Stanovskaya Tatiana

The study of orthodox church service at schools in Russia: history and modernity

Abstract

This article discusses methodological features of teaching the most important section of the course in religious education, i.e. the doctrine of church service, in the pre-revolutionary period. Drawing on the statutory and regulatory documents and methodological developments, the article identifi es the purpose, objectives and content of the study of church service in pre-revolutionary schools, as well as methodological features of its teaching, namely the methods of explanation, order of study, training media, knowledge assessment. The most signifi cant part in this study is the principles underlying the teaching of church service; these were studied by the author of this article earlier on the basis of conceptual foundations of the course in religious education as a whole. The final part of the article examines the current state of the methodology of teaching church service in Orthodox schools in Russia (secondary Orthodox schools with an Orthodox component and Sunday schools). Based on the analysis of regulatory documents, the article outlines the content of the section on church service in the programme of the course “Fundamentals of the Orthodox Faith” in presentday Orthodox schools, as well as possible prospects for their development with taking into account the experience of pre-revolutionary schools. In its conclusion, the article gives a brief overview of main teaching media for the study of church service in modern Orthodox schools as well as refl ections of the author on the qualitative development of teaching technique for the Foundations of the Orthodox Faith in general and church service in particular.

Keywords

church service, religious education, teacher of religious education, parish school, methods of teaching, principles of study of church service, visibility, method of explanation, Orthodox faith, Fundamentals of Orthodox Faith, Orthodox school, school with Orthodox component, educational and methodical manual, historical experience

References

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Information about the author

Stanovskaya Tatiana

Place of work: St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University for the Humanities; 6/1 Likhov pereulok, Moscow, 127051, Russian Federation;
Post: Lecturer;
ORCID: 0000-0001-9667-6125;
Email: taaldu@gmail.com.