The dilemma evoked on account of the Covid 19 pandemic, and the resultant restrictions imposed by the local authorities, the activities of Sunday school of the Vienna church, which was functioning systematically on all Sundays got affected severely. At the same time, the glitches faced by other Sunday schools of the Patriarchal Vicariate of Europe.
One of the prestigious events of the Vienna Sunday school was the Vacation Bible School (JSVBS), which was being conducted in August every year for the last 16 years with participation and cooperation of other sister churches in Vienna. In August 2020, since the pandemic was on its high intensity and due to strict restrictions imposed by the local bodies for gatherings, the Vienna church was forced to think of an alternative arrangement for the JSVBS and found the Zoom programme quite appropriate for conducting a “virtual JSVBS”. Accordingly, the JSVBS of 2020 was arranged virtually with participation of all Sunday schools of the Diocese on 6, 7, 8 August 2020. The blessings and advice of the Patriarchal Vicar, H.E. Dr. Mor Theophilose Kuriakose Metropolitan; active collaboration of all priests in the diocese, especially Rev. Fr. Joshy Vettikkattil, the hard work of Mr. Eldo Palpath, Headmaster of Vienna Sunday School and teamwork of all the teachers of Vienna Church, were behind the thumping success of the programme.
Lord Almighty gave wisdom to think of an online Sunday school programme from the lessons learned from the above virtual JSVBS and the evinced interest of children and their parents. After extensive discussions and thoughts, Rev. Fr. Joshy took the lead and convened a meeting of all priests and teachers on August 30, 2020, to get a first-hand report of the pros and cons of conducting a virtual, combined Sunday school of the Europe diocese. With the blessings of Thirumeni it was decided to start during the ensuing Sunday school year, i.e. September 2020-June 2021. Accordingly, H.E. Dr. Mor Theophilose Kuriakose Metropolitan blessed and inaugurated the Online Sunday School of Europe on September 6, 2020, using Zoom programme.
In the meeting of inauguration all priests and church representatives of the diocese, including potential teaching staff, who attended and expressed their opinion as well as various adjacent hitches. However, it was noticed by all the attendees that although the feasibility and practicability were not very encouraging, there were enormous benefits in such a programme so far as the children and the diocese are concerned.
In the beginning, varied problems i.e., interest of students, availability of dedicated staff, language barriers, etc. were pulling us back. Moreover, the available students were having varied levels of knowledge and experience in the Sunday school programme; only a few were regular attendees of Sunday schools due to paucity of opportunity. These were challenges in adopting the MJSSA syllabus, the pillar of the Malankara Sunday school movement. A preparatory retreat for the teachers led by H.E. Mor Thimothios Mathews Metropolitan was held on 12.09.2020 to get a spiritual empowerment and training.
Currently there are about 140 students from 12 countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, and The United Kingdom).
