Year's End!

On Sunday another program year came to a close at Christ Church. It was a busy day, with our final week of atrium and promotion for children who will be moving up next year. We thanked out teachers and catechists in Church and each received a gift. And we acknowledged two wonderful young men who are graduating this month and who will be moving on to college in the fall. It was so busy, I couldn't take many pictures but here are just a few snapshots of the day.

During our last atrium session, many children decorated an envelope to take home the art work they have completed this year. It is always exciting to look over and enjoy the art work together. I hope you had fun exploring these little gems when they came home! Of course art work is meant to be an extension of our work with the materials in atrium and no art work is proscribed or required.  Some children have made many things while others have not. This isn't a concern for us!

Children moving out of the Golden Thread Atrium received prayer crosses this year. Children moving up from the Good Shepherd Atrium received a mustard seed of their very own, and children moving up from the True Vine Atrium received a small lantern. More about promotion and pictures of these gifts can be seen in a post from last year called Moving Day.

As a gift to thank our teachers this year, I took photos of our Church gardens and made them into 100 blank cards. 

Each teacher received a little bundle of Christ Church note cards with our thanks for their ministry this year.

And as always we enjoyed a special cake at Coffee Hour after Church on Sunday! Thank you to everyone participated in Christian Formation at Christ Church this year! Thanks to our parents and grandparents for bringing their children early on Sunday mornings. And a special thank you to all of our catechists, teachers, and substitutes for a great year of learning and growing together at Christ Church!

Celebrating Easter

We celebrated Easter in the atrium with the Liturgy of Light on Sunday. It was a great morning! I wish I had pictures of the celebration itself, but I was too busy to pick up the camera. Instead I have some photos from our feast afterward. Thank you so much parents for donating food and drinks. The children really do enjoy eating together.

You can read more about the Liturgy of Light celebration, which in based on the Easter Vigil service, in this previous post.

Remember - the season of Easter is 50 days! We have until Pentecost (May 19th) to live in the joy of the Resurrection. What ideas do you have for keeping Easter in your family life? It can be as simple as lighting a white candle at meals or saying a special prayer together before bed time. 

Easter is a great season in the atrium. We can't wait to see your children on Sunday mornings!

 

Happy Easter!

Butterflies, continued!

My last post included many photos of the Church decorated with butterflies. I forgot the most important picture - the only one I have of the crew setting up the spectacle! Here it is - a photo of Will and Katie busy creating our butterfly Easter. Thanks again to both of them, and to Mimi, Anne, Chris and Callie for their help on Holy Saturday!

Advent Preparations!

Take a look at these advent elves! As we began our ninth advent with the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd we found that it was time to replace many of the figures from our infancy narratives. Lynn, Sarah, Terri, Deb and I spent a day this week recreating wise men, Mary and Elizabeth, angels and sheep for little hands to hold this December. What a pleasure! Thank you to these special helpers!

Advent begins tomorrow! How will you be observing the season with your family this year? Check out the post, Advent Begins if you need some inspiration!

Homecoming Tomorrow!

Tomorrow we gather for our Homecoming Celebration! Our service begins at 10:30 am but all are welcome at 10:15 am to bless the new Food Pantry. Join us after Church for lunch and a Ministry Fair! There will be crafts for children and family friendly games! Bring five items to donate to the Food Pantry (or pay $5 per ticket) for a chance to win a raffle with some great prizes! I'll be on hand so that you can register children for Christian Formation, and if you have a child new to the Good Shepherd Atrium you can sign up for Parent and Child Orientations.

Thanks to the amazing cleaning crew who tackled the Good Shepherd Atrium today - Christina and Sydney, Shawn and Alexandra, Kate and Garet, Kathleen and Lauryn, Lynette, Greyson, and Reece, and our fearless leader Deb! We were so busy working, I hardly had time for pictures. But here are a few for you to enjoy!

Wiping down the shelves.

So many tiny pieces to clean.

We used a lot of vinegar and water.

Everyone had a bucket.

We had a lot of dirty silver to polish.

We found a little time to play.

And thanks to Deb there were DONUTS!

Cleaning Days!

