About
Grain & Vine
Grain & Vine provides a set of Orthodox education curricula within the context of the Coptic Orthodox Church. We are committed to offering comprehensive, engaging, and fruitful Orthodox religious education for Sunday School, Pre-Servant, and Servant groups. The Grain & Vine curricula are centered around the 5 basic concepts below.
Faith
Bible
Liturgy
Morality
Spirituality
“The primary lesson for life must be implanted in the soul from the earliest age. The primary lesson for children is to know the eternal God, the One who gives everlasting life”
Saint Clement of Alexandria
Grounded in Faith and Scripture
Most importantly, Grain and Vine centers its content around a Faith that is rooted in Scripture and the Wisdom of the Church Fathers. Whether Pre-School or High School, each lesson or event fundamentally aims to point towards a theological truth that gives the faithful a better understanding about their God and the world that He has created, loved, and saved. As the ancient and apostolic Nicene Creed is at the center of the Orthodox Church’s services and the condition by which the faithful are baptized, so too does Grain and Vine put what we believe at the core of each lesson through scripture and tradition for the liturgical, spiritual, and moral benefit of each individual.
Liturgically Connected
Recognizing the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church as the Body of Christ, the meeting place of the Holy Trinity, and ultimately, the ark of our Salvation, Grain and Vine’s curricula continually draw back to the Church, its rites and its sacraments, as a fulfillment and continuation of Scripture. Through the Sacraments, the faithful receive Christ, through the Holy Spirit, for the aim of reconciliation with God the Father. Using the rubrics of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Grain and Vine strives to instill within the faithful love for, understanding of, their Church.
Morally Relevant
Grain and Vine aims to present the commandments of both the Old and New Testament in a way that is not only applicable to the targeted audience, but also that is overall relevant with the times and moral challenges that our youth face. In looking at each lesson, event, or activity with the commandments in mind, youth are able to fully understand the behavior befitting sons and daughters of God, as most clearly seen in the Son of God, Christ.
Spiritually Nurturing
As Saint Ephrem of Syria pointed out, “Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven.” Grain and Vine is committed not only to recognizing the importance of prayer, but also establishing within each youth a prayer life that leads to contemplation and the acquisition of virtue. Our curricula through its array of activities, meditations, and reflections strive to promote a prayerful and virtuous life from a young age.