Ministry Status | Ongoing Significance

Full name | Republic of Poland
Capital | Warsaw
Major Language | Polish 97.8%

Youth Bible Curriculum is a great project, because up to 2004 Orthodox children and youth in Poland did not have real Students Books and Teacher’s Books to teach religion. We only had low-quality publication for several classes as well as additional materials (for coloring, etc.) to use at our schools. When the first volume of “Our Life in Christ” was published in 2005 our children received real books to learn from in different classes.

Jaroslaw Charkiewicz | Secretary, Publishing Department | Polish Orthodox Church

Most Recent Update

The Gospel Light Worldwide Bible curriculum project in Poland is conducted in partnership with the Orthodox Church of Poland. Metropolitan Sawa, Archbishop of Warsaw and Metropolitan of All Poland, has given his blessing for the development of Bible curriculum for the children of Poland.

Approximately 62 out of 250 parishes are using the curriculum, but the religious education is occurring in schools and not in churches. 1,500-2,000 children use the curriculum, usually two hours per week, with the average number of students per class being 10 children.

Curriculum Translated
Age 8, Teacher’s Manual
Age 12, Part I, with Teacher’s Manual

Curriculum Translated, Contextualized and Printed
Age 8, Part I and II, with Teacher’s Manual

Teacher Training and Religious Education
50 teachers have been trained and they are using the textbooks in public schools, with bi-weekly follow up on teaching methodologies being done with teachers in Bialystok. A seminar for new teachers is planned for 2009.

Children under 14 years
15.9% of the population (male 3,142,811/female 2,976,363)

Religious Breakdown
Roman Catholic 89.8% (about 75% practicing)
Eastern Orthodox 1.3%
Protestant 0.3%
Other 0.3%

Unspecified 8.3%