Dear siblings in Christ,
I hope this finds you well. I am writing to tell you about all the exciting things we have planned for the children of Church of Our Saviour this fall. The biggest change, and the one I am most excited about, is that we will be re-implementing Godly Play in our Children’s Ministry Program. Godly Play is a Montessori based Christian Education curriculum . Godly Play is designed to build upon a child’s innate sense of the Holy. The Godly Play approach helps children explore their faith through story, gives them a foundation for religious language, and “enhances their spiritual experience through wonder and play.” One of the beautiful components to this program is that it meets the children where they are and engages them on different and deeper levels as they grow through early, middle, and late childhood. We will use the Godly Play curriculum both in our Children’s Chapel offering, which happens in the context of our 10 am worship service, as well as our Sunday School program, which happens each week from 9 am to 9:45 am. We are so excited to see it blossom in our community!
A new event we are adding to the life of our community this year is called The Blessing of the Backpacks and will be held on August 22nd! We are inviting students of ALL KINDS to join us at a service and receive a blessing and a bag tag to remember God’s love and our support throughout the year ahead. After the 10a m service we will have food, games, and a bouncy house to help us celebrate! Please come and bring a friend!
An additional change to note is that we are moving our nursery location to the Atwill Building (the building closest to the east entrance to the sanctuary). This space will be set up for the children who aren’t quite old enough to participate in Godly Play. As the choir has moved their location into Allan Hall, we are planning to transform the Atwill space into an oasis for babies, young children, and nursing mothers. While this is our hope and our plan, we are not nearly there, as there is no air conditioning in that space and the floor is not quite safe for our smallest church members. Please stay tuned to hear more about its progress!
We will be having a Parent Meeting on Sunday, September 12th at 9:00 am in the new Godly Play room in Brown Hall. You will recognize it by the orange door! At that meeting we will talk through the specifics of our program, give you a taste of the stories we will offer, and answer any questions you may have. I hope you will join us.
Thank you so much for your continued interest and support in this wonderful and exciting program for the children of Church of Our Saviour!
Here are some important dates for your calendar:
August 22nd: Blessing of the Backpacks
September 12th: Parent Meeting at 9 am and Children’s Church @ 10am
September 19th: Sunday School (Godly Play) begins at 9 am
As always, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
In faith,
The Rev. Anne Thornberg
Associate for Children’s Ministry and
Chaplain to the Preschool
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