way with pumping gas.  So, as parents, it is up to you to make sure that your children are brought up with spirituality as a way of life, meaning that it is part of your daily life in your home.  Some suggestions include praying before meals, praying before bed, and reading the Bible together with your children, especially when they are young. 

And now, focusing on Sundays.  Sunday is the day that the family should worship together and receive Communion TOGETHER.  It is not a day to drop the kids at church and come back for them, as if this is a sports team that they play on but you do not.  It is not a day to march them up for Communion but not receive yourself, because that sends a bad message to them—that Holy Communion is special for children but not needed for adults.  And Sunday means bringing them to worship, not only to Sunday school.  Sunday will begin for all grades following Holy Communion, about 11:05 a.m., and will last until between 11:45 and 12:00 each Sunday.  This will afford our teachers a precious 45 minutes of instruction which for the children is in lieu of the sermon that I give in church.  Sunday school is not done in lieu of worship.

Effective September 7, the first day of Sunday school, all of our children, from babies on up, will remain in church for the Divine Liturgy until Holy Communion, when they will receive Communion and then go to their classes.  The nursery will be open for the entire Liturgy for parents whose babies are fussy and need to step out for a few minutes. But the “formal classroom instruction for K-3, K-4 and Kindergarten will not begin until after Holy Communion.

I hope this year, we will put an increased effort on WORSHIP in church with your FAMILY.  Your children learn from you, the parents, more than from any other influence.  So, if they learn to worship with you as a family, their relationship with God and with the church will be something that will hopefully remain strong throughout their lives.  If you never bring them, or bring them at 11:00 a.m., in time for Sunday school, or never receive Communion with them, then they will grow up thinking that God and church is not important, or that it is okay to treat both in a casual, even slothful manner.  So, I hope in each of your families, you will make worship in church, as a family, on time, each Sunday, a priority.  I hope that you will make a point to receive Holy Communion often, as a family, where not just the children receive, but the adults as well.  Sunday school children will sit with their families and after Communion go to their respective classrooms.  For very young children, a parent should take them to their classroom and then return to the church for the remainder of the Liturgy and the sermon.  They should not go to the Kourmolis Center.  On the first few Sundays of Sunday, the location of each class will be posted. 

I look forward to the beginning of the Sunday school year, and I want to thank the teachers who have volunteered for this ministry.  I will be working with them to insure that we offer you the best possible religious education for your children.  I only ask you to do your part in bringing them, in bringing them regularly and on time, and worshipping with them.  Below please find the schedule of dates for Sunday school for this upcoming academic year.  Thank you for taking the time to read through this letter.

Wishing each of you and your families a blessed remainder of the summer and a good beginning to the academic and ecclesiastical year, I remain,

With love in the Lord,

+Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis