The Priest as Teacher and Preacher
The Priest as a Teacher and Preacher[1]
3- Outside the Pulpit
The priest has a direct role in teaching, such as his work in preaching, whether in special preaching meetings, or in the sermons of the Divine Liturgy or the Vespers, and so on… But he has another role in teaching, an indirect role, which is focused on the following:
The Library
The priest can contribute to teaching his people by establishing a reading library in his church, and giving his people the opportunity for reading and study, either inside the library or through borrowing. Likewise, establishing a library for sale in an easy manner or at a price lower than the market, financially supported by the church.
It is also possible to distribute some beneficial books as gifts.
Gifts for youth meetings on feasts, or on certain occasions, or as a reward for success in a competition… Or some beneficial books may be distributed as gifts to certain families during pastoral visitation… People can also be encouraged to read, and the benefit of that can be explained to them.
The library should include what is suitable for all age stages.
It should not be limited only to what adults read, but should also include what is suitable for children and boys. The books should be varied, including studies in the Holy Bible, doctrine, theology, spirituality, rites, church history, its canons and rituals, and the lives of the saints, along with books in various cultural fields…
The books of the library must be under review…
So the priest ensures that there are no books in it against the doctrine, so that the thoughts of readers are not corrupted. As for the mature who can distinguish the doctrine of the Church from non-ecclesiastical ideas, there is no objection to their reading such books, provided that there is an alert to the erroneous ideas contained in them.
The priest, as a father of confession, can also supervise what his children read.
He asks them: what did you read? And what is your opinion of what you read? And if a strange thought has entered them, he hastens to respond to it so that it does not deepen and develop. If the confessors know that their father of confession has the ability to respond to heresies, they will of themselves disclose to him the thoughts that troubled them…
It would be desirable if there were a Coptic library in every church.
It would include images of what is in the libraries of monasteries of manuscripts, lives of saints, and interpretations of the early Fathers.
The Patriarchate has currently established a microfilm and microfiche center for this purpose, for the benefit of our institutes and churches in Egypt and in the diaspora.
Likewise, it is hoped that all churches would have a complete collection of what has been published abroad of the sayings of the Fathers, so that we may help our children receive religious knowledge from its original, trustworthy sources.
Audio-Visual Means
The priest can also contribute to teaching his children by providing the church with the necessary audio-visual means: such as cassette tapes, video, and religious films issued by some dioceses about saints and martyrs, or those issued abroad, on the condition that they be reviewed and that necessary editing or dubbing be carried out.
This is because the film leaves its effect on the soul through sound and image, as if it were a life moving before its viewers. Likewise, slides displayed by means of a projector (the magic lantern).
Pamphlets
The priest can also contribute to teaching his children through printed pamphlets distributed to attendees, provided that they bear the church’s badge and name, so that they are not confused with other pamphlets distributed by some denominations that contain teaching against our doctrines.
These pamphlets may include beneficial spiritual topics, or brief doctrinal topics, or something simple from history, or a meditation on a certain rite of the Church.
Also pamphlets given to newly married couples, and others given to newly baptized parents. In the first, a spiritual word about the way of dealing between spouses so that they may live a happy life; and in the second, a word about the Sacrament of Holy Baptism and how to raise children in a spiritual way and a sound religious upbringing.
Small pamphlets, which may be one or two pages, help those who do not have time to read books and long articles. The priest may write these pamphlets himself, or some specialists in the Church may write them, or they may be issued by the Patriarchate or the bishoprics, and their distribution generalized in the churches according to a studied curriculum. This is the best situation.
There is another means that the priest resorts to in teaching, namely:
Seminars
Such as holding a seminar in the church or in one of its halls on a topic that concerns some people who wish to research and become acquainted with it. The seminar differs from the sermon in that it includes the exchange of thought and opinion, and has room for dialogue and discussion, and room for question and answer.
Seminars with youth provide an opportunity to get to know what is inside them of thoughts and questions, where they are presented and discussed…
Seminars need proper management.
