Our Sunday Morning Schedule
We love having visitors! If you are new to Channing, please come
a few minutes early to the Parish Hall (behind the Sanctuary). You
can look around, meet Channing's Director of Religious Education,
Halcyon Westall, who will introduce the teachers, and sign in your
children.
Children
begin most Sundays in the Sanctuary with their parents at 10 AM.
After the lighting of our chalice and singing together, children
are invited to the front of the church for the Message for All Ages.
Children and teachers then proceed to religious education classes
where they will spend the rest of the hour. Parents sign out children
after the service in the classroms. Children age three and younger
start their church day before the service in the Parish Hall Nursery.
Some families choose to have their children stay with them through
the whole service; we encourage families to follow what feels comfortable
and right for them.
Periodically, Sunday classes are suspended and children stay in
church with their parents for the intergenerational worship. Children
become acquainted with church rituals and are able to enjoy the Sunday
worship services they will attend as young adults.
The Religious Education Committee has identified several key components
of our Unitarian Universalist faith to present to the children and
youth of Channing. These topics, called "Pillars," include:
World Religions, Social Justice, Life Issues, Unitarian
Universalist Identity, the Web of Life and Peacemaking.
Within each school year, all children from Preschool
through Grade 5 in the Religious Education Program will be exposed
to three of these Pillars in 3 segments
which last approximately 10 weeks each. Each class will use age appropriate
curricula to focus on the same theme for those segments. The timing
of each Pillar varies from year to year to coordinate with the church
calendar. While Pillars will repeat, each year will be a different
experience, meeting the children's changing developmental and age
levels, providing new insights at each stage of development.
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