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Anglican Church of Australia -
Diocese of Melbourne |
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Kids’ Church For all of us the intent of worship is to experience and praise God. By its very nature corporate worship is participatory. For most of us the experience of God is an experience of mystery, awe, and wonder. Thus worship time and space act as a living memorial: a way of bringing both the community’s experience of God from the past and God’s promised future into the present moment, stirring our imagination and meaning-making. For young children, encountering and experiencing God in this way is no less important than it is for us. For some time now I have been concerned that the children are removed from the Eucharist (from the worshiping community of CCSY if you will) for half of the service. Given our commitment, at CCSY, to Worship, Ministry, and Mission in an inclusive community this seems inconsistent. It also prevents members of the team from taking their place at the altar and pulpit, and the space in the crypt that we have used for Sunday School probably needs some attention if it is to meet this need in the longer term. So the ministry team has decided to try an imaginative solution! We are instituting a new service (on a trial basis) that is tailored for our little ones, and draws on the gifts and missionary skills of our older children. We hope our older children will participate in the planning and leading of the services over time. We will continue to focus on Godly Play as a tool by which both children and adults can grow in love for God and for one another. But we will do this in the context of a shortened worship service once each month during term time, beginning at 12 noon. The service will usually be a eucharist or, on occasions, a baptismal service. It will be about 30 minutes in duration. The dates for these services in 2008 are on the second Sunday of each month, beginning in February. We hope this experiment helps us to meet the unique needs of children (and those who care for them) in our community of faith, and we will evaluate this trial over the summer. Jenny Nelson
The Gift of Children - a homily by Fr Richard
Treloar Click here for images from Kids' Church for Christmas
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Christ Church South Yarra, Cnr Punt & Toorak Rds, South Yarra,
Melbourne, Australia. Phone +61-3-9866-4434 |
