The Sunday School book for each grade is designed to start on the second week of September, after the Coptic New Year (El Nayrouz), and ends after the first week of September. Thus, the first lesson to be taught from every book will be the lesson for the second week of September.

 

The First Period -The Second Week of September Until the End of January:

The servant will continue in the order of lessons in the book for three weeks in September, four weeks in October, four weeks in November, four weeks in December, and four weeks in January. Occasionally, one month may have five Sundays instead of four, therefore, on the first fif^th Sunday the first filler lesson can be used. Another filler lesson can be used for each subsequent fif^th Sunday in a month. It is preferred that the filler lessons be used in the order they are arranged in the book for the sake of unity between all the churches in the diocese. There are seven filler lessons at the beginning of each book for every grade.

 

The Second Period – The Beginning of February Until the End of the Fifty Joyous Days Following the Glorious Resurrection:

Since the Glorious Resurrection Feast varies in its date every year and Jonah’s Fast is always two weeks before the Great Fast on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; filler lessons can be used for the weeks before Jonah’s Fast in the month of February until the Sunday before Jonah’s Fast. Then, the servant should use the fixed two lessons assigned, one for the Sunday before Jonah’s Fast and the second one for the Sunday after Jonah’s Fast. If Jonah’s Fast falls in the second week of February, no filler lessons will be needed for the month of February. Subsequently, the lesson will follow consecutively the order of lessons from the preparation week at the beginning of the Great Fast (week 0) until the Fifty Joyous Days. This consists of seven lessons during the Great Fast period and seven lessons for the Fifty Joyous Days. Note that there are no lessons for Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday.

 

The Third Period – The Second Week of July Until the First Week of September:

Again since the Pentecost Feast varies in date depending on the Glorious Resurrection, the servant will fill the period between the Pentecost Feast and the Apostles Feast (the Apostles Fast period) with filler lessons. The Apostles Feast is fixed on July 12 of every year, so the last filler lesson for this period will be used for the first Sunday of July. Subsequently, the servant will follow the order of lessons in the book. Three lessons for the three remaining weeks of July after the Apostles Feast, four lessons for the month of August and a final one lesson for the first week of September before the Coptic New Year on September 11. If July or August has five Sundays, a filler lesson should still be remaining for use.