How much do children remember?
How do children remember about a visit to a church or cathedral? Does the answer depend upon adults design the questions? Insights might be gained from this study based on a visit to a museum:
Father Christmas visit barred
It turns out the UK has a policy of putting the children of asylum seekers into detention centers because of the perception that the children are at high risk of "mental health issues". Canon Jim Rosenthal was prevented from visiting them over the weekend as were some other clergy. There were concerns that the visit was a possible security threat.
With all their chips in, they gamble on a business together
Twenty-five third-graders at St. Matthew's Episcopal School in Houma, Louisiana (about an hour west of New Orleans), are going in on a salty business proposition.
'All together now': Sunday mornings and the collective mindset
Over at Episcopal Life Online, Mary Jane Wilkie of the Church of the Holy Apostles, New York City, proposes a possible vision for the future of Sunday School, when dwindling supplies of money and people may force churches to push their resources together.
Playground as sanctuary
Behind a church opens a sanctuary
From the Boston Globe
The sun beat down on Uphams Corner yesterday; by midmorning it was more than 90 degrees. But a few blocks away, in cool shade beneath tall trees, children frolicked on a brand-new playground. St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, which sits in the heart of a neighborhood often torn by shootings and stabbings, offered its backyard yesterday as a safe space for children to play.
Going to church with a challenging child
Heather Moffitt describes in the Faith & Leadership blog of Duke Divinity School how taking her son with special needs to Sunday services taught her how to be broken in church.
Held nearly 20 years, an embryo becomes a baby
Virginia-based reporter Elizabeth Simpson reports from Norfolk:
Theology and sexual abuse
Mary Condren, writes in the Irish Times on how theology can support sexual abuse.
Worship for the wiggly
The Hour Online captures a new trend in the Diocese of Connecticut:
A small turnout did not dampen the spirits for the debut of "Worship for the Wiggly" on Sunday afternoon at the Episcopal Church of Christ the Healer on Brookdale Road.
A new chapter in the Catholic child-rape scandal
America, the Jesuit weekly, carried this report on its blog In All Things last week:
A new model for Christian education
Judy Valente of the PBS program Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, profiles Holy Family School in Chicago. Founded in 1985 as a small Lutheran school, it flourishes today as Holy Family Ministries, a nonprofit social services center and an Episcopal charity, as well as a Christian school.
Church schools as islands of inclusion
Most people in the West tend to think of a "church school" as a place where people, who object to the political correctness and secular morals of a public education, send their children to be educated in a way that supports their family values. And that's certainly the case for many private Christian academies here in the States. But in England the schools run by the Church of England are some of the only places where children can be educated in a climate that represents a true cross-section of their communities.
Where children sleep
If you haven't taken time to view the pictures from James Mollison's new book "Where Children Sleep", then take five or ten minutes right now. The images are startling, striking and in a few cases deeply poignant.
From the write up on New York Times gallery of images:
"Time to panic about kid's education"
A recently released report has some sobering news for American parents. Children in the U.S. are falling further behind world standards in education. Some of that may be due to an increasing focus in other nations, but it's alarming that the American system isn't able to keep pace.
LZ Granderson writing on CNN's blog makes this point:
Making vows
Kate Soles describes her struggle as she and her partner prepared to stand in front of their congregation at the baptism of their child.
She writes in the Toronto Globe and Mail "I was unsure about baptizing our son:"
Outsourcing social skills
The Wall Street Journal reports on how parents are seeing to their children's social skills by outsourcing.
Episcopal school embraces iPad
Schools in Knoxville, Tenn., purchased iPads over the summer and are letting their students try to them out, Allison Rupp reports on knoxnews.com. Among such institutions: Episcopal School of Knoxville.
Beckwith: legislature's job is to prevent child poverty
Bishop of Newark Mark Beckwith writes that New Jersey's incoming legislature "must fight childhood poverty":
"All God's Children: Raising Children of Faith Through Adaptive Worship"
Be quiet. Sit still. Pay attention.
This is church for many children, but not at St. John's Episcopal Church in Montclair NJ.
T.D. Shoudy writes for The Montclair Times, found on Northjersey.com:
Worship for all of God's children
Imagine you wanted to create a liturgy for children who simply couldn't manage the demands of a traditional liturgy, even a child friendly liturgy. And what would you do so that the worship wouldn't just accommodate their special needs but would communicate appropriately to them?
Is that an ad for my church on the side of that school bus?
It’s not within our usual ambit for the Café, but consider the following.
