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Youth Sunday Folded into Every Sunday Oftentimes people say that youth are the "future of the Church." What they mean is that kids need to come to church but remain unobtrusive until such time as they become adults in the parish. Churches are not, in general, kid friendly and all churches need to work harder to make sure that young people know that they are full members in the ministries of the church now. Over this last year, we instituted Youth Sunday on the first Sundays of the month in which children were recruited to do everything from reading lessons and intercessions, to ushering and helping to administer the chalice (for those who had been confirmed). This strategy was adopted because we found that many of our kids were reluctant to perform those very public ministries having had little real experience in leading worship as lay ministers. We wanted to give them an experience of feeling safe in doing these things but the goal was always full integration of young people along side grown ups in leading worship. Having completed this experiment last year, we feel that it is now time to invite and encourage the youth to be involved every Sunday and have asked those in charge of scheduling the Rota to strive to have one child scheduled every Sunday to either read one of the lessons, to lead the prayers of the people, or to assist with communion (again, for those confirmed). Kids are welcome to assist in ushering every Sunday. If you would like your child or grandchild to participate in this way, please let Ann Shepphird know (her information is found in your parish directory). Incorporating "Youth Sunday" into every Sunday is our goal here and we are delighted by the full ministries of our youth both among us and to us. Copyright © 2006 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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