"Christians are not born, they are made." (St. John of the Ladder)
- educational event about Christian faith and values -
With the blessing and participation of His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian, on Saturday, April 17, 2021 on the Zoom and Facebook platforms, the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada hosted the presentation of the Educational Platform - Open Educational Resources Religion red-religie.ro.
Designed as an interactive platform to provide teachers and students with digital resources in the field of religious education, red-religie.ro is a useful, high quality tool for designing and conducting lessons online.
In the opening of the event, professors from Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj Napoca, Romania gave several lectures.
- Prof. Dr. Adrian Opre, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Cluj-Napoca - Educational reforms: reconsideration of the role of moral-religious education
- Lecturer Dr. Claudia Cuc - Empathy online
- Rev. Prof. Dr. Mihai Himcinschi, Dean of the Faculty of Theology in Alba Iulia - Education and spirituality in contemporary society
- Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vasile Timiș - Department for Teacher Training Cluj-Napoca - Religiosity as heritage and means of retrieving identity
Teachers and coordinators from Sunday Schools of the Diocese of Canada learned about the digital resources created in various applications, which cover Romanian language, culture and spirituality, but also religious content. The platform provides religion teachers and students with a wide range of resources needed to perform online and offline activities: teaching materials, consolidation, assessment, audio-video materials, additional teaching resources of a wide variety, useful for each lesson.
The DIASPORA section was presented to the audience by the team of teachers consisting of Insp. Prof. Robert Mugurel Roșioru, Prof. Simona Căprescu, Prof. Gabriela Antoaneta Marinescu, Prof. Lazăr Stancovici, Prof. Ionuț Bolog, Prof. Ruxandra Burlacu-Călinoiu, Prof. Daniela Zaharioiu, Prof. Maria Ceauș, Prof. Florin Zărnescu, Prof. Ligia Zărnescu and coordinated by Presbytera Prof. Dr. Ionița Timiș, moderator of the event being Lect. Dr. Univ. Ramona Buzgar from Cluj-Napoca.
The multitude of applications and resources pleasantly surprised the coordinators of the Sunday Schools and last but not least strengthened the belief and confidence that, far from Romania, students and teachers of religion schools are not alone, but fraternally supported by Romanian teachers to keep and cultivate the value of Romanian Orthodoxy in Canada.
In his closing remarks, His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian thanked the team of generous and dedicated teachers of this platform and said that: “what we do here is part of the wider context of pastoral care of young people and children that prepares them for life, but a life which is vertical and in accordance with what God has planted in our hearts. The initiative of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel and of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church to dedicate specific themes to the homage years helps us a lot to discover and deepen them, and the benefits of this initiative can be seen in this very productive meeting. We are very happy and congratulate you for your extraordinary effort.”
The year 2021 is the homage year of the pastoral care of Romanians abroad and following the advice of St. John the Ladder "Christians are not born, but are made" , The Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada has established catechetical religious education and the preservation of Romanian values as a priority and continuous concern.
The event was broadcast live on the official Facebook accounts by Doxologia.ro, Orthodoxy of Youth, Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada, AROLA and parishes in the Diocese of Canada.
(notes by Carmen Ognean, Windsor)
