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Christian Formation for Children at St. Augustine's by Jennifer Wagner
Welcome home to St. A's! I love this time of year as we reconnect with friends, recount summer adventures, and refocus on the important work of our church. Thank you all for your kind words of support as I begin my mission as Director of Children's Ministries. My experience over the past few years in our Sunday school teaching "Living the Good News" has been rich, rewarding, and lots of fun. Having had the pleasure of getting to know many of your children I look forward this year to working with all of them. St. A's is blessed with a really great group of kids, and our curriculum complements each one by teaching a hands-on way to live our faith in the world. Sessions every Sunday, at every age level, are united by a common focus drawn from the lectionary readings for the day. Carefully chosen, age-appropriate narrative is presented as a story. Learning our heritage of stories builds a strong basis for growing faith. At older levels, participants explore more of the readings through activities and discussions. This includes discovery of what the gospel has to say to us today, not just in the Church's past. The overall teaching is experiential, involving the teacher's and student's whole self, rather than the intellect alone. We use active play, art, dialogue, props, writing, music, role play, prayer, and a whole lot of creativity at all age levels to spread the good news. It is balanced to teach specific content and evoke intuitive, feeling responses. Every household has unique gifts to make to our parish. Our Sunday school program is not limited to families with young children. I encourage each of you to enrich a child's intimacy with God by teaching a six-week block. No experience is needed, and a complete training session will be held on Saturday, August 28 from 10-12. Please call me at home (my number can be found in the church directory) for further information. Teacher sign-ups are on the patio, and student registration begins at Homecoming on September 12 with Sunday School commencing the following Sunday, Sept. 19th at 10:00 a.m. Hope to see you there!
Copyright © 2004 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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