Welcome!
Spiritual formation is a lifelong process that begins when we take our very first breath. Christ Church Cathedral is committed to supporting children and their grown-ups as they journey to Christian maturity together. Our community welcomes families of all descriptions at our services, in our Sunday School, and at our special events. We’d love to meet yours!
Click through to learn more about:
Sunday School (every Sunday during the 10 a.m. Eucharist)
Family Saturdays
Children in Church
Resources for Ministry with Children and Families (coming soon!)
Deconstructing barriers at UNCO 2012
I have just recently returned from UNCO 2012, an ecumenical, open space “unconference” intended to inspire, connect, and support people thinking about and working for the future of the church. Now, I like all those things but the thing that really settled the question of whether or not to go was Kid UNCO , the children’s program offered at the event. Because Kid UNCO told me two things about UNCO and its organizers before I ever encountered any of them.
First, they care about making church inclusive. I’ve commented before on the way that welcoming children in church is a ministry to parents and this applies to conferences and meetings, too. For some people, leaving their children for three days is not possible. They may be single parents or they may co-parent with someone whose job does not allow for picking up the slack of an absent partner. They may not be able to afford the extra childcare (UNCO offered scholarships, too!) or they may need to always be near their child, for one reason or another. In all of these ways, having children can be a barrier to participation in far too much of our wider church life – conferences, retreats, councils, special events. If we are serious about accessibility, serious about diversifying the voices around the table, we need to take the question of childcare seriously.
Second, the UNCO team understands that children are members of the body of Christ now, in their own right, who both deserve their own program and can contribute to the event as a whole. Kid UNCO was not simply a warehousing of my child. It was not even simply providing good babysitting for my child. It was a playful, thoughtful program to help children think about the church, just as their grown-ups were doing. It created a community of kids and it wove the kid and the adult communities together through the generous volunteers who donated part of their conference time to the children. Throughout the space and at all times, children were welcome.
I’m still sorting through the rest of my UNCO experience but one thing is clear, Kid UNCO has set a high bar that our various assemblies and conventions and synods would do well to aim for.
*****
P.S. Particular thanks go to Megan Dosher (@megateer) for coordinating Kid UNCO and spending her conference making our conference possible.
P.P.S. Just in case – UNCO West is still to come – July 30-Aug 1 in San Francisco. Register here!
King of the Wild Things
One of the gifts I gave my son for his first Christmas (he was three months old at the time) was his very own copy of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I still had (and have) my own childhood copy but it is so tattered and torn as to be untouchable so he needed one for himself.
My son is 4 now and, although the book was in reasonably heavy rotation, it had not been the beloved story for him that is was for me. I suspect, however, that I’m just being impatient. I suspect that he will turn to it again in a year or two and again a few years after that. At the very least, I suspect that he will turn to it should he ever become a parent himself.
I came across a beautiful reflection on the work of Maurice Sendak, the nature of childhood, and the gospel. Enjoy.
A child’s world, authentic and complex
by Bromleigh McCleneghan, published on the Christian Century blog.
Intermingling
One of the signs of a mature spirituality is an awareness of the ways in which the “sacred” and the “profane” intermingle rather than living with a rigid division between our spiritual life and our “real” life. So how do we call attention to the sacred– the presence of God – in everyday experiences so that we don’t fall into the trap of believing that faith (and God) lives only in church on Sunday mornings.
One way is to introduce ritual elements into everyday activities. Bless one another on the way out the door in the morning. Bless your food before you eat it. Pause for a short prayer after hearing about a tragedy on the news. Offer a prayer of thanks at the end of every day. Collect your spare change in an offering jar, saying a simple prayer each day or on the day you give it away in the service of God. None of these practices need be complicated or showy in order to be reminders of God’s attention to and intention for our lives.
stained glass windows from the Cathedral’s Children’s Chapel
Another way is to build links into your community of faith so that you have varied encounters with the people with whom you worship. Parish fellowship is not just being nice – it is a way to connect our sociability and our faith. Justice work with members of the church is not just good because justice work is good – it is a way to connect our ethics and our faith. Giving to our churches is not just being charitable or responsible – it is a way to connect our money to our faith. You get the idea.
