Children at St. James
At St. James we recognize children as full members of the Church. In practice this means that children are welcome in our services, welcome to receive the body and blood in communion, and welcome at coffee hour. We want you AND your children to feel at home in all areas of Church life.
At St. James, we use a three-pronged approach to integrating children into the worship and life of the Church:
Children, who wish to, are welcome stay in the pews for the entire service, but we do not expect or require them to pay unwavering attention. Instead, we offer boxes with legos, paper, crayons, and a pencil for younger children and, for older chilren, “Pew Work”. Pew work is designed for children who can read; it encourages your child to listen to the readings and sermon and to talk about what they have heard and understood. The boxes and pew work are available from the ushers in the foyer. Don't worry that your child will be a distraction to others -- any noise your child makes will sound louder to you than it does to anybody else. Take a deep breath and believe that we all enjoy the sounds that mean we are alive and growing!
Beginning at 10am, concurrent with that hour's service, St. James offers Sunday School classes for children who do not wish to remain in the service. Following the passing of the Peace, children are brought upstairs to have communion with their families, and may remain in the sanctuary through the end of the Mass or return downstairs to clean up. Children may sit with their parents or with the Sunday School teachers during this time. We have tailored our Sunday School programs to lead children to understand and be able to participate in our main services. Each week we start in the Chapel with a procession, candle lighting, a child led reading, prayers of the people, and passing the peace and then we procede to our lectionary based lessons. For these classes, we use “Living the Good News” (LtGN) curriculum from Moorhouse. (http://www.morehousegroup.com/ep_lectbased.htm) LtGN is a lectionary based curriculum, which means that the stories, activities, and discussions follow the same readings used in each week's service and which are the basis of week's sermon.
Additionally, we offer family “Activity and Discussion” sheets as a way of helping you to integrate a life of worship into your own home, and to help you prepare your children (and yourself!) to participate more deeply in the following week's service. These sheets are available each Sunday, and list the collect and readings for the Sunday following, and offer some areas for discussion based on the Bible readings, plus some Liturgical Season-oriented activities (or just plain fun stuff). These discussion and activity ideas are a mixture of original materials and ideas culled from a variety of resources including The Domestic Church books and website. (http://www.domestic-church.com/index.htm) We hope that families will find their daily lives and worship enhanced.
At St. James, we use a three-pronged approach to integrating children into the worship and life of the Church:
Children, who wish to, are welcome stay in the pews for the entire service, but we do not expect or require them to pay unwavering attention. Instead, we offer boxes with legos, paper, crayons, and a pencil for younger children and, for older chilren, “Pew Work”. Pew work is designed for children who can read; it encourages your child to listen to the readings and sermon and to talk about what they have heard and understood. The boxes and pew work are available from the ushers in the foyer. Don't worry that your child will be a distraction to others -- any noise your child makes will sound louder to you than it does to anybody else. Take a deep breath and believe that we all enjoy the sounds that mean we are alive and growing!
Beginning at 10am, concurrent with that hour's service, St. James offers Sunday School classes for children who do not wish to remain in the service. Following the passing of the Peace, children are brought upstairs to have communion with their families, and may remain in the sanctuary through the end of the Mass or return downstairs to clean up. Children may sit with their parents or with the Sunday School teachers during this time. We have tailored our Sunday School programs to lead children to understand and be able to participate in our main services. Each week we start in the Chapel with a procession, candle lighting, a child led reading, prayers of the people, and passing the peace and then we procede to our lectionary based lessons. For these classes, we use “Living the Good News” (LtGN) curriculum from Moorhouse. (http://www.morehousegroup.com/ep_lectbased.htm) LtGN is a lectionary based curriculum, which means that the stories, activities, and discussions follow the same readings used in each week's service and which are the basis of week's sermon.
Additionally, we offer family “Activity and Discussion” sheets as a way of helping you to integrate a life of worship into your own home, and to help you prepare your children (and yourself!) to participate more deeply in the following week's service. These sheets are available each Sunday, and list the collect and readings for the Sunday following, and offer some areas for discussion based on the Bible readings, plus some Liturgical Season-oriented activities (or just plain fun stuff). These discussion and activity ideas are a mixture of original materials and ideas culled from a variety of resources including The Domestic Church books and website. (http://www.domestic-church.com/index.htm) We hope that families will find their daily lives and worship enhanced.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home