The Stations of the Cross for families
Children narrate the stations.
Maurice Sendak, in memoriam
Maurice Sendak died today, but not before showing us how the wild rumpus starts.
The after-school agenda of the "Good News Club"
The Guardian's Katherine Stewart writes on the After-School program called the Good News Club in public schools:
"What's infidelity": answering children's questions
Bonnie Rochman writes in Time on what to say to asking kids concerning high profile affairs like Gen. David Petraeus:
The Names
Charlotte Bacon, 6, Daniel Barden, 7, Olivia Engel, 6, Josephine Gay, 7, Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 6, Dylan Hockley, 6, Madeleine F. Hsu, 6, Catherine V. Hubbard, 6, Chase Kowalski, 7, Jesse Lewis, 6, James Mattioli, 6, Grace McDonnell, 7, Emilie Parker, 6, Jack Pinto, 6, Noah Pozner, 6, Caroline Previdi, 6, Jessica Rekos, 6, Avielle Richman, 6, Benjamin Wheeler, 6, Allison N. Wyatt, 6.
The staff: Rachel Davino, 29, Dawn Hochsprung, 47, Anne Marie Murphy, 52, Lauren Rousseau, 30, Mary Sherlach, 56, Victoria Soto, 27.
(Our addition: Adam and Nancy Lanza.)
(From The New York Times)
In sermons, Episcopal leaders in Washington call for gun control
The leaders of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington will use their sermons this morning to call for stricter gun control legislation.
Both Bishop Mariann Budde, who is preaching at a confirmation service at St. Alban's Episcopal Church, and the Very Rev. Gary Hall, who is preaching at Washington National Cathedral, where he is dean, are calling for a ban on the sale of assault weapons and ammunition for such weapons in addition to other legislation.
Dean Gary Hall's sermon on the Newtown massacre
Dean Gary Hall of Washington National Cathedral preached this sermon at the 8:45 Eucharist. He will preach again at the 11:15 service.
Preaching the massacre
Updated: with this link to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's sermon this morning in the Diocese of Lexington. She said, in part:
"We believe that goodness can come out of the darkest days"
We hope to post links or excerpts from a few of the sermons preached yesterday in the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut in the wake of the Newtown massacre. They come to us through the good offices of Karin Hamilton, the diocese's director of communications. This one is by the Rev. Molly James of Saint James, Higganum.
What they preached about in Connecticut
Karin Hamilton, director of communications in the Diocese of Connecticut and the Rev. Molly James are collecting sermons preached in the diocese on Sunday in the wake of the kills at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. You can read them here.
For whom will our bells toll?
Tomorrow morning, Episcopal parishes across the country will open their doors in order to provide space for prayer and meditation. It will have been one week since tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut, transpired, when Adam Lanza killed 27 people before ending his own life, at his own hand. Churches with bells or carillon systems may elect to toll bells to mark and remember the lives lost.
Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves urges reform of gun laws, NRA
We've asked folks to send us the statements that their bishops, rectors and lay leaders have made in the aftermath of the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and will be presenting a few of those today and tomorrow. This one comes from Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves of the Diocese of El Camino Real, and though it was written before the National Rifle Association called for installing armed officers in every American school, it does speaks directly to the need to reform that organization.
Bishop Mathes says NRA's proposals are misguided
In a letter to his diocese, Bishop James Mathes of San Diego voiced opposition to the National Rifle Association's proposal to put an armed person in every American school. The bishop writes:
The Christmas Story by kids
An oldy-but-a-goody from St. Paul's in Auckland, New Zealand: The Christmas Story as told by kids.
Holy Innocents and violence against children
Two weeks after the deaths of children and teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, the Feast of the Holy Innocents is particularly poignant for many Americans.
Teaching children to deal with death
The redoubtable Rev. Tim Schenck, rector of St. John's the Evangelist Episcopal Church in Hingham, MA, and co-owner of the Lent Madness franchise, has written a perceptive column about teaching children to deal with death. His essay is all the more piquant because the death that occasioned his musings was that of his children's pet ferret.
Adoptive parents and the marriage equality debate
Writing for The Politics Blog of Esquire magazine, Tom Junod says the arguments against marriage equality have placed so much emphasis on procreation that for the first time, he and his wife, who are adoptive parents, have begun to wonder whether there are people out there who believe that "the sanctity of our marriage might threaten the sanctity of other marriages, not to mention the institution of marriage itself."
He writes:
