Lesson video

Hello, I am Mrs. Hardy, and I'll be teaching your RE lesson today.

I'll be guiding you through the learning, and, together, we will ensure that you have successfully met the learning outcome by the end of the lesson.

Are you ready? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to explain the importance of the Orthodox Church in Christian history.

To help us with our learning today, we are going to look at three keywords, they are Orthodox Church, icon, and communities.

First of all, we have the Orthodox Church.

This is a major branch of Christianity with a history and tradition rooted in the Eastern Roman Empire.

Next is icon.

Now this is the name given to a sacred religious image, mostly commonly a painting, that serves as a visual representation of a holy person, such as Jesus, Mary, or saints, it might even be of an event or a concept.

And, finally, we have the word communities.

This is a group of people having a particular characteristic in common.

Now our lesson today about the Christian Church in the East has two parts: What is the Orthodox Church, and what does it mean to be Orthodox today? We will begin with "What is the Orthodox Church?" Here's Aisha.

Now Aisha's telling us that today's lesson is going to be learned through the way of theology.

And Aisha's going to explain to us what we mean by theology in religious education.

She says, "Theologians are interested in stories, texts, and traditions.

We can better understand people's worldviews by examining what the deeper meaning of these stories, texts, and traditions are.

We can also look at the difference they make to people today." So, in this lesson, we will be using the tools of theology to better understand the beginning of the Christian Church, and how the Orthodox Church today is based on the very first churches built for Christians to worship Jesus.

Christians believe that, after the Resurrection, Jesus spent time with His followers and told them to go into the world and tell other people about Him.

The Bible says that 40 days after the Resurrection, Jesus ascended into Heaven.

After Jesus left, His followers were unsure what to do.

He had said that He would send a helper, but the followers felt helpless.

Just pause the recording here for a moment to have a look at these two pictures.

Can you see the aftermath of the Resurrection? And can you see the followers waiting for a sign from Jesus? Pause the recording and come back when you've had a chance to look at both of these pictures.

Welcome back.

So you've had a chance to have a look at these pictures, to remember what you already know about the Resurrection, and anything that you might know about the story of Jesus after the Resurrection.

Now, 10 days later, after Jesus had descended into heaven, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came to the followers and allowed them to be able to speak in different languages.

People from many different countries and communities were in Jerusalem and heard about Jesus in their own language.

The people travelled back to their own countries and cities, and spread the news about Jesus.

This was the beginning of the Christian Church.

So, once again, just pause the video here to discuss what you can see in these two pictures, and to remember what you already know about the story of Jesus, and what happened after the Resurrection, and after Jesus had ascended to Heaven.

When you're ready, press play, and we'll continue the lesson.

Welcome back.

You had a chance now to have a look at these two pictures to understand that, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came to the disciples and was able to give them the ability to speak to all sorts of people from around the world in their own language about what they thought about Jesus.

Now let's have a look at this map.

This is a map of the Roman Empire, as it was at the time of Jesus.

The bits shown in red show where the Romans had occupied.

At the time of Jesus, Romans occupied Jerusalem.

The Roman Empire had taken over a lot of the world.

It meant that people could travel freely in these areas.

Here's the same map with a dot showing where Jesus' message spread from.

The arrows show how Jesus' message spread.

Having the Roman Empire made it easier for people in Jerusalem to spread the message they had heard about who Jesus was to their communities.

Groups of followers started the first churches.

Later, some of these churches became known as the Orthodox Church.

Let's complete a check for understanding.

True or false? The Christian Church began when Jesus' followers stayed in Jerusalem after Pentecost.

Pause the video here, and press play when you are ready to check your answer.

Welcome back, and well done to everyone who said that this statement was False.

Because the Christian Church began in many places as the people who had heard the message in Jerusalem at Pentecost returned to their homes across the world.

Well done if you got that correct.

Let's take a moment to compare these crosses.

What is the same about them, and what is different? Here we have the Western Cross, and, next to it, we have the Eastern Cross.

Now what is the difference between these two Christian symbols? Pause the video here, have a discussion about what differences you can see, and when you are ready to move on with the rest of the lesson, press play.

Welcome back.

So, hopefully, you've had a discussion now about how Christians use the cross as a symbol, because they believe that Jesus died on the cross.

They also believe that he came back to life, so the symbol of the cross also brings hope.

Now the Eastern Cross has additional bars.

Now the top one shows where a sign was placed above Jesus' head, and the one at the bottom shows where his feet were placed.

Did you spot both of those differences? Well done if you did.

So here are the crosses again, and some information about why they have ended up having two different symbols.

So in 1054 CE, which stands for Common Era, the Christian Church split into two main parts: the Roman Catholic Church in the West, the Eastern Orthodox Church in the East, and the split occurred because they disagreed about the leadership and some beliefs.

So, for example, the Roman Church, which is the Western's cross symbol, believed the Bishop of Rome, later called the Pope, should be in charge.

Whereas the Orthodox Church believed that no one person should have total control.

Sam is joining us to help us find out a little bit more about the Orthodox Church.

They want to know what does it mean when a church is Orthodox? Now the word orthodox comes from Ancient Greek.

Here it is written in the Ancient Greek, and you can see that I've split it up into two different parts, Ortho and dox.

Now Ortho means right or true, and dox comes from the word doxa meaning belief or opinion.

So an Orthodox Church is a church that believes it is keeping to the original and true teachings of the Christian faith.

Sam is now talking with Alexia.

who has a Christian worldview, and attends an Orthodox Church.

Sam says, "Hi, Alexia, what is this?" And we can see they're talking about an Orthodox icon.

Just pause the video here for a moment to take a look at the icon that Sam has shown us, and see what you can spot inside it.

Who are the people, where are they, what's happening, and what do you think of the way that it has been put together? What I mean by that are the colours and the drawings.

Okay, pause the recording here, and come back when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

So you've had a chance to have a look at the Orthodox icon, and now we're going to find out what Alexia tells us about it.

So Alexia says, "This is an icon.

It is something that you see a lot inside my Orthodox church." Alexia tells us, "My church has lots of traditions we follow, which started a long time ago.

Some of them is to have images of stories from the Bible everywhere.

We are reminded of the wonder of the Jesus story every time we visit the church." So Alexia is telling us that, as she walks into the church, she's reminded of Jesus through these icons.

So here is an example of the inside of an Orthodox church.

What do you notice about the inside of this Orthodox church? I want you to pause the video here, have a look at the picture, discuss it with the people you are with.

What jumps out at you, what do you notice? Have you gone to any other places of worship that you could compare it to? What's similar and different? When you finish talking about what you can see inside of this Orthodox church, press play again, and we'll continue with the lesson.

Welcome back, everybody.

So you've had an opportunity to really study this picture and have a look at the inside of an Orthodox church.

Now, I wonder, did you spot this golden chandelier? What an intricate design, and what a special object to have in this place of worship.

I wonder what else you noticed.

Did you see the icons? Fantastic.

Now Alexia wants to tell us that "Inside of my Orthodox church, you will find icons, candles, oil lamps, and incense.

In my Orthodox church, the congregation stands for much of the service as a sign of respect.

They can also move around during the service." Now I wonder if that is the same, or if that is different to any other places of worship that you have learned about.

Now here is a photograph of an Orthodox church.

Again, do you notice the use of the gold colour of the ornate design? And perhaps you can see some Christian symbols on top of the domes there as well.

Now Sam says, "Gosh, your church uses a lot of gold, Alexia." And Alexia responds, "Yes, there is gold on icons, often painted on walls inside the church, as well as on the outside of the Orthodox church.

The domes are all painted gold to show how this place is special." Now let's complete a check for understanding.

Can you choose from the following options to answer this question? Which of these photos is of an Orthodox Church? Take your time having a look at the three options.

Pause the video here, and when you're ready with the answer, press play again.

Welcome back, everybody.

Well done to all of you who said that b is the correct answer.

b is the Orthodox Church.

