Faith formation PROGRAM
CCD / Faith Formation Class Mission
To teach the Syro Malabar Catholic faith in partnership with parents, the primary educators of their children. The journey of faith begins at Baptism and calls for children to actively participate with their parents in the full life of our Catholic Church. In order for this journey to enrich the lives of everyone involved, each catechist, parent and student must understand and embrace his/her role.
St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Chicago : Echo Catechetical Directory
Director: Fr. Antony Xavier Pullukattu
Principal: Minesh Joseph
Vice Principals: Teseline James / Jojimol Kallarackal/ Marydasan Thomas
Health/Safety team: ff-health-support@stthomassyronj.org
Announcements/CCD Message Center

Updated - February 20, 2023
1) Lenten Chart- Please see above the Lenten Chart for this season. Kindly print a copy for your child and encourage them to follow. You may modify as it suits your child.
2) Lenten Retreats- The Lenten Retreat schedule & details for CCD students are as follows:
Kids Retreat (Grades 1 to 8) on March 11th (9:00 am to 4:00 pm) and March 12th (9:30 am to 4:00 pm) led by Anointing Fire Catholic Ministry, Atlanta.
Registration Link for Kids Retreat
Youth Retreat (Grades 9-12) on March 18 (9:00 am to 7:00 pm) and March 19th (9:30 am to 2:00 pm).
Registration Link for Youth Retreat
October 28 update
1) Dei Verbum Quiz Registration- Children (Gr 4 & up) and Adults are encouraged to participate in the 2023 Quiz. Please register by November 6th using the following link: https://forms.gle/RPSHnSpXyJAntYKp6
2) Holyween Celebration on Sunday October 30th- Children are encouraged to come early for 9:30 am mass in a saint costume and be seated in the front pew. Please sign up using the following link: CML_Saints_Costume.xlsx Youth team has planned fun filled games from 12:30 pm onward for all children. Here is a you tube link explaining the Holyween celebration. What's Holyween?! | Young Disciples
3) Pending CCD fees- Please use following link to pay your dues if not already paid ($125 per family) Give to St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Forane Church
4) New Kids Adorer Group- We are planning to start a new group of kids who will meet weekly with a focus on prayer & adoration. Children from grades 4 to 7 are encouraged to join. They will be taught songs, how to pray and participate in adoration. It is optional to join. Jolly Thadikaran will be leading this initiative. More details to come.
5) Upcoming Volunteer opportunities- Volunteering is key to experiencing our faith in action. Please save the following dates to help out in the Somerset Summer Olympics. Volunteers need to be at least 14 years of age. More details to come.
January 21 - Bowling meet / March 25 - Swim meet / May 13 - Track & field meet.
6) Google Classroom- Please ensure/help your child to accept their google classroom invite. Teachers often post homework & other relevant class materials for students. Please reach out to your teacher if you need help with access.
September 21 update
1) Parent Meeting - As announced earlier, the parent meeting of all CCD students is scheduled for next Sunday, September 25th 2022 at 1:00 pm in church. Please plan to attend this ~ 1hr mandatory meeting as we will be highlighting key expectations of the Faith Formation program.
2) Dei Verbum Quiz 2023 - The 2023 Dei Verbum Quiz kicks off with the Parish level quiz to be conducted in December on Gospel of John. All three levels will be conducted online as before. Winners will receive cash awards, certificates and trophies. Registration fee is $10. Please register using the link below. Children grade 4 and up as well as adults are eligible to participate. Deadline to register is November 6th 2022.
https://forms.gle/RPSHnSpXyJAntYKp6
3) Confession for 12th grade - Next Sunday, September 25th there is an opportunity for 12th graders to go for confession during CCD time. Please help the children prepare. Confession sessions for other grades will be scheduled through the year.
4) Registration for Current Academic Year - We still have few children attending classes without registering. Kindly register at the earliest using links below. Registration fee for the year is $125 per family payable online or via check.
Returning Student Registration: https://stsmcc.breezechms.com/form/ccdregistration7968
New Student Registration: https://www.cognitoforms.com/CCD11/_202223FaithFormationNewStudentRegistrationForm
September 11 update
Dear Parents,
Academic year (2022-23) for the Faith Formation Program will be starting on Sunday, September 11th, 2022 after 9:30 AM Holy Qurbana. Please register your children by tomorrow Sunday, September 4th using the links below.
For returning/current students, please use this link to register:
https://stsmcc.breezechms.com/form/ccdregistration7968
For new students please use this link to register:
https://www.cognitoforms.com/CCD11/_202223FaithFormationNewStudentRegistrationForm
Please also note, the first Parent meeting is scheduled for Sunday, September 25th after lunch. This meeting is mandatory for all parents of Faith Formation children. Please save the date & plan accordingly.
