CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
St. John’s kids celebrating their birthdays in our garden.

Children are not only welcome, but embraced at St. John's. We are home to a diverse range of families – some with a mom and a dad, some with two moms, some with two dads, and some headed by one parent. We also have many members who, although they have grown adult children, participate actively in our ministries to children.


 

Children are initiated into Christ’s Body the Church through Holy Baptism, a sacrament or sign of God’s unconditional love for us, a love that binds us into community with one another. For more on Holy Baptism, please see Worship.
 
Children at St. John's may attend services and receive Holy Communion, and, when old enough, assist as acolytes. We also offer a wonderful program for children aged 3-10 called Godly Play on Sunday mornings (see below).  
 
In addition to Sunday morning worship and Godly Play, we also have a lot of fun together. We often hold birthday parties for St. John's kids during Coffee Hour, have annual events like the Garden Easter Egg Hunt, and we try to take the children on outings throughout the year, from Bay Area hikes to Advent Posada performances in our neighborhood. Children are also welcome to attend our annual Parish Retreat with their families.


  
  
Photo: St. John’s kids: participating in our Palm Sunday procession; celebrating at our 150th anniversary party; sharing breakfast at the Bishop’s Ranch during our annual parish retreat.



 

Godly Play
Sundays at 10 am (Sept.-June)
Godly Play is a Montessori-based approach for introducing children ages 3 and older to sacred stories from the Judaeo-Christian tradition and helping them make connections between these stories and their own experience. It also conveys a sense of sacred space and silence that encourages a calm, quiet, and deliberate way of working.

The stories are told simply, without interpretation or moral instruction. Godly Play is not so much intended to tell about God, as it is to create an environment in which children can take in what they will from the stories to experience God’s presence as real and gracious in a way that is meaningful to them.

After a story is presented, the children and the storytellers wonder together about aspects of the story that draw their interest. For instance, with the parable of the Good Shepherd, they might wonder together how the sheep felt as they followed the shepherd. Or whether the sheep have names. Or how it might feel to be inside the sheepfold. After a time of exploring the story with wondering, the children choose art supplies they would like to work with and spend some time creating whatever they choose.

Godly Play “enables children (and adults) to become playfully orthodox. They become rooted in their own tradition and at the same time open to others, to new ideas and the future in creative ways.” For more information about Godly Play contact Dan Hutchinson, Godly Play coordinator, or visit: www.godlyplay.org.

Photos: K. Veit; K. Leibenath; M. Cousins; P. Lane; J. Adams.