Interestingly, children are often more open to seeing the sacred in the everyday, having not yet learned to distrust their sense of mystery. Perhaps our job, as parents, is to encourage and root that openness in a life-giving tradition so that it survives even after our children have become as blinkered as we can be.
The Lord is my Shepherd
April 29th was the Fifth Sunday of the month and so the whole Christ Church Cathedral family stayed upstairs to learn and worship together. In preparation, the children made a beautiful altar frontal, inspired by the psalm appointed for the day, Psalm 23. Throughout the service, they accompanied our wonderful choir, ringing bells and shakers in praise of God.
Our dean, Paul Kennington, sat on the chancel steps to talk about shepherds and sheep, challenging us to embrace the freedom that our good shepherd knows we need in order to grow. He also reminded us that we can feel safe in that freedom, knowing that our shepherd knows who we are and will always love us.
The service continued with children and grown-ups joining in prayer, laying stones as symbols of our intercessions and using our bodies to learn the Lord’s Prayer in a new way. Truly, a little child shall lead us.
Where to find the lesson plans
Re-purposing this site has taken some sorting out but the lesson plans are once again easy to locate. Just click the “lesson plans” link in the side bar to see the archive, sorted by unit and by season. You will also find a link to the pdf files there.
Thanks to all who continue to use these plans – remember, feed back is always welcome!
Children in Church – or – Fifth Sundays
Children in the Sunday School pray with words and with stones, laid carefully in a special plate.
It should come as no surprise than I’m a fan of Sunday Schools but even the best Sunday Schools (maybe especially the best ones, actually) can have the unintended negative consequence of teaching both children and adults that children don’t belong in church services. And that can result in teens or young adults who have never felt comfortable in worship services and so end up sleeping in on Sundays once they “graduate” from Sunday School.
Oops.
In an attempt to find a balance between providing age-appropriate worship and education while also providing opportunities for the whole community to worship together and to include children in the beauty of our tradition’s liturgy, we decided to adopt the practice of occasional “all-ages” worship services. Our goal in these services is not to move Sunday School upstairs but to design services that take into account the diverse needs of our diverse congregation. The presence of the children gives us permission to stretch our liturgical muscles in healthy, energizing ways, experimenting with different ways to pray, read, and respond to the good news of Jesus.
What does that look like in practice? Well… Read more…
When Kids Ask Hard Questions
When our kids ask us hard questions, it can feel like a double whammy. Not only is it a hard question – it’s our kid who is revealing our ignorance or uncertainty.
I still remember the first time my son realized I was not all-powerful. It involved my shocking inability to re-peel a banana and the look of disappointment on his face was simultaneously hilarious and heart-breaking. I would have given anything in that moment to re-peel the banana.
It’s just as well no fairy-godmother appeared to grant my wish. My son needs to learn that I am not all-powerful and I need to allow him to learn it. We both need to come to terms with the fact that I can not always shape his world into a safe and certain bubble. There are things I can not do; things I do not know; things out of even my long reach. I do not have simple and certain answers to questions about death or evil or the nature of Christ. What I do have, though, is my genuine desire to learn and to share and to hear what he might think. Never estimate the power and the value of an answer that begins with “Well…I wonder if…”.
Sometimes, though, having our limits revealed is hard because it reveals an incompleteness we’d rather not have to acknowledge – and perhaps should take steps to address. If we are dissatisfied with our answers for such questions as “why do I have to go to church?” or “why do we say grace – my friends don’t?” it might suggest that we need to spend some time answering them for ourselves first.
When kids ask hard questions – seize the opportunity to ask it of yourself. And rejoice that you get to share your life with such a curious, thoughtful little soul.
If you’d like a little more guidance, join us for our next Family Saturday!
When Kids Ask Hard Questions
workshop and discussion for parents and caregivers
Saturday, April 21st, 10 -1 (lunch included)
in the Undercroft
activities and crafts for children
RSVP to Rhonda by Thursday, April 19th
free will donations accepted
From Generation to Generation – at the Sugar Shack!
Glory to God,
whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.
Glory to God from generation to generation
in the Church and in Christ Jesus
forever and ever.
Amen.
