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  The Sunday School is a very old appearance. Its roots are taken as the
basis of the whole pre-revolutionary education that is the parish school. The
parish school gave the primary education to many outstanding people of Belarus,
Russia and Ukraine. And it is clear why – because it was almost the only place
where the primary education – reading, writing, arithmetic and the principles
of history, and the mostly main thing for us – the principles of God’s Law –
each child could practically get, irrespective of his or her social state or
material well-being. In contrast to the parish school, at the Sunday School we
are to teach contemporary children the principles of the ecclesiastical
literacy. The modern children get their education at a very high level at the
state schools, but at the same time their ecclesiastical and moral development
for reasons that have taken place in our country during recent years leaves
much to be desired. The modern education looks like a well known episode from
H.-C. Andersen’s tale “The Queen of the Snow” when a boy named Kie tries to
make assemble from the fragments of the gigantic mirror the word “eternity”.
The same happens to our children when learning different subjects they don’t
get the principal knowledge – the knowledge about the Author who has founded
all those subjects, who stands behind all words laws, who has created history
and geography. Our children learn an art of life in the dark by works withoutgetting priceless news about their Author. The Sunday School should be aninvaluable well of the God’s knowledge that would make soil of plenty of the
child’s soul wet and fertilize, would dot one’s “i’s” and cross one’s “t’s” and
help children to find the moral bar that would never let them lose their right
way. Just because of this, the Sunday School must be attached to each church.
 From the very moment of the revival of the St.
Nicholas Church the Sunday School has been working here. First the lessons took
places at the Church, where the children were sitting on the ordinary church
benches trying to listen to the teachers and to write after them at the same
time. The first educational program was the three-year one, and consisted of
the study of the God’s Law and the principles of the Orthodox life. The school
process became complicated by absence of the study rooms for children and by
impossibility for the teachers to applying widely their pedagogical
experiences. As a result of the application of the dean archpriest Michael
Satsiuk and the assistance of the town authorities it was resolved, “Allot the
ground attached to the Church territory for the construction of the building of
the Sunday School”. After the tragic death of parson Michael, his affair has
been finished by the present Dean of the parish, archpriest Piotr Romanovich.
The Sunday School proper was built in the same style that St. Nicholas Church
and both present the integral architectural ensemble.
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The classes were sanctified on 19th
December, 2000, by high-Right Reverend Filaret, Minsk and Slutsk Metropolitan,
Patriarch’s Egzarch of the Whole Belarus. At the present moment the pedagogical
council of the School has taken broadened five-year program of the education.
Besides the required subjects the children are proposed the lessons in fine
arts, embroidery, church singing and learning the Church Slavonic language, a
big role in spiritual development of the pupils play participation in the
worships and pilgrimage over the saint places. Admittance of the children to
the Sunday School in realized by the application written by one of the parents
in the name of the parson Dean and preliminary conversation with the teacher.
There is also adult group, where there are people
at the age from 30 to 60. Very often the topics of the lessons are hold not as
class lessons but in an interesting form of questions and replies. The teacher
in this group is a priest Valeriy Gritsuk.
In nowadays (2007-208) there are more than 500 pupils at Sunday school.
We are glad to see You and
Your children!
The Sunday School attached to St. Nicholas Churchdeclares admission of the pupils for
school year 2008 – 2009.
During the education the following subjects are to be learned:
- God’s Law;
- Fine arts;
- Embroidery;
- Church singing.
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