Current News

26 July 2011

By Melanie Panosian

When Sunday School begins this fall in parishes across the Eastern Diocese, children will participate in an enriched educational experience, informed by a Diocesan Department of Youth and Education's (DYE) pilot program held in the 2010-2011 academic year.

The program originated from the 2009 Clergy Conference, where priests expressed their desire to integrate children's church participation with the typical Sunday School class experience. The program models a two-hour Sunday School morning, consisting of traditional classroom instruction and now regular participation in the Divine Liturgy. The pilot phase has proven successful among the parishes, and following an evaluation process, a revised version will be implemented in all Diocesan parishes.

The new Sunday School set-up is in accord with the Diocese's recognition that the Divine Liturgy is the central aspect of life in the church and should be shared within families—by children and adults alike. The Diocese seeks to stress the importance of including children in this integral portion of the Armenian faith as they grow up in the church.

The point was articulated by the Rev. Fr. Untzag Nalbandian, pastor of the Holy Ascension Church of Trumbull, Conn.: "It has been proven over and over again that those who are in the church today are those whose parents brought them to church at a very young age." 

The new Sunday morning format unravels the "mystery" that is the Holy Badarak to many children, through a more interdisciplinary approach that still maintains the existing Sunday School classroom experience. Most of the 40 parishes with Sunday Schools programs in place participated in the program, and 15 submitted feedback for review and discussion at the 2011 Clergy Conference, which convened at the end of April.

Comments collected from pastors and Sunday School staff through the evaluation survey fueled recommendations for future implementation of the program. For example, some parishes discovered that parents adversely affect their children's badarak attendance by arriving late or leaving early.

Andrea Carden, Sunday School superintendent of the St. Leon Church of Fair Lawn, N.J., spoke about the impact of the program in her parish: "The adults were a bit anxious at first, but came to see the beauty in having the children at badarak."

Schools also found that shorter sessions in the church sanctuary, with occasional extended stays, are more effective than long sessions every week. They found that shorter sessions may be necessary to keep Sunday School time intact, because parishes negatively view the compromise of Sunday School time that came with extended church stay.

Staff members also stressed the importance of preserving Bible study and classroom instruction in Sunday morning's schedule to connect children, who most likely do not partake in such activities during the week, to their faith.

Other ways to strengthen the Sunday morning experience, such as relating the children's church message to a pre-Sunday School "Assembly" or to the Sunday School lesson that week, were mentioned. Another idea was to teach children about badarak during Assembly some weeks, or have them participate in badarak through, for example, passing the Kiss of Peace, reading the Scriptures, distributing mahs, or participating in the choir. These ideas for involvement function towards increasing the link for students between Sunday School and badarak, making the two more fluid in children's minds. 

Many priests affirmed that they like this Sunday School format better than the traditional, all-classroom format. Still, Fr. Tavit Boyajian, pastor of the Sts. Joachim and Anne Church of Palos Heights, Ill., explained that he and his congregation believe that additional efforts can be made in order to make the Divine Liturgy "the most spiritually edifying experience for our people."

Ultimately, the overall positive feedback for this pilot program confirmed the Diocese's intention to extend it into the coming Sunday School year and beyond. Moving forward, the Diocese is asking all parishes to review their individual results and make necessary changes, while offering general recommendations for strengthening the program.

First, the Diocese recommends that priests should deliver a special message addressed to the children each week (possibly relating to the Sunday School Assembly topic) and allow for students to participate in badarak.

Second, it urges that additional Sunday morning activities need to be kept to a minimum, in order to allot enough time for badarak attendance and Sunday School classroom instruction.

Finally, the Diocese seeks to promote an ongoing conversation, involving the entire parish community, about the kind of education children need, and how the church can effectively provide them with such.

Trumbull's Fr. Nalbandian, voicing his support for the new Sunday School initiative, countered the long-held argument that badarak is "too long" and that children "don't understand it." 

"Through this kind of regular exposure," he said, "a time will come for every child when they will understand the badarak."

It's an Armenian Church variation on an old adage: practice makes perfect.