And we can see that through those golden painted domes, and through the symbols on top of the domes.

a was of a mosque, and you might be able to see the special pattern on the walls outside the mosque, and you might be able to spot the symbol of Islam on the top of the dome, and c was of synagogue, and you can see some symbols there that will tell you that that is a synagogue.

So well done to all of you who put b as the answer.

Now I think we are ready for our first task of this lesson.

And we've got Sam back and they're saying, "How can I tell if a church is an Orthodox church?" And Sofia says, "I don't think there is any way you can tell.

All churches are the same." Hmm, I wonder, can we help Sam and Sofia create a checklist of what we would expect to see in an Orthodox church that we would not see at another place of worship? And that way we can prove to Sofia that all churches are not the same.

So have a little think about what you would see on the inside and the outside of an Orthodox church, and put it together in that checklist that we can give to Sam and Sofia, so that they can see that not all churches are the same.

Okay, good luck with completing this task.

You're going to pause the video whilst you complete it, and when you are ready to continue with the lesson, you're going to press play again.

Okay, off you go.

Welcome back, everybody.

So we had the task of putting together a checklist that would help Sam and Sofia to spot that not all churches are the same, and we were going to tell them what it was that they would be able to see in an Orthodox church on the inside and the outside.

So we were asked to create a checklist of what we would expect to see in an Orthodox church by looking at the outside and inside of the building.

And you may have created a checklist like this one.

So here is my title, "Orthodox churches," and my list says there would be a dome on top, often round and golden.

There would be crosses, usually the Eastern-style crosses, which is the one with the three bars.

There would be icons, painted pictures of Jesus, Mary, and saints, and of the stories that involve all of those people.

There would be gold, there would be candles, you might see the congregation standing up and walking around.

There would be candles, and also incense.

I wonder if you had anything else on your checklist that I missed? Well, well done for your hard work and effort into completing your checklist.

Let's go on to the second part of today's lesson.

Now, the second part of today's lesson is "What does it mean to be Orthodox today?" Now here is Father Stefanos, we're gonna meet him.

He is an Orthodox priest, he leads the worship in his church, and he looks after the people in his congregation.

And Sam's gonna ask, "Father Stefanos, who are Orthodox Christians?" And Father Stefanos replies, "Well, the Orthodox Church is the oldest branch of Christianity, and it still has around 200 million followers in its community today.

It has a large community in the East." He goes on to tell us, "Orthodox churches can be found in many countries around the world.

There are huge Orthodox communities in countries such as Greece, Russia, and the Ukraine.

Orthodox Christians believe in God and follow the teachings of Jesus.

We believe that Jesus was Crucified and Resurrected.

After Jesus returned to Heaven, we were given the Holy Spirit who still guides us today.

Our church is a community." That was really interesting information, thank you, Father Stefanos.

So let's have a check for understanding here.

I want you to choose the correct option that tells me the correct answer to this question.

What did Father Stefanos say about how many Orthodox Christians there are in the world today? Was it, a, 100 million, b, 150 million, c, 200 million, or, d, 250 million? Pause the video here, and when you have your answer, press play again and we'll find out if you are correct.

Okay, off you go.

Welcome back, everybody.

So the correct answer was; there are 200 million Orthodox Christians in the world today.

Well done to those of you who got that right.

Now Alexia has another question from Sam to answer.

Sam asks, "Alexia, what does it feel like to visit an Orthodox Church?" And we can see a picture here of something called incense.

Alexia says to Sam, "When you visit, you use all your senses.

There are things to smell, like incense." So that's like a perfume.

Alexia also tells us, "The priest lights the incense, which smells sweet, to remind us our prayers go up to Heaven, and are sweet to God." That's a really interesting explanation as to why the church has incense.

Thank you, Alexia.

Now here is another Orthodox icon for us to have a look at.

Once again, take a moment to look at the picture.

Can you see what materials, like the gold, has been used in the picture? And who do you think the main people are? What story from the Christian Bible do you think this icon is showing? Okay, pause the video whilst you discuss this, and when you're ready to continue with the lesson, press play and I'll see you then.

