Try This! Lent

Today is Ash Wednesday, and the season of Lent has begun. On Sunday during Christian Formation classes the children decorated the letters of the word "Alleluia" --that word of joy and praise that we do not say in Lent. (I've gotten myself in a bit of a pickle by not telling you about this before Lent began - please bear with me!)  At the end of our 10:30 service, the children processed up the aisle with the decorated letters and lined up to form the "A" word.  Then we put all the letters into a box and tucked them away in the Sacristy for the season of Lent. On Easter morning, we will see the word again, both in our worship and in a beautiful banner hanging in the Church, made from the letters the children decorated on Sunday. We've done this for several years, and I always enjoy it. It is a concrete way for the children to understand the more prayerful and reflective tone of Lent. They take it seriously, and carefully avoid the "A" word at all cost! Be sure that you do too! (That was my last slip, I promise!)

Lent is a time to grow closer to God through prayer. Last night at our Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper we made paper prayer chains with the children. I'll admit, this was not the most thrilling craft we've done at the Pancake Supper, but I'm really excited about it.  Cathy Wolford, a wonderful member of our parish, wrote out 35 ideas for prayer this Lent. She also provided five spaces to write your own prayers.  We cut up the slips of prayer suggestions and made them into chains. For every day in Lent (except for Sunday, which is a "little Easter") your family is invited to rip off a ring and pray for the intention listed.

As I said, I didn't have high hopes for this little project, but I've come away pretty excited about it. It is a very easy way to observe Lent on your own or with children, and I think it will help set a prayerful tone for this special season. If you are the parent of teenagers who are not all that interested in Lent (as I am!), this may be particularly helpful! In my family, we will be using the links to focus our prayers before dinner.    

If you didn't get your paper prayer chain at the Supper last night, we will have the supplies available at Church tonight for our Ash Wednesday services and on Sunday.  Take a packet home and make it up to share with your family this Lent. In my next post, I'll share some wonderful ideas for bringing Lent into your home from friends around the web!

Don't forget the 5:30 pm Ash Wednesday Service for Families today!  I hope to see you there!

Success!

Here is an update on last weekend's 30 Hour Famine from our incredible youth leader, Katie Ong-Landini!  

300 candles representing the approximately 300 hunger related
child deaths that occur every 15 minutes. We extinguished them
one at a time during our Evening Prayer service.

30 Hour Famine was a Big Success!

Thank you to the many members of Christ Church who supported the youth group as they fasted and raised money for the 30 Hour Famine.  We had a lofty fundraising goal of $3,600 this year--twice what we raised in 2010--but the group far exceeded expectations.  The 10 youth group members and their 5 friends raised over $5,500, shattering our previous record of $2,600.  Many thanks to them for collecting funds from family, friends, neighbors, teachers and classmates.

After digging out from the storm, we spent Friday evening at the church playing a game which simulated life in a slum in India.  We also moved boxes and furniture into storage spaces, and worshiped together.  On Saturday, we went to our "adopted" Nursing Home where we spent several hours cleaning various public areas of the facility.  In addition, The Rev. Peter Faass held a service of Holy Eucharist for us later that afternoon.  (Thank you, Rev. Peter!)


We are already looking forward to next year's event!

Thank you to Christ Church's youth and their friends, for fasting, raising money, and serving our Church and community! Thank you also to our wonderful youth leaders, Mischelle, Brad, Jenn, and Michael for making this event such a success!

  

And finally a special thank you to Katie Ong-Landini who coordinated and led our 30 Hour Famine this year (and the previous SEVEN times!!).  Katie's commitment to our youth and her passionate concern for the environment are only outdone by her deep faith.  Katie is always the last person standing at these events - always ready to clean one more wall when the rest of us have collapsed in nearby chairs!  She is one amazing woman and we are so grateful for her ministry at Christ Church!

Ash Wednesday Service for Families

Ash Wednesday Service for Families

Wednesday, March 9th

5:30 pm in the Chapel

Lent begins next week!  Ash Wednesday is the first day of a forty day period of preparation for the events of Holy Week and Easter.  For the past several years, Rev. Peter and I have been offering a 5:30 pm service specifically for families on Ash Wednesday.  The meaning of Ash Wednesday is a bit difficult to convey to young children. I have found that the penitential tone is not a natural fit for their spirituality.

Rev. Peter and I have collected some wonderful ideas from my fellow Christian Educators and some thoughts of our own to create an Ash Wednesday service which is streamlined and focused on the elements of this holy day which are most vibrant and essential to young children - the imposition of ashes and Holy Communion. I love this service, and look forward to it every year.

One aspect of the service that resonates with the children is the gesture the priest makes with the ashes. Beginning at age four in the atrium, we learn that at Baptism, the priest  makes a small cross with oil on the forehead of the person being baptized, and says "You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's own for ever."  On Ash Wednesday we see that cross again -- this time made with ashes and oil on all of our foreheads --  and we are reminded that we belong to Jesus. This year Rev. Peter and I are going to try burning palm branches at the beginning of the service with the children, so that they can see where the ashes come from and connect to this gesture even more deeply.

If you are a local reader, I hope you will join us in the Chapel at Christ Church for our 5:30 pm Ash Wednesday Service for Families! 

