A hearty thank you to everyone who has turned out to support the restart of our Sunday School. I had a
parent tell me last week that their children were loving coming to the classes. Hat’s off to Liz Herriges and to Father Tom for all their work to get the Godly Play curriculum up and running. Thanks to everyone who has volunteered their 'time and talent': to clean up the classroom and organize supplies, to create story sets, to sew props, to print lessons, to learn the storytelling method and to teach or support the teachers. And appreciation for those who have contributed money to meet the financial needs of the program.
Teaching a lesson or supporting a teacher is such a wonderful way to interact positively with
the youth of our parish. The students have such interesting answers to the "I wonder…" prompts in the stories- a refreshing brush of the Holy Spirit. We can always use more volunteers- and onboarding for this ministry is a breeze- online training option for the Safe Church requirement and most of the lessons can be learned by watching a video or reading from the guidebook.
When Tom Egnew (for the Profile Committee–thanks group for your hard work) shared the
results of the survey last week, I was so grateful to have the success of the reinvigorated Sunday School program, as well as the faithful efforts of the recording teams at the 10 am service, to hold in mind when faced with the myriad ways the St. Andrews community needs to re-energize and show-up/lead
in order to be an attractive new ministry for our coming priest, as well as to fulfill the work of our St. Andrew’s mission. While the challenges seem hard, I know we can do this if we all consider places
where our stewardship abilities are a good fit to match the needs of the church. And even if you don’t
feel you are a good match (I know I would never have seen myself participating in Sunday school after
my own youth), St. Andrews is a wonderful supportive place to learn to spread your wings a bit.
– Jenny Glass