In organizing speech in them, and in supervising the course of thought in them, so that some do not raise erroneous ideas without an answer, or present a problem without a solution. Rather, the seminar must be limited in goal and topics, beneficial, and with elements prepared beforehand. In its preparation, the expected ideas to be presented must be studied, and the answers to them known.
Among the means by which the priest contributes to teaching is:
Inviting Speakers
What matters to the priest is teaching his children religiously and spiritually, whether through himself or through others.
Therefore, he invites speakers from among the priestly fathers or senior servants. If he wishes to invite one of the bishops, this should be through the Patriarchate or the bishopric to which the priest belongs. It is good that each of these speaks on a topic he masters, according to prior agreement…
Inviting speakers indicates humility on the part of the priest.
He does not monopolize teaching alone in his church. He does not fear competition from any of the fathers. On the contrary, he rejoices if the speaker has gained the approval and admiration of his children. He wants what is good for them, and he rejoices whenever they receive a new measure of teaching that benefits them.
Likewise, his invitation to other fathers indicates his love.
His love for the fathers whom he invites to give a word or a sermon or to lead a seminar, his love for his children who benefit from these fathers, and his love for knowledge in general…
The priest’s duty is not only to be a teacher. One of his most important responsibilities is also to prepare teachers from among his children.
Preparing the Learners
Or what is called preparing servants. He works on preparing leaders for youth meetings, girls’ meetings, and leaders for service in surrounding villages. Among these there may be specialized leaders. For example, if the area is being fought by Jehovah’s Witnesses, he prepares leaders who fully master how to respond to Jehovah’s Witnesses, know their points of debate and topics, the verses they use, the verses they mistranslate, and the method of responding to all this… The same applies with the Seventh-day Adventists and other denominations that fight the church’s area with strange ideas.
As for the method of preparing servants:
It comes by preparing them with the necessary knowledge and with a spiritual approach, along with supervising them practically to ensure their success in service, and also implanting the love of service in their hearts.
Among preparation for service is spreading the spirit of teaching within the family.
I mean urging fathers and mothers to teach their children the way of the Lord, as God said in the Book of Deuteronomy: “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house…” (Deut 6:6–7).
I remember that I often used to say to the mother on the occasion of baptizing her child: “Teach your child and train him in the way of the Lord. And when he grows up, do not relinquish your responsibility for him under the pretext that he goes to Sunday School. For if your child spends one hour a week in Sunday School, he spends every week 167 hours with you.
And if you do not know, study and teach him, memorize and help him memorize…”
It would be good if the priest teaches fathers and mothers what they should teach their children.
And it would be good if we, in the Church in general, prepare booklets for teaching within the family environment, so that fathers and mothers would not need many books to teach their children.
Competitions
This is a beautiful way for the priest to contribute to teaching:
By holding competitions for young men and women, and for male and female servants, in topics or researches they carry out, while providing them with references from the church library, and offering valuable prizes for the winners. There is no objection to their being under intellectual guidance in their researches.
The valuable winning researches can be placed in the library in a special section (the research section). There is also no objection to giving these winners the opportunity for each of them to summarize his research in youth meetings and answer the questions directed to him concerning it.
All this is beneficial in forming the second rank of speakers.
Among beautiful research topics is the topic of stories.
This is done by forming a group of youth to collect stories about each virtue. Stories are an interesting subject, not only for children but also for adults, and they are beneficial in preaching as well.
Stories can be collected from the lives of saints, from the Synaxarium and church history, and from story books in general, provided that each story has a spiritual goal. Among the most famous preachers of this generation known for stories is Archdeacon Iskander Hanna.
Prizes are given to the winners, and their stories are preserved in the church library.
[1] An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III: The Pastoral Page, The Priest as a Teacher and Preacher, Part 3, in El-Keraza Magazine, 3/3/1995.For better translation support, please contact the center.