One of the great gifts the church offers our modern world is that of an inter-generational community. Many of us live far away from our own family elders – parents, grandparents, their siblings and friends – and our children are age-segregated down to the year. As a result, we get skewed pictures of God’s creation and our own life journey. It is good for children to know older teens and young adults. It is good for octogenarians to have relationships with people in their first couple decades. It is good for 35 year olds to have easy access to caring 55 year olds. Our churches can offer that to people but those connections don’t always just happen on their own.
We have been trained out of making spontaneous inter-generational contact but, with a little effort, we can relearn. Confirmation classes could be mixed age. Teenagers and older adults could be joined in mentoring relationships. Young families and seniors could participate in a shared project. And, easiest of all, parishes can do fun things all together.
Christ Church Cathedral – to pick an example completely at random – is heading to a post-Easter sugar shack on April 15th. We’ve got a bus booked and a wide range of folks signed up to share a road trip, a huge meal, and some wonderful Québécois folk music. There are still spaces available so, if you are able and interested, please get in touch. We’d love to see you!
Cost
Bus tickets: $10 for people over 12 years old; $5 for people under 12 years old
Meal: $18 for people over 12; $8 for people 4-12 years old; free for people under 4
Email Rhonda to sign up or for more information.
The Passion of Mary
Pieta ~ photo by John Morgan
I, along with a large number of other worshippers, was blessed to be at Christ Church Cathedral for Palm Sunday. A talented group of actors, dancers, musicians, and liturgists proclaimed the Passion of Christ, sweeping the entire congregation up into the drama of the story and while touching each individual differently. I know I was not the only person moved to tears – and I know that all of us so moved were in tears at different points and for different reasons.
The moment that finally shifted me completely from watcher to participant was: “There were also women looking on from a distance” (Mark 15:40). A number of women, wearing black and draped in headscarves, moved into the scene, faces racked with grief. Some were leaning on one another; some held only themselves. They stared out, toward the off-stage sight of the crucifixion, horrified but unable to look away. Two women walked up the aisle toward the others, carrying a white cloth. Somehow, that cloth became a shroud wrapping the body of the man whom these women had loved and the tears streamed down my face as they carried him away to be buried.
One of the women was wearing a blue scarf. I don’t know if she was “supposed” to be Mary, the mother of Jesus, but that’s who she was for me and my heart broke for her. I wondered if she was remembering the prophecy made to her by Simeon, when Jesus was just a baby: “and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
This Holy Week, pray for mothers and fathers whose souls are pierced by the death of their beloved sons and daughters. May they find some comfort in the company of Mary.
Some thoughts on children and the Passion of Christ
My son learned about death and violence – at least in the abstract - at church. Counter-intuitive though that may seem, it does make sense. The Christian story is most certainly not G-rated, turning as it does on the execution of Jesus. Add to that all the talk of sin and sacrifice and repentance and what is a modern-day, liberal sort of parent to do? It’s not that we think our children are blameless innocents. We just don’t think that fear and groveling and self-loathing are appropriate life lessons. “Jesus died for your sins” is a complicated thing to say to adults– how much more so to say it to a child!
So, as Holy Week draws near, what do we say to our kids?
As with so much of parenting, I think the beginnings of the answer to that question are to be found in what we say to ourselves. Why do we think Jesus died? How do we understand sin in general and our own sinfulness in particular? What does it mean to repent? To change? What consequence does any of that have on our faith in God?
And, as with so much of parenting, I think the other key is not to rely solely on ourselves. This is a time to lean heavily on the wisdom and tradition of our faith communities. The story of Christ’s betrayal and execution is told to us – and told by us – in the liturgies of Holy Week, preparing us to feel the full of force of the joy of Easter morning. Children can join in that journey, surrounded by loving and helpful adults, in church.
Finally, I would suggest that church is a far better place to learn about the injustice and evil of a world that is still capable of crucifying God’s own Son. At least in church, our children will also learn about the victory of love that was revealed on Easter but is all too often hidden from view in our daily lives.
My prayer for my own son, and for all children, is that Easter will be the lens through which they understand the six o’clock news and their own schoolyard and their own hearts. That would, indeed, be cause for a resounding Easter “Al****ia!”