30 Hour Famine for Youth

Please keep Christ Church youth, their friends, and our youth leaders in your prayers Friday and Saturday as they take on the 30 Hour Famine!  This is our 8th year doing the famine.  Youth will begin fasting at 1:00 pm Friday and will meet at the Church at 6:00 pm for an overnight.  Friday night they will participate in a poverty simulation game, do some work around the Church, gather for prayer, and finish the evening with movies and games.  Saturday they will spend time visiting with residents and do some cleaning at our local "adopted" nursing home, gather for communion with Rev. Peter, and at 7:00 pm they will break their fast with a celebratory feast!

It isn't too late to sponsor our youth. Visit their team web page for more information.  Last year, our youth raised $1800 for hungry people around the world. This year they have set a lofty goal of $3600! Knowing our youth, and knowing the parish I think they just might make it!  :)

Abraham: A Man of His Time

In this post, Level 3 Catechist Lynn Winkelman shares some of her own preparation for presenting the Abraham materials to the nine to eleven year olds in the Golden Thread Atrium.

Honestly, I dreaded studying Abraham with the children and put it off until this year.  The reason for this is that I have never been comfortable with the “Sacrifice of Isaac.” Like many of you, I was taught that Abraham’s willingness to obey God’s command to kill his son Isaac was evidence that he was a great man of faith. I could never reconcile my own understanding of God with a God that would ask such a thing of a parent. My own daughter asked her father several years ago about this story and what he thought of the “test of obedience” given to Abraham. To my surprise, (because of the tradition I had been raised in), he responded that Abraham actually failed the test by agreeing to sacrifice Isaac. He told her that God never wanted death in his honor.


I came to a new understanding of this story in my EfM class ** and some new materials developed for the Level III Atrium that made the teaching of the whole story of Abraham, including the “sacrifice of Isaac,” congruent with the God of love and life.

The new scholarship on this story suggests that this was a lesson that was intended to show that human sacrifice was unnecessary and never acceptable to God. To understand why this lesson was important we must see Abraham as a man of his time and place. Human sacrifice to the Gods was practiced by many cultures in his part of the world, even sacrifice of ones child. 

So, it should not be so surprising to us that Abraham considered such a command a test of faith. The part of the story where God stops him from killing Isaac demonstrates that, for the descendants of Abraham, human sacrifice would never be a part of their worship or culture. This relationship with the one true God was different from anything Abraham saw around him.

Knowing this, I looked forward to presenting the study of Abraham to the children, including the story of Isaac.


** EfM or Education for Ministry is an ongoing course that meets weekly at Christ Episcopal Church. Speak with Leslie if you would like to learn more!

The Golden Thread Atrium

With this post, I'd like to introduce Lynn Winkelman, who is our Level III trained catechist. Lynn is a wise and wonderful catechist and a gifted artist - she has made so many beautiful materials for our atria over the past eight years. Last summer she created nearly all of the materials she will need for her Level III atrium singlehandedly! One of Lynn's strengths is her ability to see and appreciate each child individually.  She is always the first to remember that a child's boredom or misbehavior is an invitation to the catechist to change herself or the environment to meet the needs of the children we are serving.


I've asked Lynn to share a bit about Level III, and what has been happening in her atrium this year!  The Level III atrium includes children in fourth, fifth, and sometimes sixth grade (depending on our Journey to Adulthood schedule).

The Level III Atrium, recently named the Golden Thread Atrium, is in its third year at Christ Church. It is now that the child is developmentally ready to begin the study of the Hebrew Scriptures and the rich theology that is present in these stories. Everything from their earlier atrium time has prepared them for this great undertaking. The major stories are divided over the 3 years they are in Level III. As an example, the first year I presented Creation, The Fall and The Flood. The second year we studied Moses and the Exodus. This third year we worked on Abraham from September until Christmas. We will also undertake a study of the four Major Prophets: Isaiah, Amos, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

The Kingdom of God and the Mustard Seed

Jesus said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."
                                       Mark 4:30-32

A few years ago, when I was guiding a group of 3-6 year olds in the Good Shepherd Atrium an interesting phenomenon developed. First, one of the children would walk over to the kingdom parable shelves and pull out the tiny container filled with mustard seeds. Almost immediately another child would notice, and would drop whatever work he or she was doing to go and take a look at the seeds. Before long, the entire group would be gathered! Now this is not something we encourage in the atrium - our desire is for each child to work without interruption. But for a very long time, the draw of the mustard seeds was irresistible and awe inspiring. The children just loved looking at those tiny seeds! And I loved hearing their comments:  "They are so small!  How can they grow into that huge tree?  There is a great power in those seeds." and even "God has given the power to them."

The Mustard Seed is the first parable the children learn in the atrium, and it speaks so deeply to them that they return to it again and again. There is a profound movement in the children's understanding of this parable that illustrates the parable itself! It is a movement from something small to something great! At age three, children marvel at the small seed that can grow into such a great shrub.  Over time they realize that it is a power within the seed itself that allows it to grow, and they perceive God as the giver of this great gift. As they revisit this parable, they perceive this power, not only in the mustard seed, but in countless seeds, flowers, trees and bushes all around them. Before long they discover that this great power from God is at work throughout the world - and even in their own bodies! With each realization we ponder together what Jesus said - the kingdom of God is like this!

In the True Vine Atrium, with the 6-9 year olds, I often hear, "It's just like the mustard seed!" This movement to the "more" is very real for them and they easily connect it to other parts of the Bible, the spiritual life, their daily lives, and the life of the world. I've said it before, but I just love sharing parables with the children! So few words and such great discoveries!

Check out my last post to learn more about parables in the atrium!