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Our Classes

Our education program begins with Church School for children and young people. Due to the space constraints of our interim facility, these classes meet in four-week blocks throughout the year (check the web-site calendar for the current schedule). The classes are held immediately after liturgy and may include a Bible or Saint story, spiritual life lesson, a craft or hands-on activity, music, and a snack.

	The pre-school class is for children ages 4 and 5 (in order to be in the class, children must be 4 before September 1st). The class meets in the nursery and is taught by Eleni Hrissikopoulis and Monique Kelly.
The elementary school class is for children ages 6 to 8. This class meets in the nave and is taught by Gregg and Gayla Easley. The upper elementary school class is for children ages 9-11. This class meets in a different part of the nave and is taught by Chris Lewis and Baker Galloway.
	The young adult class meets in the bookstore; it is open to all young people in middle school and high school. The class is taught by Fr Aidan Wilcoxson, and it features live music provided by John Dunn and Rick Kelly.

Of course, education is just as important for adults as it is for children and young people. So, just about every Saturday afternoon of the year, we have a number of classes for adults. The classes begin at 5pm, and end in time for the Ninth Hour and Great Vespers. Every week, Fr Aidan Wilcoxson teaches Orthodox Instruction, which is our basic course on Orthodox beliefs and practices; this course is required for everyone who is interested in becoming Orthodox, but many other people attend as well.

We also have other groups that get together for study and discussion. On many Sunday afternoons (check church calendar & bulletins for schedule), Catherine MacLaughlin leads a group study in a close reading of selected Orthodox books. Catherine is a seminary graduate, an attorney, and a licensed professional counselor. On several Saturdays during the year, Subdeacon Thomas Wilson leads Orthopraxis Seminars (check calendar for schedule). Subdeacon Thomas is a licensed social worker and an iconographer who has a great deal of experience in the Church, and his seminars cover a wide range of subjects such as Nativity Traditions and Customs, Preparations for Pascha, and Orthodox Family Devotions.

Every fall, our community hosts an annual Theological Seminar. This is a multi-week event which takes place on Wednesday evenings. During the seminar, we conduct an in-depth exploration of a particular topic. Our first seminar focused on Apocalypticism: we read a novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz, a theological work, A Second Look at the Second Coming, and we also did a close study of the Book of Revelation. This year, our seminar topic is "Men, Women, and the Kingdom"; we are reading another novel, That Hideous Strength, along with The Song of Songs, and we will also be considering a number of specific biblical passages. In the spring, our community hosts the Paschal Book Study. In between Pascha and Pentecost, we get together on Wednesday evenings to discuss an important Orthodox book. This past spring, we worked our way through Hymn of Entry by Archimandrie Vasilieos. Check our web-site calendar and weekly bulletins for information on up-coming seminars and book studies.

One of our parishioners, Dr. Jeffrey Macdonald, occasionally lectures on Church History and other topics as part of our Christian Education program.  You can hear some of his lectures at OrthodoxChurchHistory.com

Our community is truly blessed with a great Church School program and a solid offering of adult classes, and we are working hard to provide even more! If you need further information about any of our educational opportunities, please get in touch with us. You can call the parish at 258-1711 or email Fr Aidan. Remember that everyone is welcome at any of our classes or events.

Overview

Education has always been extremely important in the life of the Church. In the Book of Deuteronomy, the people of Israel are told to teach the commandments to their children (Deut 6.6). In St Matthew’s gospel, Christ Jesus tells the apostles that they are not only to go to all nations and do the work of evangelism, but they are also to teach people how to keep the commandments (St Matt 28.20). In his letter to the Romans, St Paul writes that education should lead to renewal of the mind, and to our ultimate transformation (Rom 12.2).