The official beginning of Sunday School Classes for The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia
With the blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia on Saturday, March 5 (the corresponding September of the Northern Hemisphere), in Sydney, the new catechism year for the youth of the Holy Archdiocese of Australia officially began.
The inaugural event for the Sunday Schools took place at the premises of the Orthodox Christian Society in the suburb of Bexley, in the presence of its President, Mr. Ioannis Psarommatis, the Vice President, Mr. Stylianos Magdalopoulos, the former President and one of the founders Mr Mihail Antoniadis, executives and catechists, as well as clergy of the Holy Archdiocese of Australia.
Mr. Psarommatis welcomed His Eminence Archbishop Makarios, expressing the great joy of all who had their spiritual father among them and the opportunity to receive his blessing in view of the new academic year.
“It is a blessed and prayerful work that our Church has such fighters of the faith,” he noted, among other things, when referring to the young Catechists, pointing out that young children rely on the desire of the soul and the sincerity of the heart to serve the truth of Christ.
For his part, the Archbishop spoke with words of praise for the work of the Catechists and warmly thanked Mr. Psarommatis and all the catechists for their valuable ministry and for the holy and spiritual, as he distinguished, way they perform their work.
Looking back on his youth and remembering his personal experience of teaching in Sunday Schools, His Eminence Archbishop Makarios distinguished that children have a special sense, which adults do not have, in terms of recognising and accepting the truth of what they are taught.
On the basis of this finding, he urged Sundy School Teachers to give importance to teaching young people by their personal example, by their Christian and spiritual life. “No matter how hard you try to teach from the books and papers, you will not succeed if you do not manage to teach with your life,” he noted characteristically.
He further urged the catechists to strive to create an environment of Christian joy, so that “those who will leave the Sunday School room have fullness in them, to have the feeling of joy and to leave rested”.
