Illuminator - May-August 1995 (2nd edition)

"WHEN SHOULD WE SCHEDULE CHURCH SCHOOL CLASSES????"
© By Phyllis Meshel Onest, Diocesan Religious Education Director

Youth Is the Major Concern
The Diocese's Music Ministry Committee developed and sent out four surveys to the Clergy, Choir Directors, Church School Directors, and Cantors/Psaltai of our Diocesan parishes. You will discover that our children and their liturgical experience are the focus of three of the four priorities identified by clergy, choir directors, church school directors, and psaltai/cantors alike. In our Diocese there is a need: [1] to increase liturgical involvement of our youth, [2] to increase training on the Liturgy & hymns for church school teachers (so they can better prepare our children for worship), [3] to increase the number of young adults serving in choirs, and [4] to increase hymnology teaching in the church school.

Based on the survey results, the Music Ministry Committee developed four Policy Recommendations. (The Church Music Ministry Committee's report was approved at the Diocesan Clergy-Laity Assembly on 9/29/95.) Two of the four focus on our children. [1] That Church School classes should not be held simultaneously with the Divine Liturgy, mirroring a policy adopted by the 1992 Clergy-Laity Congress. [2] That Choir Directors should invite children and young people to sing in the choir regardless of their attendance at practices. [3] That all Psaltai should initiate programs to involve children, young people and other parishioners at the Analogion. [4] That children should be given the opportunity to sing during the Divine Liturgy.

Many Parishes Still Schedule Liturgy and Church School Together
If your parish's Church School program is before Liturgy, on a different day, after Liturgy or after Communion, then the children have the opportunity to sing at the Divine Liturgy and thus be more involved liturgically, assuming that they do not arrive on "Greek Time." If your parish's Church School program is during most or all of the Liturgy, it's time to make a change.

Worship vs. Catechism
Orthodox Christians worship God as "community," young and old alike. Separating children from the Divine Liturgy may lead our children to believe that Church School is more important than Liturgy or that worship is an "adult experience." Both statements are incorrect. His Grace has stated that "religious education is an extension of worship and the sacramental life of the Church."

To continue to use a Protestant model, which even some Protestants have come to believe has failed them, is to continue to "sow seeds on rocky ground." The constant and underlying concern of Orthodox parents, clergy and catechists must be to guide our children, from their earliest preschool days, to become happy and knowledgeable churchgoers. What better legacy than to prepare them for a lifetime!

Teachers Also Need to Worship
When Liturgy and Church School conflict, not only are our children denied the opportunity to worship, but so are our teachers. To be an effective Orthodox Catechist requires that one not only be a person of worship, but also "sacramentally connected." Who among us would not feed our children? What parents would not have their children inoculated against childhood diseases? Is not worship a source of "spiritual food"? Is not the Eucharist the "medicine of immortality"?

What the Saints Have to Teach
My experience in this area concurs with the wisdom of the Church. The saints throughout the ages responded to their experience of God in worship and personal life. Their catechetical program was not at the expense of worship. Orthodox Christianity at its best is a lifestyle that includes the full cycle of worship: Vespers, Matins, Liturgy, Akathist, Presanctified Liturgy, Holy Week services, Sacraments, Memorial Services, Blessing of Water, Funerals.

What I have repeatedly observed over the years is that students who did not attend the Liturgy during their Church school years were not equipped to worship when they "graduated" from Church School. They felt as if they did not "belong." They fell away. Some returned.

A Liturgical Mosaic
I see our spiritual life as a "mosaic," where each "mosaic piece" represents a facet of our Orthodox life and its services. Like a puzzle, a mosaic cannot be understood until a fair number of pieces are set in place. In order to place the pieces in this "mosaic," each must be experienced. "Talking" about Liturgy or Unction is not the same as "experiencing" Liturgy or Unction, just as "reading about" Jesus is not the same as "experiencing" His love and presence in worship and "tasting" the Eucharist. Empirical information is important only when it is incorporated into the religious consciousness of the individual.

Preparing Our Children to Worship
If we want our children to participate in the Liturgy, it is important to teach them what they can do. This includes corporate and private prayers, making the Sign of the Cross on their bodies at specific times, when to sit, stand and kneel, plus singing and receiving the sacraments.

St. John's/ Youngstown, Ohio has successfully piloted a music program that now has the children singing the hymns of the Liturgy, and learning about what they are singing. One person from the choir or with musical ability, in this case Peggy Touris, meeting with students weekly can extend the classroom experience to the Nave of the church.

Little Children and Worship
Our children must be allowed to experience the Liturgy in their own, childlike, innocent ways. To those who do not like the "sound of children" during worship, learn to "tune them out." Worship is not an adult activity. To those who say that children get "antsy" and can't sit still for the entire Liturgy, you're right.

What Can Parents Do?
Parents of preschoolers and some primary students need to give them "time out" during the petitions and during the sermon (when it occurs after the gospel) so they can "stretch their legs". They also need to bring a "Church Tote Bag" that contains "quiet toys," a pad of paper and pencil, and picture books (preferably Bible Storybooks), for little people to use periodically. Consider adding a photo album of icons and family members. My daughters have been in Liturgy with my husband and myself since day 40 and we have found these ideas to work in our family and in others.

It Is Time For A Change
During the summer months the Church School Director along with the parish priest will be planning for the Fall. As parents, grandparents, godparents and other concerned adults, examine your parish's situation. If it needs a change, encourage your parish to reevaluate the time frame of Liturgy and classes and the Church School's music program.
Both the Archdiocese and the Diocese policy are that Church School should be scheduled at a time different than the Liturgy. The National Forum of Greek Orthodox Musicians has also adopted this policy.

Let us do what is best for our children! What we do today affects our children, our teachers, and the Church as a whole.

As St. John Chrysostom says, "With us everything should be secondary compared to our concern with children and their upbringing in the instruction and teaching of the Lord."