Merry Christmas Everyone!
We had a great time this afternoon at our Christmas Eve Pageant - Mary, Joseph,Angels, Wise people, Animals, Shepherds and Stars created a Christmas scene and were reminded of the reason for our celebration.
Sunday School returns on Janaury 6 at 10.20am. Everyone welcome!

Jan

Animals and Kids!

We celebrated St Francis' Day this morning at St James' and it was great to see so many dogs, cats, and soft toys present to receive blessings and share our worship. With children playing outside in a nursery within sight of the altar and pets, and their humans, sitting in the shade on the hottest day of the year.Almost all the animals seemed to enjoy each others company.
As an additional treat we enjoyed a fun performance of 'Joy to the World' from the Children's Choir. Its first line 'Jeremiah was a bullfrog' had us smiling but links nicely to our Sunday School theme of growing our faith in 'leaps and bounds'! The children's choir is a great opportunity for the children to have fun together but also to make a meaningful contribution to our worship.


The link to the audio of the choir performance can be found here. 

Jennifer Carini, our music director, welcomes all children to join the choir. They meet for short rehearsals directly after each 10.30am Sunday Service. Their next performance will be in celebration of All Saints' Day on November 4 when the service will include baptisms. New singers are always welcome!

St James' Kids blog

Parents,
As you register your children for Sunday School this year you will be signed up to follow the St James' kids blog by email. This is a simple way to follow what is happening or has happened at church or Sunday School and also to share things with others. If you would rather follow our activities by another method please feel free to unsubscribe to the blog or connect using another method (see the right hand side of the blog page)
Thanks
Jan
Children, Teen & Family Coordinator

Great to see you!

It was wonderful to see the new year begin at Sunday School yesterday.
Our new curriculum is called Grow, Proclaim, Serve and the frog influences in our classroom illustrate the tagline 'Grow your faith in leaps and bounds'. In the next few weeks the blog and classroom communication will communicate more about the plans for the year and how we are committed to developing a more cohesive children's program here at St James'.
For the first few weeks the children will be studying the story of Moses, not just the baby in the basket but the man who led the Israelites out of Egypt and who relied on God for strength and support.
The Bible verse that will be repeated again and again during this unit is 'But I will remember the Lord's deeds; yes, I will remember your wondrous acts from times long past' Psalm 77:11

Yesterday the class was introduced for the first time to the people of 'Leaper's Pointe' a fictional town 'in the middle of everywhere where everyone understands that God loves them and counts their blessings'. These fun little episodes on DVD support the teaching each week. Each class will begin by reminding the children of the previous weeks class by showing the previous episode again at 10.20am. It is important we start on time to allow all the interesting activities that are planned to be used in each class.

See you next week

Jan

The Sunday School classroom is being prepared this week for our first class on Sunday. All kids from 4 years up to 6th grade are welcome. Children should be signed in on arrival at EB3 at 10.15am and will join their families in church during the 10.30am service.
See you there!
Jan

Children, Teen and Family Ministry Coordinator

A new school year begins, for some school has already started and for others it will begin this week. As our children and young people settle into new classrooms and break open new binders and pencil cases we have a new start at St James' as well. Our Sunday School will restart on Sunday September 9 at 10.15am in EB3. The young people will join us in church in time for the Eucharist in the 10.30am service.
On Sunday September 16 the kids will return to the service in time for the Blessing of the Backpacks - bring along a backpack, or other sign/tool from school for a blessing for the new year.
The other new start we have at St James' this year is the creation of a new staff post - Children, Teen and Family Ministry Coordinator. This is part of a church wide commitment to work in this field and the intention is to build this role into a paid staff position supporting the work being done at St James'. It is my great pleasure to take on this role in an interim capacity this year to help form the space that a future coordinator will grow in to.

See you at St James'
Jan Scrutton
Children, Teen and Family Coordinator, St James'

St James' to Abode

St James' has a long history of work with our local homeless shelter, Abode Services, and currently has teams working on the dinner program and assisting with the rehoming of families through the home-warming program. It was great to have the opportunity this month to find a new way to support the work at Sunrise Village.
Our VBS team and 6 members of St J Youth took some of our VBS craft activities and the story of The Rainbow Fish to share with the kids as part of the Wed/Thurs night kids program. We acted out the story on the first night and let the kids have a go for themselves on the second night. We made beads, CD fish and colored in and had fun with the kids.

We hope to continue this extension of both our own work with children & families and of our communities' commitment to Abode Services.