Under the auspices of His Eminence Mor Dionysius John Kawak, the Educational committee at the Archdiocese of the Syriac Orthodox Church for the Eastern of United States held the Annual Sunday School Teachers Retreat at Mor Aphrem Center, New Jersey from 2 to 4 November 2018. Teachers from all over the united states attended.
St. Ephraim Church – Burbank, CA
St. John – Chicago, IL
St. Paul Church, San Diego, CA
St. Athanasius Church, Tampa, FL
St. Matthews Church, Boston, MA
St. Mark’s Cathedral – Paramus, NJ
Church of the Virgin Mary – Paramus, NJ
St. Gabriel Church – Haworth, NJ
The theme for our retreat 2018 was “Be Strong in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus” 2 Timothy 2:1
We spent a wonderful day starting with opening speech from His Eminence, followed by a spiritual lecture by Very Rev. Father Andrew Bahhi about serving God as Sunday school teacher. Workshops presented by Mrs. Ramona Malki, that taught us how to utilize our Sunday school curriculum and introduced us to new resources and tools to implement in our classrooms. In the afternoon we had a workshop presented by Shamosho Gabriel Aydin who spoke to us about introducing Syriac Chant to children. To conclude our wonderful day, we gathered in the name of the Lord with Very Rev. Fr. Saliba Kassis to study His words, discuss. and reflect the theme of this year. It was a weekend filled with love, compassion, growth, understanding and friendship. We spend time the old friend and made many new ones.
