2011-09-01: News and Projects for 2011-12

Post date: Jan 20, 2015 9:44:03 PM

Below you will find Church School news and information about long-term projects with a wider scope.

New Online Parish Calendars Available!

Our church office maintains and keeps up-to-date 20+ online Google calendars for just about every group in the parish.

These calendars are now available online through the Church School website under the menu "Calendar" and the sub-menu

• "All Parish Calendars".

Please take a look. You will find useful, up-to-date and accurate information, ranging from HOPE-JOY-GOYA meeting times, church services, altar boy schedules, memorial services, weddings, baptisms, bible study times, etc.

Church School Renovations - Help Needed

All Church School classrooms and corridor were repainted over the summer of 2011.

During the 2011-12 year we obtained and framed 300+ byzantine icons.

Each classroom now has about 20 icons, 12 of which are the same (they are the major feasts of the year) and the remaining 8 are different. Our objective was to make these icons part of Church School so that children can learn about the saints and the events from the Old and New Testaments. ("We become what we behold.")

The next step for our iconography project is to install in the Church School corridor the large framed icons from our church on Main Street. Because of the large size and weight of these icons, this will require a heavy-duty professional hanging system similar to those used by galleries.

Over the summer of 2012 we upgraded some of the furniture in our classrooms and installed new matching bookcases and cupboards. These match the bookcases that were recently installed in the parish conference room.

Our next plan is to upgrade the tables in the classrooms. We have already purchased new tabletops to which we need to install new legs and replace all tables.

And after that we would like to replace all student chairs. We hope to be able to get high-quality chairs that are virtually indestructible (similar to those in the Greek School but without the attached writing surface) in two or three different sizes.

Parishioners who can help with the procurement, installation, cost, etc., of these items, please talk to Fr. Nick or to us. We really need all the help we can get.

Church School Library

Our Church School Library is continuously updated with new reference material to support the St. John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival that we hold in the spring of each year for students in 6th -12th grades. Please visit the Library's own webpage and check out all the resources available.

Bible Study Maps

The Church School has acquired a set of large maps mounted on an easel that show the Holy Land and the Middle East at different points in Bible history.

We have also obtained and laminated complete sets of similar but smaller maps (8 maps, 12"x14" each) to keep in each classroom as a resource.

Our teachers can use these maps to connect events in the Bible with the geography of the areas around Holy Land.