Additional information on the Faith Formation Program including Academic Calendar can be found on the Faith Formation website
If you have any questions, please reach out to us @ faithformationadmin@stthomassyronj.org
Thank you
Faith Formation Admin Team
Announcements- PAST UPDATES 2021-22
Updated Date: 10/31/2021
Back to school schedule on Oct 31st posted above.
Please check the adoration Calendar below for your Grade's schedule.
Updated Date: 10/20/2021
We are in our 6th Sunday of Faith Formation classes and approaching the first quarter of our faith formation program for this academic year. Hope and pray that all our families are being showered with God’s mercy and love during these difficult times.
It was our desire and our Bishop’s guideline that we must provide in-person faith formation program classes to all our children on every Sunday. But, taking into consideration various scenarios, we decided in September to start our program in a hybrid mode and then to revisit our program schedule after 2 months depending on the prevailing situations.
Even though our current pandemic situations do not show much improvement; because of the feedback and experiences shared from our families by participating in a Sunday Holy Qurbana & Faith formation program together in-person, made us decide to switch over to Plan B schedule from October 31st. Just like we decided to start with our September schedule of the faith formation program, this Plan B will also be on a trial mode, and we will revisit the plan depending on our situations.
Plan for Faith Formation Program classes starting October 31st will be as follows: -
Current Group 1 and Group 2 composition of families will remain the same.
No more virtual Sessions offered from October 31st. onward.
The group scheduled for an in-person session for any week will not have any impact. Holy Mass and Class time will remain the same. Holy Mass at 9:30 AM and Faith Formation classes after the Holy Mass.
The group scheduled for the virtual session will be attending in-person class at 9:30 AM. After the Faith Formation classes, they will be attending the 11:30 AM Holy Mass with their families.
Example Schedule:
October 31st as per our schedule, Group 1 has in-person sessions and Group 2 has Virtual Classes. This will be changed to the following schedule.
*Group 1: Rosary/Sapra/Holy Mass 09:10 AM; CCD Assembly & CCD Time: 11:00 AM -12:30 PM.
*Group 2: Rosary/Sapra/Holy Mass: 11:10 AM; CCD Assembly & CCD Time: 09:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Please notice this change is effective from October 31st and plan your calendar accordingly. Also, please note that there will be a back to school schedule on Oct 31st after the 11:30 AM Holy Mass as announced in the CCD News at our Faith formation website (ccd.stthomassyronj.org). More details will be followed. If you have any questions, please reach us @STSMCC Faith Formation Admin.
Thanks & Prayers,
Faith Formation Program Admins.
Updated Date: 10/16/2021
Adoration Calendar is published. Please see in the below section - Faith Formation Schedule 2021-22
Back to School is scheduled on Oct 31st after in-person classes.
World Mission Sunday is on Oct 24th. CML Inauguration will be held after 9:30 am
Faith Connections - Newsletter Student ministry is inviting new members. Please click the link to see the details
Register for 2022 Parish Level Dei Verbum Bible Quiz. Please click to register
Updated Date: 09/26/2021
First Friday Adoration on Oct 3rd will be lead by Grade 9 Students
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Updated Date: 09/21/2021
TO OUR 2019-2020 DEI-VERBUM BIBLE QUIZ WINNERS
On Sept 26th, Group1 and Group2 students will be attending in-person faith formation classes after 9:30 am Holy Mass.
We will be honoring Dei Verbum winners on Sunday 9/26th during the 9:30 am Holy Mass. Special congratulations to the finalists: Jacob George and Theresa aunty!! Once again Congratulations to all the participants and winners
For any technical support, please submit a request through the form published on the website. https://forms.gle/kgNpeiTdGwFt6Pjy5
Big Thanks to all those who signed up to help the children in India. CML Team is collecting a minimum of 10$ for the talent and all these proceeds will be donated to a charitable organization to help the Children in India. If you haven't paid the 10$ fee, please pay using the breeze link below. If you have not yet signed up for the talent show but would still want to help out, please feel free to use the breeze link below. CML Team will be starting the talent show soon.
Talent show sign up form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1dWvwdNxWdcMSGke074qRGQHIg8DfKCuHiWLGGZY-6LI/edit?usp=drivesdk
Breeze link for payment: https://stsmcc.breezechms.com/give/online?fund_id=669482&amount=0
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Updated Date: 09/18/2021
Dear Families,
Welcome to our 2nd Day of Faith formation program Classes for the academic Year 2021-22.
