Blessed is the Kingdom

The OCA Department of Christian Education has released the first lessons of a new comprehensive school-age curriculum, assisting parishes and Church School teachers in the formation of Orthodox Christian students. The first five lessons in a planned year-long curriculum are now available for download for Preschool, Kindergarten through Second grade, and Third through Fifth grade. Middle school and High School lessons will be released at a future date.

This new school-age curriculum is based on themes presented in the popular “Essential Orthodox Christian Beliefs” released by the Departments of the Orthodox Church in America last year. Using the Divine Liturgy as a framework for presenting the most essential Orthodox Christian doctrines and practices, the development of this school-age curriculum will now permit a parish-wide coordinated educational program.

The series author, Kelly Potteiger, is creating this new series using the successful format of her previous occasional lessons, “All of Creation Rejoices,” and “Let Your Light So Shine,” often used for short series or Vacation Church School themes.

Fr Thomas Soroka, Project Manager for the Departments of the OCA stated, “this new school-age year-long series is a logical and needed next step in the development of new Church School material. As our parishes and Church Schools across the OCA grow, our pastors and teachers have asked for fresh, interactive lessons which engage students and guide teachers every step of the way.”

The new lessons emphasize scripture and liturgical texts, are written with clear instructions for teachers, and are scripted in order to assist novice teachers. The lessons are created to be highly interactive using questions, activities, and crafts which are especially attractive to young students and enable learning more effectively than paper exercises.