St.Stephen's Indian Orthodox Church Birmingham, UK B26 2RR Registered Charity No.1145271
St.Stephen's Indian Orthodox Church Birmingham, UK B26 2RR Registered Charity No.1145271
The Sunday School is an integral spiritual organisation of our parish. In our service, we strive to enhance the knowledge that the children have regarding their rich Orthodox faith and by nurturing their spiritual growth. Both of these facets of our service help us to achieve our overall aim of bringing our children closer to God.
As expected, a substantial proportion of what we do at Sunday School is associated with covering the prescribed curriculum from OSSAE-UEA. For this, we have segregated the children into 13 year groups, ranging from pre-school to Year 12. Each year group has been assigned with at least 2 teachers, who lead the children in systematic exploration of the spiritual depths found in each lesson. These classes take place every week after the Holy Qurbana.
In addition to the curriculum, every year the children are prepared for the Sunday School Talent Event by their teachers and parents. In 2023, we witnessed excellent participation from our immensely talented children at the Unit Level Event. By the grace of God, our children then progressed to the Zonal Level Event, which was hosted by our parish. Our children were pronounced as the overall champions, and they subsequently progressed to the Diocesan Level Talent Event too, where they were won the overall 2nd prize. The laurels undoubtedly brought great joy to everyone at our parish, however we appreciated and recognised the participation of all our children even more. We thank and glorify God for bestowing so many talents to all our children.
A common feedback which was received from the children and parents alike was that the Sunday School should have more fun activities. Bearing this in mind, a day filled with a lot of games and other fun activities, which our children thoroughly enjoyed was organised.
As with every year, OVBS 2023 was an eagerly awaited time of the year. Something that made this OVBS unique was the involvement and leadership of MGOCSM members who delivered a few presentations for the OVBS children and conducted a quiz.
The 2023 Academic Year drew to a close with our Annual Event and Awards Ceremony which celebrated all that our children had achieved over the course of the year.
For the academic year of 2024, the Sunday School at St. Stephen’s Indian Orthodox Church Birmingham, has nearly 100 formally registered children. Along with our respected Vicar, Rev. Fr. Mathew Abraham Palathinkal, we are blessed with the dedicated service of over 30 teachers, a number of OCYM, MGOCSM members and other members of the parish. The unparalleled support and encouragement of our parish administration and each parishioner towards the day-to-day functioning of the Sunday School and more importantly, our children, is one of our strongest pillars of strength.
With the introduction of the new Sunday School curriculum this year, the students and teachers are likely to find the coming months quite challenging. However, with God’s grace, and with the realisation that the curriculum has been tried and tested within the American Dioceses of our Church, a lot of confidence can be gained. We are sure that the complete implementation of the curriculum and the style of teaching it requires will make Sunday School studies much more relevant to our children in their unique existential contexts.
We seek the intercessions of St. Mary, St. Stephen our patron saint, St. Thomas, and all the other holy saints for our Sunday School.
Marth Mariam Vanitha Samajam is the Women’s wing of the Malankara Orthodox Church of India. It is one of the major spiritual organization of the church combining all the female members. Prarthikkuka, Pravarthikkuka, Prakasikkuka - is their motto. The association of the ladies is meeting regularly. They are actively working and extending their valuable contribution to the fullfilment of various activities of our parish and church. The organization was founded in 1928 aimed at the spiritual progress of women. The founders named it “Marth Mariam Samajam”after the Blessed Virgin Mary whom they accepted as their interceding saint.
The Orthodox Christian Youth Movement (OCYM), the Youth-wing of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Chruch is in its 80th year of active leadership and Christian witness in the Church and society. It contributes to the goodness and progress of the Church and community in the three-fold path of worship, study and service. It aims at moulding the minds and visions of the youth against the background of the contemporary issues.
