Religious Exploration for Children
For Our Youngest Ones
Our “Little Lights” childcare provides a warm and caring environment for toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners during Sunday morning worship. Competent, paid sitters care for and play with the children in the vestry, downstairs from the sanctuary, from 9:45-11:15. Parents with infants are also invited to use the area as needed.
1st – 6th Grade
Religious exploration integrates children’s worship with age-appropriate stories and activities. Religious exploration classes begin after the children leave the sanctuary following a “Moment for All Ages” in the worship service.
The children then participate in their own worship service with adult facilitation. On “regular” Sundays, the children read or hear a story and participate in activities by which they explore the meaning of the story. There is no cost associated with a child’s participation in Sunday morning religious exploration. We hope and expect parents to be volunteer facilitators after a year of their child’s participation in the classes.
Through special holiday programs such as “Day of the Dead” and the Solstice, the children will have opportunities to use their creativity. A new tradition is that the young people of the parish design and put on a special Winter Solstice service.
Faith in Action Sundays
Service activities are periodically incorporated into Children’s Worship so that children can experience service to humanity as an important spiritual activity.
Worshiping Together
On most Sundays, children of all ages are invited to sit with their families or friends during the first part of the regular worship service. This starts at 10:00 a.m. This time includes chalice and candle lighting, a time for sharing joys and sorrows, and a “Moment For All Ages,” after which children leave to go to their classes.
There are several multi-generational worship services when parishioners of all ages gather in the sanctuary for worship in community and celebration.