At this time of year, when I am feeling relaxed and rested after a great summer with my family and after weeks of attending Church as a participant rather than a leader, I'm drawn to the Catechesis. I have the urge to look over my album pages and class notes and reread books by Sofia Cavalletti and Maria Montessori. I want to ponder new ideas for atrium, and think about the children who I'll be working with in the coming year.  I long to wander around the atrium, exploring materials, and rearranging the room to better suit the needs of the children.

In reality, my job as Christian Formation Director keeps me very busy as the year takes off. I need to update our database and brochures and reach out to families. I need to recruit volunteers and work out calendars!

One difficult task that looms at this time of year is cleaning our atria. It's amazing how dirty our shelves and window sills and trays and tiny pieces can become. Markers dry up. Spiders move in. It's a daunting task, and not one that I enjoy!

But the truth is cleaning is an important part of preparing the environment. Our desire is for the children to discover a clean, orderly, and beautiful space the very first time they walk through the atrium door. That's why I am so grateful to the group of wonderful women who came in to clean for three hours on Wednesday! The True Vine Atrium looks fantastic, and the Golden Thread Atrium isn't far behind. Thank you so much to Sarah, Shirley, Hope, and Deb for volunteering, and thanks to everyone who is coming in to clean this weekend. Your efforts help to make the atrium an inviting place for God and the child to meet!

Prayer Gardens for Teachers

At the end of every year I pull together a small gift to thank our volunteer teachers for their ministries. It is always a challenge to keep within the budget and still find a nice way to say thank you. This year I got creative with prayer gardens and I was happy with how they turned out, so I thought I would share them here!

I started with a very inexpensive Zen Garden set from Dollar General, which included a small tray, a rake, a few stones, and some sand. I added more stones and doubled the sand that came with the set. I also added a few shells as a reminder of baptism, and tea light candles to represent the light of Christ. Then I made a set of guided prayer suggestions for using the garden, and put everything together in a gift bag.

I hope our teachers enjoy their little prayer gardens as much I enjoy mine. You can read more about what I have included in my prayer garden at home and ways that I have used it in previous posts.

I've just returned from an amazing week of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Level 3 Training in Saginaw, Michigan. I'll post more soon about this wonderful experience.

Thank You Teachers!

On Sunday we had our last day of Christian formation classes for the year. In the atrium we celebrated Pentecost and recognized children moving up to a new atrium next year. We also gave gifts to our teachers and celebrated our great year together after Church with this delicious cake! (We ate it so quickly I doubt any of the teachers actually saw the cake, so enjoy the photo above!)

Thank you to all of the people who serve in our formation ministries at Christ Church! We are blessed with many dedicated volunteers who really care about spiritual formation. I am so grateful for their deep faith and their hard work each week.


We thank God for:

• the children, youth, and adults who are growing in their faith at Christ Church,
• our nursery caregivers Camille and Julie, and our nursery teacher Eppie, 
• the catechists in our atria ~ Deb, Lynette, Sarah, Kristin, Juanita, Lynn and Dennis,
• our youth teachers ~ Mischelle, Justin, Jenn, Brad and Katie,
• our substitute teachers for children and youth ~ Betsy, Anne, Lisa, Mike, Kathleen, Kimberly, Lem, Julie, Frances, and Kate, 
• our regular adult formation teachers ~ Rev. Peter, Greg, Hilary, and Mary Jo and Mike (who coordinated our Adult Forums), and
• our many Adult Forum leaders who taught throughout the year.

It has been a year filled with blessings and I am so grateful to the entire parish for its support of our formation ministries!

Thank you

Teachers!

Behind These Doors...

We keep all of our practical life supplies in this closet in the Good Shepherd Atrium. It's incredible what a mess it can become! To be honest, I am usually the person to blame for the disaster. I always seem to be changing practical life works in a hurry!

A few weeks ago I stopped in the Good Shepherd Atrium after Church and found Lynette bringing order out of chaos! She had ALL of the materials out of the closet and rearranged everything!

Now we have materials sorted by season...

...and by type!

Trays are stacked...

...and glassware is together!

What a blessing!

Thank you Lynette for your ministry with our children 

AND

for having a label maker and being willing to use it!!!