The Twelve Great Feasts

The Department of Religious Education is publishing a new Vacation Church School (VCS) curriculum written and field-tested by Barbara Harris, Presbytera Laura Morton, and Rhonda Webb. All three volumes of the Twelve Great Feasts VCS curriculum are now available:

Read Thinking of Doing a Vacation Church School? for the authors' ideas and suggestions for launching a VCS ministry in your parish.

The Twelve Great Feasts VCS currriculum is a comprehensive five-session, half-day program for children ages 5–11 (kindergarten to 5th grade). The authors also provide suggestions for adapting VCS to a parish’s needs, such as alternative schedules and age groupings.

The robust program keeps children moving and engaged with the following components:

  • Hymns and original songs
  • Crafts
  • Puppet theater
  • Morning and afternoon prayer services
  • Worship lessons
  • Classroom lessons, activities, and memory verse
  • Recreation and snack time
  • Daily full-group assemblies and a closing program
  • Spotlight on missions

The VCS Master Toolkit for each volume gives each church—of any size, on any budget—the resources and flexibility to plan, set up, and implement a successful program. The Director and Teacher Guides in the toolkit contain program manuals and reproducible forms and worksheets. Each binder also includes two CDs:

  • Each volume's Data CD has printable and many editable publicity, classroom, and worship materials, along with logos and clip art for creating unique supplementary materials.
  • Each volume's Music CD contains the program's English hymns (in the Byzantine tradition) and original songs, in both vocal and instrumental sing-along versions.

The programs' Student Booklets and Prayer Service Booklets may be printed from the Data CD, or, for convenience, purchased separately from the Department of Religious Education

Contact: Department of Religious Education

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