Children
We believe that:
- Our children can sense God's presence and respond to it
- Our children already have a deep relationship with God
- Our children ask "big" questions and make theological meaning
- Our children are active members in the life of this parish, no one is too young to serve in ministry
- We can and should be open to learning from our children by joining with them on their journey
We Speak Godly Play!
Children’s Worship
Children’s Worship is best suited to children ages 4 – 10, but we welcome younger children with a parent to be with them, and older youth to serve as readers and helpers. The children leave during the processional, gather downstairs with their teachers, youth volunteers, and a few parents to worship together. We do the same things we hear going on upstairs: an opening acclamation and collect, a song of praise, we hear and tell the lesson of the day, we respond, we say our creed and pray for our world, our families, our friends, our church. We come back to share Eucharist with our family and community. Come and get to know God with us.
“How do we get to know God?” A Children's Worship Reflection
This was the question asked of me recently during one of our Godly Play stories. That particular Sunday we were deep in the desert wilderness with Moses and the recently freed Hebrews. The people were tired and scared and thirsty and hungry and complaining bitterly to Moses, forgetting that he was the one who at God’s behest argued with Pharaoh to free them from slavery in Egypt (proving that people chosen or otherwise will complain). Moses in turn prayed to God for help in dealing with this “stiff-necked” and whiny people. And as always in these stories of Exodus God heard Moses’s prayers and provided for the people. These verses that describe God hearing and providing protection, food, water, and new ways to live inspired Gregory to wonder how we get to know God.
How do we get to know God? The immediate and obvious answer I shared with Gregory is to read the Bible, to hear and tell our faith story, to find ourselves in the stories, to be doing what we are right now in Children’s Worship – listening and learning and wondering together. But thanks to the deep wondering that led Gregory to ask me this big theological question I am now trying to answer it in less than immediate and obvious ways.
How do we get to know God? I think we draw closer to God as we travel and seek with others who are searching and reaching to know God themselves, and looking for the new ways to live. I think we get to know God by making ourselves available for the in-breaking of all kinds of mystery and imagining and new ways of seeing. Often children seem better at this, more open to the questions and better able to live with mystery than adults. Godly Play recognizes the spirituality of the child and intentionally creates space for all of us to wonder together, to grow in faith, and to get to know God.