Off you go.

Welcome back, everybody.

You've spent a moment there just discussing what you can see in this Orthodox icon.

Now, in Orthodox churches, icons are very important.

They are two-dimensional paintings, often with a gold-leaf background and on wooden panels.

Now the icons might depict Jesus, His mother, Mary, a scene from the Bible, or one of the saints.

Now it's important to remember the icons are not worshipped , but they are venerated, and that means that they are treated as though they are special.

Alexia tells us, "I kiss the icon and make the sign of the cross before it.

They help me to feel closer to God." Thank you for sharing that with us, Alexia.

Now Sam has another question.

"Alexia, what can you hear in your Orthodox church?" Alexia responds by saying, "Look at these chants." Now if you do music at school, I wonder how different this book of chants in the Greek Orthodox Church looks compared to the music that you do in school.

And Alexia tells us, in her church, "I can hear prayers and the Greek language being spoken and sung." They have chants for our worship songs, they are a very ancient way that the Christians thousands of years ago worshipped God.

Now let's have a check for understanding here.

We have had lots of information from Alexia, and she's told us about three senses that she uses at her church so far.

And I want you to tell me which of those senses it is that Alexia has told us about.

So is it option a, smell, touch and sound, b, smell, taste and touch, or, c, smell, sound and taste.

So, so far, what three senses has Alexia told us about at her church? You're going to pause the video here, and when you've got your answer, press play again, and we'll continue with the lesson.

Off you go.

Welcome back, everybody.

Which answer did you put? Alexia told us about what she could smell, that was the incense, she told us about what she could touch.

Do you remember, she talked about being able to kiss the icon, and she told us about something she could hear, the sound.

The sound of the special chants that were being read out and sung in ancient Greek.

Well done to you if you managed to get that correct.

Now I think we are ready for our second task of this lesson.

And Sofia's back, and she says, "My class is going on a visit to an Orthodox church next week.

I don't know what to expect." Oh, Sofia, let's help you out.

Can we give Sofia the information she needs by explaining something that she can expect to see or touch, that she can hear, that she can smell? So think about what Alexia and Father Stephanos had told us in this lesson.

What is it that makes an Orthodox church different from others? Now, when you give Sophia this information, you might put it in a list, you might want to make a leaflet for her, you might want to design a poster.

It's going to be up to you.

So you are gonna go away and complete this task now, and when you have finished, you're gonna come back.

So, pause the video and press play when ready, and I'll see you after you've completed the task.

Good luck.

Welcome back, everybody.

It's time to check your answers for the practise task.

Now your answer may look something like this.

So we were putting together a list of what Sofia might expect when she goes on her visit to an Orthodox church.

So, Sofia,, you may see the beautiful icons, these are not just for decoration, they help the congregation focus on their prayers and to feel closer to God.

Orthodox Christians will often kiss or kneel before them to show their devotion to God.

You might smell the incense.

This is burnt as a symbol of prayers rising to heaven.

You may hear the chants, the Orthodox way of singing hymns.

Did you include any other facts in your list? Fantastic.

Well done for all your hard work and effort completing that task.

So that brings us to the end of today's lesson on the Christian Church in the East.

You now know a lot more about the Orthodox Church, it's beginnings, and its members today.

Let's recap the key points we learned in our lesson today.

So, firstly, the Orthodox Church is one of the most ancient forms of Christianity found today.

Orthodox means right beliefs, and Orthodox services use ancient languages, such as Greek.

Orthodox churches can be found across Europe in countries such as Greece, Russia, and the Ukraine.

We also learned that there are Orthodox Church communities in the UK.

We know that the Orthodox community does not have one overall leader.

We know that Orthodox Christians can move around in a church service, and they show devotion to icons in a service.

And we know that people use their senses in Orthodox churches to worship God.

Thank you for joining me for today's lesson, I hope to see you again soon for another RE lesson.

Take care, bye for now.