Children’s and Youth Ministries
Welcome!
Children’s and Youth Ministries
We extend a cordial welcome to you
to bring your family, and offer this page as a brief introduction to the Episcopal Church of
Our Saviour and its children’s and youth ministries.
When you visit the
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As for
curriculum, the Pre-K and K/1 classes use the Montessori-modeled Godly Play
program, grades 2-6 use
Bible Quest, and the Rite-13 class uses the Journey to Adulthood
program. This Journey to Adulthood program is a highly acclaimed,
integrated, six-year Episcopal curriculum we began phasing in during the fall of
2002. It includes youth group and community service components in addition to
classes. Parish Family Eucharist
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(generally celebrated the first Sunday of each month) Each month, we offer a special “child-friendly” Holy Eucharist (Holy Communion) —generally on the first Sunday of the month. While some parts of the services are the same as on regular Sundays, others change. At the Family Eucharist, for example, the Bible selections are read by Church School members, as are the Intercessions — which are often written by the children themselves. Music comes from a variety of sources, but is singable and easy for children to follow. You will find the services of the Church of Our Saviour, whether on Family Sunday or otherwise, beautiful, God-centered, and yet mindful of the nature and needs of people of all ages. Church School News...Pre-K & 1st graders are having fun! The Pre-K - 1st grade class has been having a lot of fun this year. We have welcomed some new friends to the class, Meghan C., Nina, Andrew, Annie N., Katie, David, Madison and Meagan R. All the children are enjoying the Godly Play method of stories and play. We also manage to squeeze in a few art projects here and there. Most recently we have taken the children on the journey from the birth of Jesus to his Resurrection in the Faces of Easter Lesson. We also learned that Easter is so important it takes six weeks to prepare for it and six weeks to celebrate! Every week we look at our Circle of the Church Year calendar to find out what color we should look for in the church. Currently we are talking a closer look at some of Jesus’ parables to see if we can figure out the meaning. The children had a lot of fun holding their tiny mustard seed as we told the parable of the mustard seed. Later they “planted” their seed and "grew" (with crayons) their own huge mustard plant. Ask them how the Kingdom of God is like a mustard plant. We have only four more Godly Play classes before the summer break. I hope to see everybody there! Leah Riseman Upcoming Church School calendar Our final Family Eucharist of this school year has been moved to May 4. Canon to the Ordinary Tim Rich will substitute for Father Chip to celebrate Bible Sunday when our 2nd and 3rd graders are presented with their own Bibles. Children and youth of all ages are encouraged to draw a picture or make a diorama of one of their favorite Bible stories to exhibit during coffee hour that day; we’ll also have a special display of family Bibles, Bibles in different languages, and Bible resources. Church school classes will resume at their regular 9:00 (Rite-13, J2A and YAC) and 9:45 (Godly Play, Grades 2/3 and grades 4-6) times on May 11 and 18. There will be multiage activities in the Undercroft at 10:00 in lieu of separate church school classes on May 25. We’ll wrap up the year with a regular church school schedule on June 1st and 8th, voting on this year’s recipient of the noise offerings collected through the year.
Debbie
Donnelly Mark your calendars! Vacation Bible School is coming this summer! We are happy to announce that Church of Our Saviour will be having Vacation Bible School this summer! This will be a fun-filled week of activities, crafts, music and games with a Hawaiian theme for kids ages 3 through 6th grade. It will be held Monday 7/28-Friday 8/1, from 9am-noon. This program is free to all area residents so bring your friends! There will be a limit of 60 kids so early sign up is encouraged. We are actively seeking volunteers to work on this project. If you are unable to be there during the week we can also use “off-line” help in areas such as publicity, set up and preparation. This is a great opportunity for teens to get in some community service hours! Help us get the COOS story out to the community! Any questions? Want to volunteer? Want to register? Please call Leslie McCann at 672-0680 or Leslie Anton at 672-7687.
Game night at On April 11, 2008, three families gathered together at the Church of Our Saviour to play games. They assembled there to have fun and to get to know each other. They stayed from 7 to 8:30 p.m.One of the games we played was Pictionary. I was on Alex’s team. Alex is Rachel Facey’s friend. Camden Bock and Jack Facey were also on our team. The opposing team was Linnea McGuiness, Rachel and Tom, Jack’s friend. I was the first one to draw. On one of my turns, I had to draw Scooby Doo. It is more challenging than you think. My picture looked like a tooth with a head. Rachel’s was an oval with a hook for a tail. I think that was the most fun game I played that night. We also had snacks: Chips and Cheetos. The aroma of Toll House cookies, fresh out of the oven filled the room within a matter of minutes. It was a really fun night. If you are in 4th to 8th grade, please join us on May 2nd from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Bring your friends! — Gabi Bock Youth Ministry News... YAC cairn building “Cairns,” man-made pile of stones, are often used to mark summits of mountains and to indicate a path. The YAC (Young Adults in the Church) gang have explored their own paths as they traveled through the Journey to Adulthood program. Part of YAC is to develop your own credo, a “What do I believe?” statement. Not an easy thing to do – just as losing the trail while hiking up a mountain can be. A cairn would be a nice site to see at that point; guiding you, holding you to your path and pointing you in the right direction. Last Fall, we started to build a cairn just below the chapel area out on our Rt. 13 site. While standing at the cairn, you look up the hill to see the sun rising behind the beautiful wooden cross. We hope this cairn will help us to think of how our faith guides us, builds us and keeps us on the right path. On Sunday, April 20th we will gather at the Cairn for what may be the last time as this YAC group. As we gather that Sunday we are reminded that this wonderful group of young adults, as well as those that follow, will always have this Cairn to come back to and reflect upon. We are sure that if you looked up the definition of “touchstone,” there would be a picture of this monument. — Scott, Dick and Jenny
The link below will take you to a new resource for children by an Episcopalian with a heart for kids. The link will also be offered on our Links page, which can be accessed from the menu at left above.
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