High School

High School: The Way and the Truth and the Life

Teacher: Jackie Fahey

Text Book –The Way and the Truth and the Life – OCEC

Curriculum Covered: Comprehensive text that reviews the many facets of the Orthodox Way of Life including, doctrine, history, liturgics, feast days and lives of saints, ethics and morality.

Scripture – Biblical Knowledge
Students are given an overview of the Old and New Testament as being divine revelation. The necessity of understanding and applying the 10 Commandments and the teachings of Christ in one’s daily life is also stressed.

Doctrine/Dogma
The text stresses an understanding of living the Orthodox Way and stresses five vital components: (1) The Life in the Holy Spirit – Conversion, (2) Repentance,

• Struggle, (4) Liturgy –living a life of prayer, work and thanksgiving, and (5) Wisdom – understanding and living the dogmas and teachings of the Church – Nicean Creed.

Church History/Holy Tradition
An overview of church history is presented which includes, Pentecost and the early Church, including the persecution of the 2-4^th centuries and the freedom of the Church at the time of the conversion of St. Constantine. The rise of the Pentarchy – the five ancient patriarchates, is also discussed. A brief overview of the seven ecumenical councils is also given.

The understanding of the Church being guided by the Holy Spirit as witnessed in the formulation of Holy Tradition is emphasized in the text. In particular, the veneration of saints and icons as well as the architecture of the Church is discussed.

The following Lives of the Saints are presented: Saints Abraham, Alexis Toth, Basil the Great, Constantine, Ephraim of Syria, George the Trophy-bearer, Gregory the Theologian, Helen, Innocent of Alaska, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, John Chrysostom, Luke the Evangelist, Macrina, Mark the Evangelist, Mary Magdalene, Mary of Egypt, Matthew the Evangelist, Moses the Prophet, Nectarios of Aegina, Nicholas the Wonderworker, Nina Equal to the Apostles, Paul the Apostle, Peter the Apostle, Raphael of Brooklyn, Sabbas of Serbia, Stephen the Proto-Martyr, Thekla, Equal to the Apostles, the Theotokos, and the Three Holy Hierarchs.

Prayer – Liturgical/Personal
Feast days explained include: the 12 Great Feast Days and Holy Week. the glossary includes an explanation of select icons of the Lord and the Theotokos, Holy Week, the Winding Sheet (Plaschanitsa), Ascension and Pentecost.

The Holy Sacraments of Baptism, Chrismation, Confession/Repentance and Marriage are reviewed. The Liturgical Year and Festal/Fastings Seasons are also discussed. Topics which include the two types of fasting (total vs ascetical) and prostrations are covered. The daily cycle of services/liturgical day is reviewed as is the significance of Holy Week and Paschal Services and St. Ephraim’s Prayer. Attention is also given to the Divine Liturgy.

Ethics/Morality
The following topics are discussed: Forgiveness, love for God and fellow man, freedom and responsibility, humility, acquiring the fruits of the Holy Spirit, making moral decisions, suicide, euthanasia, abortion, the sanctity of life, materialism and human sexuality.

Vocation: Marriage and monasticism as ways of living out one’s salvation are discussed.

Text Book- New Frontiers Grade 10

Curriculum Covered: This text covers the history of the Church from the 9^th century to the 20^th century. (Text is outdated and stops in the 1960’s)

Church History/Holy Tradition

The following material relative to Church History is covered:

Birth of the Slavic Christian States in the 9^th Century – Bulgaria, Russia, Serbia, Baptism of Kievan Rus.

Great Schism of 1054 between the Church of the East and the West, and the five ancient patriarchates.

12^th-14^th Century – West: Crusades, East: Council of Florence (1438), the fall of Byzantium (1453) and the Invasion of Russia by Mongolians

16-18^th Centuries – the Orthodox Churches under Turkish rule, Protestant Reformation. Russia becomes a patriarchate in 1589. The forced Unions of Brest Litovsk & Uzhorod, the Old Believers Schism in Russia, the emergence of national churches as Turkish influence decreases: Greece, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania.

20^th Century – Orthodox Church under Communist Rule. Orthodoxy in America to the 1960s

The lives of the following Saints are touched upon:
St. Sabba of Serbia, St. Alexander Nevsky, St. Gregory Palamas, St. Mark of Ephesus, St. Sergius of Radonesz, St. Seraphim of Sarov, St. Herman of Alaska, St. Innocent of America, St. Alexis Toth, St. Tikhon of Moscow