Sunday Morning Programs
Every Sunday, we gather together as a community to worship, learn about God and one another, and work together to share God’s love in the world. Children are always welcome in the service. We celebrate their noises and wiggles!
Children always participate in the first part of our worship service, and after the scripture reading, the minister or one of our members has a special conversation with kids. Then, children and youth are invited (but not required!) to join their peers in an age-specific class for fellowship and faith exploration. Our staffed nursery for children ages 0-5 is available downstairs throughout the service. Feel free to pick up a worship toolkit at the welcome table to tangibly engage in the service. Contact DarlynneOverbaugh@fccithaca.org for more information.
Frolic Nursery (6 weeks to 5 years)
We’re a proud Frolic Nursery, a space featuring storytelling and music for children ages 6 weeks through 5 years. Our nursery is open throughout the whole service and is staffed by two loving caregivers each Sunday. We have a comfy space for babies, toys for busy toddlers, and an engaging Bible story for our preschoolers. Children will go home with a letter to families summarizing our activities, suggestions to engage the topics throughout the week, and a coloring page right from the story book!. It’s a fun place to be, filled with plenty of laughter and love!
Parents and caregivers are welcome to drop their little ones off at any time. There’s a sign-in sheet where families can put their phone number so that the nursery staff can text them if needed. And of course, parents are always welcome to stay in the nursery too, whether to help their children adjust, to feed a baby, or just to play for a bit! Our speaker system also allows us to play the sound from the service in the nursery, if desired.
Primary Peacemakers (Kindergarten to 3rd Grade)
Our Primary Peacemakers nurture their inner light with Shine, a curriculum which invites children and families to grow their love of God and love of others. Each week, we engage in imaginative, interactive storytelling, ranging from shadow puppets to musical re-enactments. Children are invited to share their wonder and reflections, not forced to take away one message. We cultivate different age-appropriate spiritual practices and sing joyful songs of love and welcome. Each week’s story is connected to our lives today, when we consider where we can be peacemakers and seek justice. Children can walk with a teacher to classroom #2 after the Conversation with Young People and can be picked up after the worship service.
Young Active Christians (4th – 6th Grade)
Young Active Christians (or “YACs”) connect our faith and our lives by creating and collaborating together. We learn about one another through team-building and cooperative games. We explore Bible stories through questioning, wondering, and reflecting. YACs also develop service projects to live out their faith in the world. In past years, we’ve held fundraisers for the SPCA, made blankets for resettled refugees, and created meaningful crafts for our homebound members.
Youth (7th – 12th Grade)
Our youth gather to play games and act out Bible stories, but also to engage in hard conversations around our faith and our lives. We help lead the worship service at least once a month as readers, greeters, and ushers, and we participate in confirmation, Our Whole Lives, and work trips. Some of our youth participate in the service as liturgists, share their music during the prelude or postlude, volunteer to help with the children, or participate in Action Groups as a part of church life.
Teen Educational Programs
Confirmation
Confirmation Class (CC) is intended for young teens (ages 13-15), but is open to any teen who is interested in the confirmation process. CC in mainline churches has traditionally been viewed as threshold young people must cross in order to become a church member. This has sometimes involved being able to recite creeds and articulate the specifics of Christian doctrine in order to be confirmed in the church. In short, the process has been “believe in order to belong.”
Our CC flips this process on its head. We begin with the premise that all of our teens already belong in our church. It is recognized that each person regardless of age is on a journey of faith. We affirm that each person’s faith develops and changes; it is not static. So, CC is about helping and supporting our teens as they begin to take ownership over their own faith journey.
To help them do this, we have designed a class that is relevant, discussion-based, and creates opportunities for teens to experience a life of faith in community. Our textbook is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which we use as a resource to raise issues of faith that we then discuss. Each teen is also part of a group with an adult sponsor that meets several times and does service projects for the church. CC is an experience!
Our Whole Lives
Our Whole Lives (OWL) is a comprehensive sexuality education program that helps participants make informed and responsible decisions about their sexual health and behavior. It equips participants with accurate, age-appropriate information in six subject areas: human development, relationships, personal skills, sexual behavior, sexual health, and society and culture. Grounded in a holistic view of sexuality, Our Whole Lives not only provides facts about anatomy and human development, but also helps participants clarify their values, build interpersonal skills, and understand the spiritual, emotional, and social aspects of sexuality. OWL resources are based on the Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education produced by the National Guidelines Task Force, a group of leading health, education and sexuality professionals assembled by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. OWL regards parents as the primary sexuality educators of their children. All parents of participants enrolled in this course will be required to attend a parent orientation and an end-of-semester group meeting.
Service Work
The children and youth at our church are involved in various service projects throughout the year such as Thanksgiving food baskets delivered to needy families in the area; the Warm Woolly Tree for collecting scarves, hats and mittens; making lunches for the Rescue Mission, gathering items for local food pantries, and collecting children’s books for at risk children.
Our middle school and high school youth have also participated in various work trips both locally and out of state.
A unique program is our Stuffy Wellness Center Project. It is a children and youth service project that collects previously loved plush toys and rehabilitates them for new adventures. The ultimate goals of this project are to reduce the plush toy waste in our community and to increase love, care and joy for all. We are partnered with Finger Lakes Reuse and The Gemm Shop of Trumansburg to source our plush toys. Several area churches and the general public also donate plush toys to the program.