Sunday School in the Middle of Qidasse?
What is the role of the Sunday School? Its role is to not simply put out information but to help develop the youth relationship with God through the church and its Holy Sacraments. We must connect the church and God in the minds and hearts of the youth.
The first problem that I have seen in many churches is that the lesson is happening ON SUNDAY MORNING!!!!! the exact same time as the Qidasse ( Holy Liturgy)! This is teaching the youth that they are not required to attend the Holy Liturgy. This also happened in the church I attended growing up. When the youth are not worshipping in the church with their parents then in the youth’s minds, the Holy Liturgy is only for the adults. This is obviously not true. We must practically teach the Holy Liturgy by having the youth stand with their parents during Holy Liturgy. One example of this is what I have seen in Debre Tsion St.Mary church in Atlanta, Georgia. The whole church has come to an agreement on this issue and has set an expectation that each child must stand for the Qidasse or Holy Liturgy. They have Saturday School instead of Sunday School. This is also happening with the teen group in Debre Eyesus Houston, Texas. Many Coptic churches have Sunday School but in their case, it works because they save the sermon for after the Holy Liturgy, so while the parents are having their Arabic sermon after church for 1 hour, the students go to their Sunday School class and have their lesson in English for 1 hour. This is something that the teachers, parents, and priest have had to take a stand together on in order to set a standard that the youth must attend Holy Liturgy in order to learn practically how to be an Orthodox Tewahdo Christian. In my generation, attending Holy Liturgy was not an expectation set by the adults and “Sunday School” happened simultaneously with the Qidasse. As a result, my peers who are now adults in their twenties have absolutely no idea what is happening in the church during the Qidasse nor have the patience to stand the whole time because they were not trained as children. Our Orthodox Christian church must be experienced practically to be appreciated, we must teach our children to attend Holy Liturgy, to partake in Holy Communion, to have a confession Father, to fast, to pray, and to do sigdet (prostration). One important thing I would also like to mention is that we must accommodate the youth in Qidasse by translating to English especially if we want the youth from outside the church to be able to participate. Having youth attend and participate in Qidasse is not going to happen automatically, parents, teachers, and clergy must come together in order to create this reality. As we can see from the examples, it is very possible but we must work to create progress.
Teaching Translations
As our teacher and Apostle St.Paul taught us, “So likewise you, unless you utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. …Therefore, if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to him who speaks, and he who speaks will be a foreigner to me.”- 1 Corinthians 14: 9-&11. How can youth enjoy in the Qidasse, mezmur, and prayer without understanding the meaning? As we can see from the generation of diaspora youth that we have lost from the church, keeping Geez and Tigrinya without translation is not an effective method. We must translate Qidasse, prayers, and mezmurs into English to plant seeds of Christianity in our youth. Remember, the point is salvation. By translating, the youth will grow to love God and the church. What is our church’s plan to attract the youth who are outside the church? Do we expect them to jump through all of the obstacles there are in the church in terms of language?
I want to also touch on the issue of children’s choir translation. I go to many churches and you can go to many Tewahdo churches- Eritrean and Ethiopian – you will find there a cute children’s choir. The parents see this and rejoice at seeing the young ones “praising God” – only one problem- they are not praising God because in many cases this kid has no idea what in the world he is saying. How do I know this? 1) I was one of those kids, 2) I challenge you to go to any church, ask a kid “what did you just sing?”- they will shrug their shoulders and run off with their friends. This is my experience until now, hopefully, your church is different. We clap with those kids, we smile at them and their cute show. Wouldn’t it be better for those same children to sing with true joy knowing the meaning? We are not at church to watch a show, we are at church to raise Orthodox Christians who have an understanding. Teaching kids mezmur without explanation is an outrage and we must not allow this to continue to happen. We must learn to accommodate the youth’s need for comprehension as a primary step in preserving the future of the church in America.
Mezmurs are a Tool!
Mezmurs are a wonderful teaching tool and can be used explain the Orthodox Tewahdo faith to the youth. For example, if you teach a child the meaning behind the mezmur “Mariam Eme Bizuhan” that beautiful simple two line hymn will stay in the child’s heart forever and effect their faith positively. You have not only just taught them the Ge’ez words and added to their church vocabulary but helped them know the meaning of St.Mary and her intercession. A mezmur “aman beAman tensia Emene mutan” is a perfect opportunity to teach about the resurrection of our Lord! Therefore, the child will learn about the church gradually through the mezmurs. If I ask one of your students, what does “Seali lene Mariam Qidist” mean and they are able to tell me that it means “ Pray for us, Holy Mary” that is okay- but what if I ask them “who is St.Mary?” “why do we sing for St.Mary?” and the student cannot explain that – then this has not been fruitful. We must make sure to teach not only the translation- but the significance of that translation. Who is St.Mary? Why do we sing to her? How can we show her our love? These are questions all of your students should already know the answers to in their minds as they are singing in order to consider it a fruitful children’s choir. How wonderful it would be to see children singing with understanding! This is planting seeds in the child’s heart so that they will grow to love God through the mezmurs. Our goal is to develop Orthodox Christians that will become our future bishops, priests, deacons, Sunday school teachers, choir members and congregation. Currently, there are even Yaredawi mezmurs translated into English words that can allow youth to sing effortlessly in their own language. The translation was not done for my peers and I who grew up in the Tewahdo church, we did not have any attachment to the mezmurs we sung, and because of this, we did not experience spiritual growth. That is the reason you or I will find it difficult to find any diaspora youth between the ages of (19-30) years of age who will step foot into the church outside of a Timqet event or major holiday even in a major city such as D.C, Atlanta, or Chicago.
Prayer
What a wonderful opportunity prayer is to teach the youth what praying is all about, but if it is all in Geez they are not learning that precious lesson. Allowing youth to pray in their own language will help them connect with God. Repeating prayers In a language youth don’t understand is a way to teach them that talking to God means not understanding what you are Praying. Perhaps to you, “Abune zebesemayat” is obvious in meaning but for them, it is not so obvious. If you would like to test their comprehension take some words out of the Geez prayer and ask them, for example, “yitqedes simike” will they know that this means “hollowed be thy name”? I am not saying is it not important for youth to know Geez, what I am saying is we should also encourage them to pray in their language which is English because the reality is, if they grew up in America, English is their primary language. People pray in the language they are comfortable speaking and we need to show them not only how to pray in Geez/Tigrinya but how to pray in their personal prayer time. One method that I have found to work is to begin the class by praying in English “Our Father who art in Heaven” to open their hearts for the lesson, then end the class by praying in Geez. In order to see the change in the current trends and not lose another generation, we need to help bridge the gap between knowledge of church and relationship with God so that they two sides can come together leading to true understanding.
Part 3 and last next .... click link below
https://english.eritreantewahdo.org/?sermons=diaspora-youth-in-the-tewahdo-church-last-part
Contact:
For clarification on this article, resources or other assistance contact me at my email: Dellila Tesfay: dtesfay1@gmail.com.
For Translated resources or assistance on how to help your youth or Sunday school class can be provided by the English Youth Outreach Program (EYOP) Eotyoc@gmail.com.
Glory Be to God
And to His Virgin Mother
And to the Glorious Cross
Amen.
