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St. Mark's Children's Ministry


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The Children’s Ministry

We believe that

Our programs seek to engage our children in the life and work of the church.

Children’s Choir

The Children’s choir is an opportunity for our children to join with the adult choir during a service. The choir learns all of the service music for the day and one hymn that they sing without adult accompaniment. The choir first performed on November 11th. We were very excited to see our children offer their gifts to the congregation! The choir has now returned for Lent! It is currently being led by the Rev. Margaret Watson. Practice begins in the children’s choir room at 9:30 AM. The children will participate in the service on March 2, 2008. For more information, please contact Margaret at rector@stmarksrichmond.org

Children’s Chapel

Children’s chapel is an opportunity for our children to engage in worship that encourages them to understand the pieces of the service while being active participants in the liturgy of the Word. We assume that all of our children already have deep relationships with God and that they are capable of sensing God’s presence and responding to it. Thus we encourage children to join in the church processional, to pray in their own language, and to actively listen to the Scripture and respond to it. This response occurs through questions, creation (their artistic responses being their own way of proclaiming the word), the children’s creed, and prayer.

During Lent, we will be incorporating Godly Play into the Children’s chapel as a way to engage the children on their own personal (and corporate) Lenten journey. Just as the lectionary began with Jesus’ temptation in the desert so our children began their own journey with Jesus in the desert. We hope you will join us as we continue our journey to Jerusalem this Lent. For more information about Godly Play, please see the article below.

Children’s chapel gathers in the Narthex before the service and then processes through the sanctuary. Children are welcome to join us in the back or as we process through. Late arrivals can find us downstairs in the Wisdom Room. We encourage all children (preschool through Elementary age) to join us. For more information, contact J. as Stmarksce@aol.com See you on Sunday!

Godly Play

Playing Godly? Playing to learn about God? What does Godly Play mean? Both, and neither, and more. Godly Play is a Montessori-based teaching method crafted for the liturgical church in large part by Jerome Berryman. As a teacher he knew that learners learned best when they took part in the lesson - when they participated in what was going on instead of being told to just sit quietly as passive listeners/learners.

Godly Play acknowledges that we all have a concept of God, that from our birth we know God and talk with her. Godly Play is a way of teaching and learning that knits teacher and learner together. We hear and share our shared faith stories in a way that allows us to wonder and to wander together – to ask questions and to realize that sometimes all we have are questions.

Godly Play invites all to enter into the story. We gather in a circle. We sit and listen and are respectful of those who tell the story and those who respond. We grow closer to God and to each other as we tell the story together.

We use things we can see and hold and touch to tell our faith story to help us understand the things of faith that we cannot see or hold or touch. The figures and sand and candles and models we use to tell the story are not toys, not to be kicked about like Power Rangers. They are symbols. These things are available for the children to learn and work with, to tell the story again and again in their own words and way of understanding. I’ll be around to listen and learn with the children after church in the Wisdom Room.

During Lent we’ll be with Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem. We’ll meet some of the people he met and share their questions and learn why it is he travels to Jerusalem. We’ll go with him into the wilderness, meet Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, encounter children, a blind man, and a man so small he had to climb a tree to see this Jesus fellow as he passed. We’ll be there with our palms and hosannas as we welcome him to Jerusalem.

Godly Play is best suited for children pre-K through 5th grade but it is flexible on the younger end, especially when parents of 3 or 4 year olds wish to attend with their child.

Nursery

The nursery opens at 9:15 AM each Sunday. During the 10:30 AM worship there is "story and craft" time. The stories and crafts are geared towards 2 and 3 year olds. The nursery is currently staffed by Loren Geer and Mary Clair Kozik.

Volunteer!

To volunteer for any of the above programs please contact J. Rasnic at 358-4771.