– Claudia Zinc
He’s four years old, the middle child of three active boys who attend church. He can run up the aisle and back in two seconds flat. You can see that look in his eyes just before he dumps out the hundred and some crayons and runs away. Meet our bright, healthy boy named Joshua.
His parents decided their boys should have church in their lives. They make what must be a great effort to get three little ones ready on a Sunday morning. Dad and Mom both work so devoting a whole morning on the weekend to any event shows how important it is to them.
We don’t have Sunday School rooms. The boys stay in a pew in the back of the church. They play with blocks, are told stories, colour pictures, or do a craft. They are getting used to this thing called “church”.
The congregation had to get used to children again. We haven’t had any except on a rare occasion when someone was visiting Grandma.
Kids are loud. They are loud when the sermon is being told. They are loud during that quiet time after communion. They are loud from the time they enter until they say goodbye. It is a joyful sound after years of careful quiet.
Our youth leader, Anne Stott, was asked why we are “bothering” with a children’s program. She has two reasons. The first is to fulfil our mission as a welcoming parish. The second is to show those three children that she is someone they can trust and be themselves, just the way they are, in this thing called church.
I have a simpler reason. Remember Joshua?
We had made cardboard Paschal Candles that morning. He coloured his page with bright colours. I cut out the pieces for him, but he watched every snip to ensure his flame wasn’t cut off. He carefully helped me tape everything around a paper towel tube. We wrote his name at the bottom. He ran to show Mom and Dad all about it when we went to eat lunch together.
I gathered the materials and was ready to head out when Joshua came across the room to me. “Thank you for helping me make my (Paschal) candle.” His parents hadn’t nudged him. This was an hour after we did the craft but here was this four-year-old “herum sacrum” coming to me on his own to say in his voice, “Thanks for having a Sunday School.”
Yes, that’s a good enough reason. Parish of Blandford “Sunday School” for 2024 with a total of three kids, is doing just fine. What is your youth doing these days? The Diocesan Times wants to hear your stories.