On Saturday, June 5, 2021, day when Romania celebrates Teacher's Day, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae met with the priests and Sunday School teachers from the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of the United States of America.
In an effort to improve the educational activity of our Sunday Schools, several of the coordinators of the Resurse Educaționale Deschise Religie Educational Platform were also invited to this meeting. Developed by a team of approximately 300 Religion teachers from Romania, the platform contains an impressive number of materials, useful both for Religion teachers in the country, and for priests, teachers and catechumens in the diaspora.
In an atmosphere full of interest and enthusiasm, the guests from the RED-Religie Platform, coordinated by Presbytera Ionița Timiş, professor at the Colegiul Național Pedagogic “Gh. Lazăr” from Cluj-Napoca, presented some of the materials available on the platform, suitable for each age group of our Sunday Schools. The platform provides access to teachers, students and parents both to Religion textbooks with direct links to the accompanying videos, as well as to various reinforcement exercises, assessment sheets and supplemental activities (riddles, stories, 3 minutes of Religion, puzzle games, rebus, WordWall, StoryJumper, etc.) The platform also offers resources that promote national identity through the "Românii de pretutindeni" section. In this section you could find materials related to the Romanian language, culture and spirituality, presenting occupations, customs, people, places and historical events in an attractive way for children. Both the coordinators of the platform and the Education Commission of our Archdiocese expressed their desire for future collaboration in order to use the wealth of resources existing on the platform, customized for the needs of children and young people in our Archdiocese.
The virtual meeting continued with discussions regarding the planning for 2021-2022 school year, when we hope that every Sunday School from our Metropolia will start its activity in person, respecting the regulations of each state. The curriculum for the next year and ways to improve the educational activity through a closer integration of the lessons with the liturgical cycle were also discussed. Next, V. Rev. Fr. Daniel Ene, chairman of the Education Committee, presented some reflections on the Orthodox Religion Olympiad, organized virtually this year. The status of the ongoing educational project "The Church - Family of Romanians from Everywhere" was also discussed – the final date for this project being August 22, Sunday of Romanian migrants.
We truly enjoyed this meeting, and, with God's help, we hope that the next school year will allow us to help our children and young adults to know and appreciate more the Orthodox faith they have inherited.
Education Committee of the Archdiocese
