CHILDREN, YOUTH, AND FAMILIES

Check out all our Children, Youth, and Family Formation Videos on our YouTube Channel

Children
Children are a vital part of our faith and community. We strive to make services and offerings family-friendly. When we are in the building, we encourage families with young children to sit toward the front where it is easier to see and hear. Some Sundays we ask the children present to come up for Children's Homilies or to see some part of the service. We encourage them to sing hymns, pray, and join their voices to congregational responses in worship. We expect that children will wiggle and run around, maybe sometimes even fuss a bit. That is expected and even welcomed. If you need to get up and move around because your child is restless, we won't mind or be distracted, but we will be hoping that you feel comfortable coming back after the chaos has passed. We want to be in a community where children feel deeply, consistently, and reflexively that they are loved and welcome. This is among the most important ways we can live out our faith in Jesus.

A Note About Online Children's Formation
​​We do know many parents have children in more than one age group. The offerings for different age groups is meant to support you and not burden you with more stuff to do. We're going to try to make sure whatever we do on Sunday would be appropriate for a much broader age range than we would normally have in one classroom. We'll provide supplementary Godly Play materials and worksheets with suggested prayers and topics of conversation each week. We want to offer as much as possible so that you feel supported in this time. We also don't want to add to your stress. The balance between offering enough to be helpful without overwhelming/overburdening everyone may take some trial and error. If you end up with questions, comments, concerns, or just have feedback about any of this please reach out to Fr Sam at ssheridan@icoh.net or use his calendly link to set up a meeting with him: https://calendly.com/fathersamworkcalendar .

Children's Homily
​​Until recently, Immanuel has been offering "Children's Eucharist" on the first Sunday of the month. This was a lovely way to invite and encourage children and families to come to a service more oriented to their specific worship needs, and we miss it. At the moment, in our online/outdoor formats we will be offering a Children's Homily at least once a month. Those homilies will be subsequently aired on our YouTube channel and here on this page. We want every Eucharist, every worship service, to be inviting for children. We do, however, know that online church is a tall order for even some adult attention spans. There's no guilt in being unable (perhaps even unwilling to try) to drag your 3rd grader to Zoom Spiritual Eucharist. So we'll be offering these Children's Homilies in hopes of giving them something 1) specifically for them and 2) a more appropriate length for them to sit through. But for the ritually-interested child, we are also going to increase what we do in normal worship that has specifically to do with them. This won't be sudden dramatic changes (we've had a lot of that this year) but we do want to make children feel like there are things in worship explicitly for them, even when it's not a children's service..

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Nursery
​The nursery is not operating while there are restrictions on gathering and worship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When we are back in the building we will return to having our nursery available for children up to age three during two of our regular Sunday services. There are dedicated nursery rooms for both Zabriskie and Immanuel Chapels.  Supervised by Gilma Balcarcel, a parishioner and paid staff member with over 15 years of experience, we provide each clean, safe and nurturing environments for children.

3-7 Year Olds
​​ Our formation offering for 3-7 year olds is the renowned Godly Play curriculum (https://www.godlyplayfoundation.org/). Children have an innate sense of the presence of God, and we help them explore their faith through story. They gain religious language and enhance their spiritual experience though wonder and play. This liturgy of storytelling, prayer, and reflection is normally offered as a children's alternative to the first half of the 9 am service at Zabriskie Chapel. During this program year we will offer it weekly online with supplemental materials, so that your family can pray and talk about some of your beliefs at your own pace. The format might be because of the pandemic, but also we believe that your children learn more about God and what it means to be a loving, compassionate, forgiving person from YOU than they ever will at church. So we want you to have tools to prompt those conversations and wonderings.

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Preschool-5th Grade
Children between preschool and 5th Grade are normally invited to participate in Sunday School. As part of our online offerings this program year we will be providing brief video lessons, lectures, stories, and activities twice a month (three times if there are five Sundays that month) via YouTube. Those videos will be posted on this page as well and feature volunteer teachers, parents, vestry members, EYC members, and all three clergy members!  We will use a variety of curricula, including Weaving God's Promises, the Episcopal Children’s Curriculum, and others. As with Godly Play, there will be supplemental materials each week with prayers to pray with your children and questions to ask them. ​

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Middle School and High School
The Episcopal Youth Community (EYC) is our formation program for all teenagers. There is some splitting up into different age groups within the context of EYC, because some conversations are very different for at twelve than they are at eighteen, but there is also room for Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers to be together, learn from one another, and form friendships and bonds that may occasionally last for years. During this program year the EYC's primary meeting time will be Sundays at 7pm via zoom. There is an ordinary format that walks the line between formation and fellowship most Sundays. But the Second Sunday of each month we'll do something totally different. What that is... will be different each week. We'll be able to assess what is possible with pandemic-restrictions each month as we plan for next month's Second Sunday. Fr Sam and the EYC Leaders communicate with everyone primarily through email (Sam is figuring out the BAND app) so if you haven't been getting EYC emails but feel you should be, please let him know at ssheridan@icoh.net ​

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Pre-YC
For this program year, 4th and 5th graders are going to be invited to Second Sundays activities so that they can begin to see what EYC is like and form relationships with some of the current EYC Members. When there are age-appropriate in-person activities like Parking Lot Prayers we'll invite these Pre-YC members too! 

CONTACTS

Questions on Godly Play?  Email Sarah Glassco at glasscos@gmail.com

Questions on Sunday School?  Contact Linda Serabian at Serabian@somaarchitects.com 

For questions on EYC, contact  Carrie Cuddy at carriecuddy@verizon.net . 

For questions on PreYC, contact Rob Johnson at rajohnson3@gmail.com.

For family night questions and questions on overall Children, Youth and Family programs, contact Vestry Steward for Children, Youth and Families, Hartley Hobson Wensing at ahobson21@comcast.net or  Assistant Rector, The Rev. Deacon Sam Sheridan at ssheridan@icoh.net or 703-370-6555, ext. 207.
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CYF Updates & Calendar

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PYM:  Parish Youth Ministries

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