Romania

Reaching Past Borders and Boundaries

Our Youth Bible Curriculum project in Romania is conducted in partnership with World Vision Romania. The project was established in 2001 to assist the Christian Church in Romania in the teaching of its children through quality Bible materials and teacher training resources.

The aftermath of Ceaucescu’s communist regime has opened the door for people to turn and return to God. The Romanian Orthodox Church is the church with historical roots in Russia and it is seeks to convey Christian spiritual truths to the next generation. Early religious instruction for children has proven to be one of the most powerful predictors of a lifelong Christian faith.

Children | Community | Communion

“Alexandru, 12, was born in and lives with parents and grandparents in a mountain village called Girov (Northern – Eastern Romania). It is a small village with around 300 inhabitants of which 35 are children between 1 – 18 years of age. Alexandru is an apparently shy boy, with two blue, kind eyes. But his daring character is revealed when he says ‘I love to go to Church but when I grow old I want to become a car race – Formula 1 pilot!’

Father Stefan came in Girov parish 5 years ago. When he speaks about the people in Girov he says “they are very picturesque people, with old, communist mentalities”. When he participated in the training sessions within YBC Project he saw it as a very good occasion to tackle the spiritual poverty in the community, the strongest legacy that the 50 years of communism in Romania left behind.

‘…What I liked about YBC guides was that they are very well – structured and rooted in the Bible fundamentals. Now, I am extremely happy to see that children know how to open a Bible – their parents didn’t and still don’t know that – on Ceausescu’s time they had almost nobody to teach them’, Father Stefan declared proudly.

These steps are small, but certain. But it is very important to start work with the young generation on that. The fifty years of communism left a hard to bear legacy. ‘People do not help each other voluntarily, only if they are told. Many adults didn’t do religion in schools. I am thinking that Bible study will become a priority for them too’, said Father Stefan.

Since he started the YBC sessions with children more of the children’s parents started to come to Church for the Sunday service. Therefore, Father Stefan decided he needs to organize Bible study sessions for adults and elderly in the community – two age groups. This is something he wants to make happen starting October this year. ‘I would say that holistically we are talking about children – community – communion’, Father Stefan said with enthusiasm.

For Alexandru and many other children, the YBC sessions brought a lot of responsibility towards their family members. ‘I often share with my grandparents and my dad what Father Stefan teaches us. I think I have taught them to be better persons, confessed Alexandru. But, most of all, Alexandru likes these lessons because as he personally admits ‘they have changed my nature, and made me a better person.’”

Reported by Magda Camanaru |Communications Manager, WV Romania

Reviews from the Field

“This project is a special cooperation between the European churches and churches all over the world, done to the benefit of children, because is during childhood and young age that the profound Christian character of a person is being formed…”

His Eminence Daniel | Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bucovina, Romania

Project Development

Our primary objectives in Romania are:
1.To help train and mentor Christian leaders across Romania.
2. To develop culturally relevant, age appropriate children’s Bible lessons for young people ages 2-18.
3. To print and distribute needed curriculum and teacher’s materials to the Orthodox Church.

Curriculum Development and Usage

9-10 years (8 year in curriculum) “Our life with God” | 3000 vol. I, 3000 vol. II, 6000 teacher manuals for both, are printed and distributed.
12 years (12 years in curriculum) “God is with us” are contextualized, translated and ready to be printed.

1,900 parishes out of a total 15,000 parishes use this curriculum (this is the number of participants to our trainings) from 15.000 parishes in our church. 40, 000 youngsters attend classes, with about 20-25 students per classroom.

Teacher Training

70 trainers have been trained.

Country Information

Full name | Romania
Capital | Bucharest
Major language | Romanian
GNI per capita | US $3,830 (World Bank, 2006)
Population | 22,276,056 (July 2007 est.)

Children under 14 years
15.7% of the population (male 1,799,072/female 1,708,030)

Religious Breakdown
Eastern Orthodox (including all sub-denominations) 86.8%
Protestant (various denominations including Reformate and Pentecostal) 7.5%
Roman Catholic 4.7%
Other (mostly Muslim)
Unspecified 0.9%
None 0.1%