Sunday School News - February 2023

Hello Sunday School Students and Families,

Below is the Sunday School class schedule for February and the beginning of March 2023:

FEBRUARY

• February 5 Worship and Classes

• February 12 Worship and Classes

• February 19 No Classes, Presidents Day Weekend

• February 26 Worship and Classes,Forgiveness / Cheesefare Sunday

Bring Icons for procession next week!

• February 27 First day of Great Lent

MARCH

• March 3 First Salutations, Flowers presented by Sunday School students

• March 5 Worship and Classes, Sunday of Orthodoxy

The following message is from Father Christ, who has written a lovely tribute to our “Director Emerita", Antigone Gabriel, upon her stepping down as Sunday School Director.

WITH DEEP GRATITUDE FOR ANTIGONE

For eight years, Antigone Gabriel has directed the Sunday School Program at St. Luke flawlessly. During that time, she has transitioned new teachers into positions, nurtured our children, introduced new resources, new forms of communication, helped guide the staff with the new smart boards and navigated the unchartered waters that Covid created with new forms of teaching. Antigone has stepped down from her Sunday School responsibilities, so that she may take care of her mom who has become sickly. As we keep Antigone’s mom in prayer (Chrystalla), we also pray God gives Antigone strength to advocate for her mom. Antigone has worn just about every hat at St. Luke. She has been a devoted choir member, served as Chair of the Election Committee, dedicated years to the Monastiraki, served as Board member for our Philoptochos for years, served on Parish Council, as well as parish representative and Board member of the Greater Philadelphia Committee for IOCC. Antigone was also active on Coffee Hour Hospitality and assisted with VBS in past years. In addition, she was the Parish At-Large Recipient of the Ambassador Award in 2018. Of her greatest achievements, however, is raising her son, Alex, who has become an amazing young man. Join me in thanking Antigone for bringing her God-given talents to our Church and, especially, our precious youth. We look forward to seeing what new “hats” Antigone will wear in the future, when time will allow her to become active once again in parish ministry.

AXIA & Thank you, Antigone!

Fr. Christ

The entire Sunday School staff stands in awe of Antigone’s service to the students and families of our Sunday School program, adding our most heartfelt thanks and pronouncements of “AXIA” to those of Fr. Christ. May God’s peace and blessings be with you and your family always, dear Antigone, and may He reserve a special place for you in His Kingdom!

Readers for Divine Liturgy

Please encourage your children to volunteer to read the Epistle or the Communion Prayer during Divine Liturgy. This is a great way for your child to become involved in the worship of our faith. We will send you the reading(s) ahead of time so that your child can practice and become comfortable with the texts beforehand. To volunteer your child, please contact Sophia Milinkovic.

2023 St. John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival

From Parish Oratorical Festival Co-chair, Art Karros: The St. John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival is an awesome program offered each year to 7th - 12th graders to prepare a speech and compete if they choose to by presenting it at our parish level event (TBD - est. Late February). From there the winners will compete at the regional, metropolis and archdiocese levels. Please encourage your children to participate. Pete Pavlis, Jane Kelly and I will help them with resources and also with speech techniques and editing. Time flies and we would love to start working with your children on their essay/speech.

The speeches that our youth deliver at these events are absolutely amazing. And this is a great environment to brush up on public speaking which is a great help in their academic and career lives. Please let us know if you have any questions.

- Art Karros, akarros@gmail.com, and Peter Pavlis, ppavlis7104@gmail.com.

The topics and information are available at the link below:

https://www.goarch.org/-/st-john-chrysostom-oratorical-festival

Teachers’ Corner- For February, we are pleased to feature what our very dedicated Pre-K teachers have planned for their students this year:

The emphasis in the Pre-K curriculum is 2 fold: to strengthen the children’s understanding of the all-encompassing presence and love of God, and to introduce them to the faith and worship of the Orthodox Church. The first objective will be achieved through lessons about, and celebrations of, the miracle of creation; the Incarnation, Ministry and Resurrection of God’s Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; and the embodiment of God’s love by family and friends. Towards completing the second objective, the class is learning about why we come to church, with an emphasis on the Divine Liturgy; about proper church behavior, especially making the sign of the cross and venerating icons and why we do so; reciting the Lord’s Prayer, as well as the Troparion and greeting of Pascha (Christos Anesti…..); and, finally, participating in lessons about some of the Feast Days and Saints of the Orthodox Church and their importance to our faith. All of this is done in age appropriate ways, by incorporating crafts and physical activities in class that engage the children’s minds and bodies. For example, in January the children learned about the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan one week, and, the following week, we talked about their own baptisms, as well as the importance of godparents- they shared the cutest photos of their special day, and participated in the make-believe baptism of their favorite doll or stuffed animal, with fake-water and font. It’s everyone’s favorite lesson of the year, and we hope to keep that joy and excitement going through the year. Thank you for sharing your beautiful children with us!

With love in Christ,

Miss Faithe, Miss Marinela, and Miss Jane

Questions about Sunday School? Please contact Miss Jane, njkelko@gmail.com, or Miss Sophia, skyriakodis@gmail.com. Or, visit https://www.ss.st-luke.org, which will be updated throughout the year with additional information and resources for families.