Sunday school
Contact Helen Burnett
Sunday School continues to take place on the first Sunday of each month.
We have several children and young people on the register between the ages of 2 to 14 years old.
Sunday School now takes place once a month, on the first Sunday during Parish Communion. As existing members have grown up and moved on we have been blessed with 2 new young families in the village and a few occasional visitors from further afield with links to the church through baptisms. This means that once a month we can usually expect 5-6 children aged between 9 months and 9 years. Sunday School topics are based broadly on the Gospel readings for the service and may involve an art or craft activity and story telling.
It has been possible to involve older children in family services from time to time, this is usually through music, under the kind guidance of Julie Hardy at Betchworth or Barbara Green at Buckland.
There was a return to Greenbelt by popular demand and our numbers were boosted this year by friends and families from outside the parish. A core group of 8 young people with associations with St.Michael’s had spread the word after our first visit in 2008 and this year we numbered 19 in all. We slept under canvas and shared in cooking and eating, laughing and discussing, hurrying and lazing about. The festival organisers again provided a wide range of speakers, music, and activities to suit all tastes.Some highlights included John Taverner’s ‘The Protecting Veil’, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Duke Special, Athlete, Gene Robinson and of course the many events organised by Linda Ramsden and her colleagues at I.C.A.H.D. Those who joined us for the first time in 2009 enjoyed themselves so much that they have already put the date in their diaries for August 2010 so I feel this is genuine outreach well beyond the walls of the church but encouraging people of all ages to engage with the thorny issues of being a Christian in a post modern world (at least that is what the adults were doing!).
Some of those who camped at Cheltenham came back and slept in church over the weekend of the Copenhagen Summit- again as with Greenbelt this was an ‘invisible ‘event for most of the congregation but once again we were able to involve young people who at this stage are not interested in organised worship but are curious enough to spend a night sleeping between the pews!
Children continue to be involved in church events through the Mothering Sunday service, family services, Good Friday Activities and for the first time this year the Summer Holiday Club.