Christian Education

Our church is one where children are welcomed, included, and cherished. Sunday School is offered to children from three years old up through eighth grade. Currently we offer three classes: age three through kindergarten, first through fourth grades, and fifth through eighth grades.
 
How Sunday School happens:

• come on Sunday morning for the 9:30 a.m. worship.
• bring children age 3 and older to worship for approximately 15 minutes (infants and toddlers are welcome to accompany you at our worship services, too).
• after the children's sermon, the teachers and children will leave for the classrooms.
• at the end of worship, meet your child at the Sunday school classrooms, which are downstairs from the sanctuary.

Parents should register children each year. The school year starts in September, but if you are new to our church and haven’t enrolled in time for the first class, your child is welcome to join Sunday School at any time during the church school year. Your child can join any time after his or her third birthday.

Offering
We believe it is important that children learn the importance of stewardship of church and community from a young age. Offerings are received in each classroom. A portion of the proceeds go to a charity that the children themselves decide on. In recent years, they have supported the Westerly homeless shelter, the animal shelter, children’s hospitals, and homes for troubled or abandoned children.
 
Curriculum
We currently follow the lectionary-based curriculum called “Seasons of the Spirit.” This is the same lectionary the pastor uses for her preaching and readings from Scripture. This helps parents talk with the children about what went on in church: integrating worship and education. (By the way, a lectionary is a reading plan that weaves its way through the Bible over a three-year cycle; it helps pastors and Christian educators maintain and communicate a view of the entire Good Book. Our denomination follows the very popular Revised Common Lectionary; our Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, and United Methodist friends, for instance, often hear the same scripture that we do each week.)
 
Other Resources
Our Children’s Ministry Teams are encouraged to use additional resources such as drama, puppets, games, and other creative arts to enhance student-centered learning and growth in faith. Several times a year, the classes join to perform a pageant during worship.