Children's Formation

Life at GSL–Fall 2021 Guide of Worship, Christian Formation, Connecting & More

Children's Formation, Sunday, September 26. Children’s Formation will be held in the Green Room (PK through 1st grade) and Purple Room (2nd through 5th grade) downstairs every Sunday from 9:30-10:15. Following formation hour, we will have Children’s Chapel every Sunday as well during the 10:30 service!

Nursery Meet & Greet, Sunday, September 26. For those of you with nursery-aged children, please come by the nursery this Sunday morning from 9-9:30 for a meet and greet with the Nursery Staff! They would love to meet some of the parents so that you can get familiar with them before dropping your children off during church. Reminder that the Nursery is open every Sunday from 8 a.m. until noon.

For more information and to be added to the Children's Formation email list, please contact Director of Children's Formation Mary Shea Quach (msquach [at] gracestlukes [dot] org).

Nursery

The nursery is open again as of Sunday, August 29th. The nursery is available to all children, infants to 6 years old (we do encourage PK-SK children to go to Formation from 9:30-10:15).  It will be open from 8:00-12:00 every Sunday. The nursery will also be open during some evening events, dates TBD. As we reopen, rest assured that we are doing all we can to provide quality care in these still uncertain times of the pandemic. All nursery staff will be trained for Covid-19 protocol, and this protocol will be posted in all nursery rooms and here for your convenience. 

Formation

This fall we are starting new things! We are going to begin the wonderful program of Godly Play. Godly Play is a beautiful way to tell our sacred stories and teach our young church members about the history of the church while following the liturgical calendar. This program takes time to get started, so we will start slow with three or four Godly Play lessons each in the fall and spring. On the Sundays that we are not doing Godly Play, we will use a different curriculum that I believe will give our children a good foundation of Biblical knowledge and the Episcopal Church. This curriculum will give our children a good foundation of Biblical knowledge and the Episcopal Church through stories, activities, and prayer. For this program, there will be three age groups: PK-SK, 1st-3rd grade, and 4th-5th grade.   

In-person gatherings for parents and families

We are planning gatherings for families as well as the return of Parents Connect this fall. The gatherings for families will be once a month as a time for both parents and children to spend time with other young families here at GSL. Parents Connect will be a separate time for parents once a month to gather without their children to have quality time with other adults. Dates are TBD but will be announced in the E-news, sent out in emails, and posted on the “GSL Children’s Formation” Facebook page.  

I am so excited to begin this year with all of you at GSL! I have enjoyed getting to know some of you this summer and I am looking forward to meeting even more of you very soon. I have greatly appreciated all feedback and ideas I have gotten thus far and I believe the more input I have from our families, the better the Children’s Formation program can become. If you have any questions, concerns, ideas, or just want to talk, my door is always open and I would love to hear from you! 

For more information about programs for children, please contact Mary Shea Quach, Director of Children’s Formation (msquach@gracestlukes.org).