Sunday Mornings
Sunday, September 10, 9:15 am
Children's Story and Singing Resumes
Thursday, September 14, 3:30-5:00 pm
New Religious Education Program For Children Begins
Click here for more information!
Children’s Story and Singing • 9:15am
Sunday Service for Children • 10:00am
A time of reverence for families with children. It includes a short, sacred story mostly connected to God's presence in nature as well as song and prayer appropriate for the youngest among us.
A service for children in 1st–8th grades where they hear about the working of the Spirit of God in all things and of Christ as the teacher of human love. If younger children are comfortable being still and listening, they can sit in the back with their parents.When we watch a small child walking through the crunching fall leaves, or near a stream where the water is dancing over stones, or holding a small creature, or as we light a candle, we behold the “religious” element that is a natural part of the child’s whole being. There is no such thing as a “non-religious” child. The child has a natural devotion to all that is good and beautiful and true.
Children remind us of the creative Divine Wisdom in all things when we see the world through their eyes. In this sense we do not need to “teach” religion as much as we need to reassure them that what they already sense is indeed true.
We offer them stories so that they can form their own imaginations. The stories are filled with pictures of the struggle between good and evil, the courage of human beings, the search for truth and the power of faith. Children love these stories and long to hear them again and again as the cycle of the year rolls around from one festival to the next. We see this most clearly at Advent and Christmas time.
As parents, you are invited to join in on the children’s stories and to carry the festival life with us throughout the year. This is one way we can give our children a sense of security, of being “held” in a world where the adults around them look up to something higher and acknowledge the spiritual world.
It is most helpful, especially in our chaotic times, if you can establish a rhythm for the Children’s Service, whether that is every Sunday or every other so that the children have security in that rhythm. It becomes something that you just do; something that has a certain stability, whatever that rhythm is for your family.
All light and blessings to you who are doing the most important work there is!
Hope to see you soon,
Rev. Carol Kelly
CONFIRMATION CLASSES in 2023—2024
Rites of Passage: Every culture has a ceremony or a rite of passage for young people as they leave childhood behind and go forward into adulthood. The Christian Community has a sacrament that blesses this transition called "Confirmation." Classes about life, what it means to be human, what is in the holy writings of the past, what is in the holy writings of the present, what is good and evil, and such topics are a part of preparation for this sacrament. All 7th and 8th graders are invited to attend classes and to decide in freedom if they would like to be Confirmed at the end of 8th grade.
Please contact Rev. Carol Kelly for more info. carolkelly.cc@gmail.com
Confirmands 2023
Alexa McAlice, Jamison Edwards, Christopher Cashen, Emory Grider
With Rev. Mimi Coleman, Rev. Carol Kelly, and Rev. Craig Wiggins
“Thank God our time is now, when wrong comes up to face us everywhere, never to leave us till we take the longest stride of soul we ever took. Affairs are now soul size. The enterprise is an exploration into God.“
Christopher Fry, “A Sleep of Prisoners”
Every culture, tribe, and religion has had a ritual ceremony to mark the transition from childhood to adulthood, until now. We are free to discard tradition and ritual as “old” and unnecessary in our modern culture. Yet we find ourselves in times of great uncertainty and confusion which require a combination of inner peace and a healthy sense of goodness and truth with which to guide ourselves through the chaos.
Just when a young person is taking on responsibility for their own life, when the creation of an inner life is so crucial, the soul space to be able to hear the wisdom of God which is within and all around them should be given time to develop. Our culture seeks to distract us so that we avoid meeting the big questions and therefore we don’t seek the answers until there is a crisis.
The Sacrament of Confirmation in The Christian Community is unique in that it does not make members out of young people but rather “sets them free” into life. It is offered as a strengthening of the deep self, of the true emerging self. They are invited to become aware of the presence of Christ with the knowledge that it would take a deeper commitment later in life to really come to know him.
