Dear Church,
For many years I have wondered if we could be doing more to support young families in our church.  Frankly, it is difficult for a seven year old to sit through our church services.  I think the first half, with opening singing, candles of community, special music and of course the time for all ages is pretty great for our kids.  There's enough in there that's interactive, and I really love that our kids get a chance to really be a part of the collective worship experience that we're all sharing.

I think where it falls flat for our kids is in the second half of the service.  There are exceptions of course, like Flower Communion, and more dramatically presented services like Festivals of Light and our Halloween service.  But for the "normal" Sundays, I have longed for an environment for our elementary-aged kids where they can have their own thing for the second half of the service.
When Jess Ox came onboard as Director of Religious Education, she loved this vision and has offered to co-create it with me.

There are many steps from Vision to Reality, and as I have discussed this vision with church leaders, the most logical course of action has taken shape.  And that is to have an all-are-welcome interest meeting to discover two very important things:

1. Do parents of elementary-aged kids actually want alternative programming for their kids to be at during the second half of the church service only, or do they have reasons for wanting to keep their kids sitting through the entire church service?

2. Do we have the Volunteer support to pull this off?

To that end, we will be holding an interest meeting about providing alternative programming for kids in Kindergarten through 5th grade (or equivalent ages) during the second half of the Sunday Service.

Parents of kids K-5, people interested in volunteering to work with this age range, and any who are curious about a potential trajectory we might take to support our young families are welcome to attend.

Childcare will be provided.
You might want to bring yourself a bag lunch or light snack.

Meeting will be in the Sanctuary from 12:30 to 2:00pm on Sunday, June 7th.

If you can't attend the meeting and have thoughts, ESPECIALLY if you are a Parent or an RE Volunteer, please send me your feedback to minister@hvuuc.org.

With Gratitude, and Open Ears,
Rev. Tiffany