Interview with the director of the Sourp Hagop Sunday School
Mr. Toros Babikian (left)
It has been 41 years since the Sunday school has been in service. In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, what has the Sunday school been doing since the latter half of the past year?
As you know, for 41 years, our Sunday school program has started on the Sunday following the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and has ended on the last Sunday of May, for a total of 33-34 sessions. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case this past year. Due to the coronavirus, our last in-person session was on March 8.
We were going to mark the 40th anniversary of the Sunday school in 2020. For this reason, we had convened with the priest of our Church, V. Rev. Fr. Karnig Koyounian, to participate the various religious services, such as the reading of excerpts from the Bible on Easter Eve, as well as the participation in the Holy Thursday to the Washing of the Feet ceremony. When the government banned gatherings, we also stopped going to school, though our program did not stop there.
With the invitation of Fr. Koyounian, the students of Sunday school held readings on the Easter Eve online. We also requested that our teachers prepare online courses, but as we know, the younger the student, the harder it is to work online. This was easier for the older students. Also each Sunday the older students read online the biblical texts. In the case of the younger ones, however, we only held a few meetings, in which the main activity was making arts and crafts with the help of the parents.
This year also, we started going to school on the Sunday the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and the following Sunday, we went to church together and received the Holy Communion. I would like to note that the Sunday school respects all the rules regarding the coronavirus, including the disinfection of hands, social distancing, etc… However, the number of students dwindled, with many parents reluctant to send them. Despite this, the Sunday school kept its activities going. For the older groups, the classes are still online. Of course, one day we all hope to be able to gather in our school together.
Religious Education
within the Sunday School
Can you talk about the importance of religious education?
Here’s the essential point: it’s only by believing that the spirit exists at an equal footing as the mind and the physical that we can truly look out for it. When we feed a newborn to preserve its health, it starts thinking about physical movements and then begins to walk. That means, they understand that Man needs to stay healthy…
The existence of the spirit is a different and more complex subject. In order to develop it, we first need to accept it, just as we develop our body through physical exercise and our minds through schooling. The growth of the spirit is tied to religious education; in our case, Christian education. Each individual has their own part to play for this. It’s important for the Armenians, but especially for the diaspora. We live outside of Armenia, but we nevertheless belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, which is the source of our spiritual education.
The "New Generation" of Sunday School
What would you like to tell the new generation of parents?
As parents, we need to consider spiritual education as similarly important as physical and mental education. When our children are baptized, the godfather asks thrice that the child wants “Faith, hope, love, and baptism.” To fulfill this, the parent should bring their child to Church every Sunday, and enroll them in Sunday school, so that they can learn and begin to understand the Bible. As such, when the child attends church later in life, he will understand what the readings are about.
The Sunday school has a very important role to play in the growth of the spiritual life, particularly in Quebec, where religious courses are forbidden in schools. Yes, Christ said “let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” So parents need to actively guide their children to Sunday school and to Church.