Any health related communication must be email to Health/Safety team @ ff-health-support@stthomassyronj.org before 8 AM on Sundays.
Welcome to our first day of IN-PERSON FOR GROUP 1 Faith Formation Program Classes!
September 19 will be an IN-PERSON SESSION for Group 1 Families.
All the children are required to attend the Children's Holy Mass @9:30 AM and is followed by an IN-PERSON class until 12:15 PM.
Please see the link for our calendar: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mkj2NvxbMXZzuxFKrks0wTYM9D5eC9AF/view?usp=sharing
All the families are required to submit a one-time Health Check Form by clicking the link
https://forms.gle/Sq1zoN8uu5ukGdJd6
Welcome to our first Day of Virtual Faith Formation Program for GROUP 2 !!
Coming Sunday, September 19 will be a VIRTUAL SESSION for Group 2 Families. This will start at 2PM.
Please see the link for our calendar: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1R21KFjPFBMlIJJo5ynBpzqyPjU42ytYX
Families and Children are welcomed to come for the Children's Holy Mass @9:30 AM.
Google Classroom/Google Meet/Church Email Account Details
There will be a church email account for every child from Grade 1 to 12.
Group 2 - KG students will be getting a google meet link for attending their virtual session.
Returning students from last year will be using their same email address for logging into their google classroom. Passwords will remain the same.
If you have any issues with your password and need to reset, please email to tech-support@stthomassyronj.org
or submit your issues in the form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kaGUR4um2EYRAWmkc2UOos3LJUSvfFE9WDEdHqsmU5Y/edit
For new families joined this year and for Grade 1 children, your email account will be in the format as follows:-
The email address will be in the format: <firstname >.<lastname>@stthomassyronj.org
Example if your child's name is Mathew Jacob, his email address is mathew.jacob@stthomassyronj.org
Temporary Password for this account (if you are a new student registering this year): NewStudent1
The system will ask you to change the password upon login. Please follow the prompts.
Please login to the google class room for your child by browsing the link below:
username: Church email address assigned for your child
password: Temporary password provided above. (for returning students password will be your old password)
If you have not yet registered, please register and email tech team get the credentials.
If you have any questions, please reach out to us @faithformationadmin@stthomassyronj.org
Thanks,
Admin Team.
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Updated Date: 09/06/2021
Welcome to our new Academic year 2021-22!! Our Faith Formation program classes officially starting on September 12th. We expect all our children enrolled for our faith formation program (both Group 1 and Group2) in the Church/Fellowship Hall.
Gathering of each individual grade and group after the Holy Qurbana will be outside the church in specific allocated open area (on Sept 12th) and it communicated.
First day schedule will be as follows: -
9:20 AM – Sapra (Morning Prayer)
9:30 AM – Holy Qurbana
10:40 AM – Prayers and Blessing by Achan for our New Academic Year/Guidelines and Announcements
11:00 AM – Commissioning of Teachers by Grade Level
11:30 AM – Dismissal for Picnic
Note: Family Group allocation is shared in our Faith Formation Program Website and link is below:-Click here to see your child's group in faith formation program classes
Updated Date: 08/22/2021
2021-22 Faith Formation program classes for KG to Grade 12 for the new academic year will be starting on September 12th. Detailed emails will be sent out to all the returning students.
The registration Forms are available for both new and existing students in the below links"
Returning (Existing) Students: stsmcc.breezechms.com/form/ccdregistration79
New Students: https://www.cognitoforms.com/CCD11/_202122faithformationnewstudentregistrationform
CCD FAQ
Should I make registration for each student?
Yes. Registration should be made for each student (both new and returning students)How about CCD/Faith Formation Registration Fees
For 2022-23 CCD/Faith Formation academic year registration fees is $125/Family.Can I use my personal email address to access Google classroom?
Each student need to use their church email address (@stthomassyronj.org) to access google classroom.
SCHEDULE 2022-23
Faith FOrmation Parish advisory board
Director: Fr. Antony Xavier Pullukattu
Principal: Minesh Joseph
Vice Principals: Tesline James, Jojimol Kallarackal, Marydasan Thomas
Ex Officio: Renny Polo , Nisha Alex
Safe Environment :Theresa Tomy, Jason Alex
Holy Communion: Benny Thomas
CML/Youth: Sophia Rijo Mathew
Resources
Google Classroom access
All the students will have access to the church email account to use for google classroom. If any of the student do not have access, please contact your student's class teachers.
Visit https://classroom.google.com to access your classroom. Click here for help with Google Classroom
Instructions to login to the google classroom available click here