Ecological Formation, eye opener for Sunday School teachers

KOTA KINABALU (CS) – The first-ever Ecological Formation organized by the Archdiocesan Creation Justice Commission (CJC), in collaboration with the Archdiocesan Catechetical Commission Mar 7, attracted a surprisingly large turnout of over 500 Sunday School teachers from across the KK Archdiocese.

The formation came on the heels of a survey conducted by the Eco-Outreach Team to gauge the understanding of Sunday School students on the story of the Creation, a vital component of the Catechetical syllabus.

The survey results indicated an urgent need for a more creative approach for effective understanding of the students, leading to good faith formation.

Subsequently, the EOT developed a three-module teaching kit for teachers to deliver their lessons more effectively. The teaching kit, which was demonstrated during the formation, provided an eye-opening experience to the teachers to explore a new way of approach in delivering lessons.

The interest it generated among the participants varied from self-awareness, to being hopeful of being able to hold the attention of students, to acknowledging the method as interesting and fun.

Interestingly, in preparing for the formation, Sr Calista Saliun and Associate Professor Dr Justine Sentian, both of whom are CJC members, chose as the main input the Gospel of Creation drawn from Laudato Si’, which coincided with the Sunday School syllabus.

Drawing from the story, Sr Calista revisited the beginning of human life, the purpose of human life and the hope of salvation through Christ, while Prof Dr Justine gave insight of how the wonderful creation of God has gone awry because of human greed.

Also present at the formation was assistant priest Fr Russell Lawrine, spiritual adviser for CJC.

Head of Catechetical Commission Sr Dariah Ajap acknowledged that there was a dire need for teachers to have an in-depth understanding of the effective deliverance of the Word of God, and shared the hope of collaboration with CJC towards achieving the goal of a strong faith formation for its Sunday School students. – Christina David/AC