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| Programs for young people at Trinity Lime Rock |
We offer a variety of programs for young people throughout the year, and new opportunities keep emerging as well. Here are a few of the opportunities we offer our Trinity Kids at present:
During the school year: -- Baptism -- Acolyting -- Confirmation -- Music
During the summer:
In addition, our young people frequently participate throughout the year in other functions open to the entire parish, including activities of the Outreach Committee.
Please click on any activity listed above for more information, or just scroll down this page.
We designate one Sunday per month during the school year as Young People's Sunday.
Our children and teens are the ushers, acolytes, readers, and intercessors at the 10:30 AM Holy Eucharist on each Sunday that is so designated. If you have children over the age of 7 and have not yet spoken to Pastor Heidi about their participation, please contact her as soon as possible to see how we can include them -- if not this time, then the next time!! Often time is devoted in Sunday School to preparation for these Sundays.
See a page all about our Young People's Sundays, with photos!
Serving as an acolyte is a tradition of long standing at Trinity.
Most of our young people participate as acolytes at some time while they're with us. We have a page about this program; please CLICK HERE to see it.
Trinity's Christmas Pageant was born during the dark days of World War II and has been a tradition ever since.
Virtually all of our young people participate in it. For some our kids, it's been an annual activity for a decade or more, beginning as little angels, serving as a member of the Holy Family, and graduating as reader or Gospeller. Because it is such an important tradition at Trinity, we have many pages devoted to it, one for every year in this millennium, in fact! CLICK HERE to start, and be prepared to be involved for several minutes.
We're proud of our Sports program.
2011 was the seventh year of our Summer Sports program for the community. This takes the place of Sunday School during the summer months and is open to the entire community, not just Trinity Kids. We're continually adding to this program -- we bowled in February, participated in the Bishop's 5-K for Kids, and we did the CROP Walk this year, for example. There are lots of pictures and more information on our Summer Sports pages. Not surprisingly, most of our kids are also involved in sports outside of Trinity, in soccer, hockey, ski jumping, basketball, softball, baseball, volleyball, canoeing, crew -- well, if it's a sport that's played where there's a Trinity Kid, the chances are that a Trinity Kid is playing it, and we as a parish make every effort to support them in it!
Trinity's Sunday School meets most Sunday mornings during the school year in our Sunday School rooms, but it starts at 10:15 AM at the side altar in church.
More information is on our Sunday School page. More pictures are on our Trinity Kids photo page. You'll also see photos of many of our other activities for young people there.
Trinity's tradition of young people making music goes back more than a century to the days when the parish actually had its own boy choir!
Today at Trinity we encourage the musical development and expression of our young people by highlighting their talents in the Christmas Pageant, occasional other presentations by the Sunday School, and on special occasions as a youth choir, as well as performing with the adult choir. CLICK HERE for a whole page about how our young people make music
We're still a fairly small parish, so we don't have a confirmation class every year.
When we do have one, we usually incorporate students from nearby Indian Mountain School and Hotchkiss. In 2010 we we sent our three confirmands to join with five kids gathered from four other parishes in our area -- the first time we have undertaken a group effort in this regard. See a page about our most recent confirmation class. Or, read some additional information about Confirmation for Young People at Trinity Lime Rock.
In 2010 we had our first Vacation Bible Day Camp.
Our Sunday School teachers, two counselors, and Pastor Heidi put on a great one-week program for fourteen kids -- and we'll be doing it again when we have sufficient children in the parish for which such a program is age-appropriate. You can see a page about it, with photos, here.
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...what we do Trinity Lime Rock is a relatively small parish, but we are a community that is (and has always been) particularly welcoming to young people. Young people at Trinity have a series of opportunities for experiences at church in many contexts in addition to the traditional Sunday School classroom. Through our efforts to involve our young people in all aspects of our church life, we try to make many of our activities for Trinity Kids a "teaching moment" -- This applies whether it's Sunday School itself, rehearsing for the Christmas Pageant, participating in Summer Sports, getting involved in an community service project, or singing with the Junior Choir or serving as an acolyte or a youth usher or a reader on Sunday mornings. Work, school, travel, extracurricular activities, sports, music lessons, Scouts, riding lessons, all can combine to make family life hectic and disconnected. For most of us, in fact, Sunday is the only day of the week we have an opportunity to be a real family. Church is a wonderful place to be part both of our own families and the larger Trinity family at the same time. It's for this reason that we make a real effort to combine our week-to-week Sunday School curriculum -- as well as the special events and activities mentioned above -- with our worship. Many of our older young people are involved in specific worship roles. Our Sunday School joins the main worship service for the Holy Eucharist each Sunday (and leads much of the worship on one Sunday of each month during the school year), and, on other special Sundays, we encourage our young people to sit with their families or with their classmates and friends during worship. People ask whether it's realistic to expect young people to "sit through" church, even on major Sundays of the church year, like Easter. Yes, we recognize that young people are not likely to have the same focus on the spoken word as adults do, nor the same attention span. In some churches this would be a problem. However, as Episcopalians, our church is a liturgical church -- which means there is constant, predictable activity, with little chance for children to become bored. If you have ever been a part of the celebration and pageantry of an Episcopal service, you will recognize this aspect of our worship. We also provide our young people in church with materials related to the service that appeals to their interests and is appropriate for their developmental stages. And, we are are always very much open to suggestions for improvement. But, most important, we are always glad to welcome young people of all ages at Trinity. We know that many of our young people are not in the area every weekend, and our current lectionary-based Christian Education helps us welcome newcomers, visitors, and those who cannot regularly be here without disrupting a rigid lesson plan in a traditional Sunday School class. Yet, as flexible as we are, our Sunday School still imparts the basics of Christian education -- and the kids have a great time in the process! Of course, Trinity's facility provides us with unrivaled flexibility for a parish our size, both indoors and out. And young people have plenty of opportunity to be with -- and have fun with -- their peers in Sunday School, after the service, during hospitality hour, and when involved in our youth activities. By the way, Trinity is complant with the Safe Church policies of the Diocese of Connecticut. So, even if you are "just looking," or only in the area for a short time, or not sure that church really is something you want to make a commitment to -- or, like many of our families, simply unable to make the time commitment regular Sunday morning Sunday School attendance entails -- we encourage you to visit us at Trinity any Sunday. As a small parish, every child here is an individual, and their interests and their preferences are always considered whenever we plan programs for young people. On this page (and the linked ones) you'll find pictures and information about some of the great (and, we hope, instructive) times our young people have had over the past ten or so years, and we'll continue to bring you more pictures occasionally. We hope you enjoy them! By the way, we welcome WEEKENDERS!! We're very happy to welcome young people to Trinity and our programs even if you don't live here full-time and can't attend regularly. Lots of our young people come "to the country" only occasionally -- and the largest parts of their lives are spent elsewhere. And we understand that family and other obligations can make it impossible to always attend even when families are here for a weekend. People sometimes wonder if they (and their children) will be accepted if they don't live here or don't attend every Sunday. Will you feel like you're REALLY welcome? The answer is "yes, definitely". Take a look around! |
“Let the children come to me and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” |
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Don't miss the PICTURES OF TRINITY'S FAMOUS
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