My Orthodox Family: General Teacher Lesson Notes

These six 45-minute adult-level sessions of My Orthodox Family have the same themes as those for the sessions prepared for children and teens. But in these sessions we invite adults to approach those themes in a particular way. Adults will look at saints and Biblical figures whose family relationships vary widely. They struggle to follow God's will. Most of them are good examples of godly families and family members, though some are examples of what we would not want a Christian family to be. As we study them, we will consider creative ways to apply their examples to our lives as parish families.

Because these sessions involve a good deal of discussion, you (the leader) will either need to appoint a discussion leader, be prepared to lead yourself, or have willing participants take turns leading the sessions. Work with your pastor to find the best approach.

As an ongoing project, students working on the other age levels of My Orthodox Family are developing a Parish "Roots" Project, coffee hour presentation, and display. They will be interviewing parishioners and gathering information about the history of the parish and its members. As a conclusion to their efforts, consider ways you can create a parish archive to preserve their work and to put together a fairly permanent history of the parish.

After the first session, two or more members of your group should consult with your pastor and with the people leading the other levels of this unit of study to see what they have produced so far (interviews, oral histories, photographs, etc.) Then at the beginning of your next session, take ten minutes to consider ways to archive the information and items collected so far. This will be the pattern for each week, so that after your sixth session you will know what materials you have, and can plan a parish archive.

Be sure to have some participants confer with leaders of the other age-level groups to see what they have produced so far that can be part of the parish archive your group will plan.