Enrolling For Religion Class Is A Public Confession Of Faith

On 1 March 2015, the Orthodox Church is on the Orthodoxy Sunday. The Patriarch of Romania celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Patriarchal Cathedral. After reading the Evangelical Pericope of Saint John 1:43-51, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel delivered a sermon. To end with his speech, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church underlined the importance of the Religion class for the children’s spiritual growth.

Enrolling for Religion class is an act of our love for Christ

“Beloved faithful, a special way of confessing the faith today in a world more and more secularised is to attend the Religion class at school and so, to enrol for studying religion at school now, after the Constitutional Court of Romania stated, through its decision of November 2014, that those willing to attend the Religion class must be enrolled: major children, the children’s parents or the tutor legally instituted. Therefore, enrolling to Religion class is an act of faith, of public confession of faith, of our love for Christ and of our desire to grow spiritually. The Church baptised the children whom their parents gave birth to and brought to be baptised. If the Church baptise the children, it means she ought to grow them up in faith”, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel said.

Attendance of the Religion class is a spiritual and intellectual growth in faith

“There is a growth or spiritual formation of the children first of all in the family. There is also a spiritual formation of the child or growth of the children through their attending the religious services in the Church, through the liturgical life, especially through their communication, but the spiritual and intellectual formation of the children at school is also needed, together with other colleagues and acquaintances of theirs, with other disciplines they study at school. Therefore, the attendance of the Religion class is a spiritual and intellectual growth in faith, the strengthening of the communion with other children as well as a confirmation of the relationship between the spiritual and scientific knowledge. This is why yesterday, 28 February 2015, the Consultative Council of the Religious Cults of Romania met here, at the Patriarchal Cathedral of Bucharest. The Consultative Council of the Religious Cults includes the Christian Churches of our country, the Mosaic Cult and the Muslim Cult, which launched an appeal entitled Light for Life. Importance of the Religion Class for the children’s and youth’s education. We render below this dense appeal, in ten points, full of encouragement, and of deep spiritual significance:

LIGHT FOR LIFE
Importance of the religion class for the children  and youth education
(Appeal of the Consultative Council of the Religious Cults of Romania – 28.02.2015)

1. Religion is integral and defining part of the European culture. We cannot understand the history and culture of this continent without knowing that. This is why, in almost all the European countries, Religion is taught within the public educational system.

2. The children and young people have the constitutional right to attend the Religion classes, a right acquired through the sacrifice of the young people who declared in December 1989 that “God exists”, coming back in this way to the healthy tradition of the Romanian people, an eminently religious people.

3. Religion is the light needed for understanding the universe and life, as a gift of God, in order to promote the values of the family, hospitality, justice, peace, solidarity, good understanding and communion among people.

4. The faith in God is the greatest spiritual dowry that the Family, Church, School and Community can convey to children, because it helps the young people make the difference between eternal and temporary values, and forms their personality, teaching them how to cultivate kindness and humanity, love for God and for their fellow beings, the gratitude to the past generations and responsibility to present and future.

5. The values provided by the religious education are an essential spiritual landmark and existential binder among all knowledge acquired through the study of the other school disciplines.

6. Teaching Religion in School has deep educational valences, through its formative role in the life of the children and of the young people, a fact also proved by the educational and sociological studies in the field. The Religion class diminishes the negative effects of the contemporary crisis of identity and orientation, because it proposes viable models of kindness, holiness and human cohabitation.

7. Religious education brings its share of contribution to overcoming the religious ignorance, which can favour ideological attitudes of intolerance.

8. The Religion class contributes to the formation and cultivation of a living conscience confessing the eternal value of the human person and to the promotion of its dignity in the family and society.

9. Because freedom represents a great Gift offered by God to man, religious education must be assumed in quite a free way, according to the desire of the parents and of the children. Freedom is not spiritual indifference, but man’s capacity to choose the spiritual values which enrich the life of the person and of the human community.

10. The religious cults wish closer cooperation with the State for promoting an integral education, which unites deep spiritual life with the rich scientific information because the deficit of spirituality or of existential sense of today’s technical society has negative consequences for the orientation of the young people in society.

Children who study Religion at school learn that the love of God for man is also shown through the gifts He created in nature

“In conclusion, we can say that all children and young people who attend the Religion class learn that the universe, sky and earth are not accidental products, but the gift of God’s wisdom and love for the human. The entire universe is a language of God communicating with man. When man discovers laws in nature, he only discovers what the Creator created. This is why the research of the universe means discovering the thought of God shown in His creation, in the world He created. Children who study Religion at school learn that the love of God for man is also shown through the gifts He created in nature. We live on the fruits of the earth because both we and the earth get light from the sun. We breathe the air created by God and taste the water God created for our good health and life on the earth. Thus, everything that surrounds us, all our existence that surrounds us is a gift of God. This is why the thanksgiving prayer is the most important activity of the human”, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church underlined.

The child learns at the Religion class that any good deed done with merciful devoted love never dies

“The children also learn at the Religion class that man is not a simple evaluated animal, but a free loving intelligent being created in the image of the wise, free, loving God. They also learn that man is not a superior animal, but a person created in the image of the eternal Persons of the Holy Trinity and that every human is called to eternal love, to the communion with God. Thus, the child and the young person learns at the Religion class that the grave is not the last word over live, but the Resurrection and eternal life in the love of God. The child learns at the Religion class that any good deed done with merciful devoted love never dies. It remains in the memory and blessing of God and every good deed done during the temporary life has eternal value in the Kingdom of God. This is why the Religion class cannot be replaced with anything else, with no other science because the deepest science is, in fact, the science of our relationship with the eternal God Who created us for eternal life, for the love and eternal happiness in the Kingdom of the Most Holy Trinity, for the glory of God and for our salvation! Amen!”, concluded the Patriarch of Romania.

The Constitutional Court of Romania decided (Decree no 669/2014) that the participation in the Religion class should be based on the written application of the major pupil, of the parent or of the tutor of the minor pupil.

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