At Trinity we value our young people, we cherish them, and we nurture them.
In smaller parishes like Trinity, the size of the Sunday School varies as older young people find themselves involved in such pursuits as getting into college, and new, younger children become old enough to participate in our “one room schoolhouse” Sunday School and grow to take the place of the recent grads.
Recently we went through just such a transformation. Some of the young people who had been with us for more than a decade departed for college and grad school, a number of new young people were with us for five years or so but their family moved outside the area, and just as we were wondering where the next young people would come from, lo and behold, several new young people arrived! New young people find their way to us from a variety of sources, but once they arrive at Trinity, they tend to stick.
HERE WAS A MESSAGE FROM THE YOUNG PEOPLE DURING COVID-19:
Obviously those days are passed, and now we have an active young people’s program again.
At the present time, we’re having Sunday School each Sunday morning at 9 AM, taught by the Rector and four parishioners — all with significant experience in Christian education of young people. (Please note that Sunday School will continue in the summer, but will have a varied schedule. Please contact Pastor Heidi to be put on our Text Message List to stay updated about Sunday School dates and times.)
Best advice: speak to the Rev. Heidi Truax to find out exactly what’s happening right now.
Typically, the number of young people is small, but the relatively small number has an advantage: we know all of our young people as individuals, we know their families, we support them in their lives of faith, and, where we can, we support them in their lives outside Trinity as well.
Above are our two of our acolytes on a Youth Sunday at Trinity (this was a couple of years ago). Our superb acolyte corps of five or six years ago has moved along, and it will be a while before the younger young people can fully replace them — and we’ve not had acolytes at all since COVID hit. We look forward to a time when we can again have young people serving as acolytes again., but we know it will be a while before we have a crew like the one above!
When Spring turns into Summer, Sunday School sometimes becomes Summer Sports, a tradition we have had at Trinity ever since a nine year old asked what the kids were supposed to be doing in the Summer when Sunday School didn’t meet. Asked for what SHE thought the kids could do, she responded “We could play soccer.” She was right. We had active Summer Soccer at Trinity for a few years until the young people requested a more varied program for Summer Sunday mornings, and now we provide a variety of sports, chosen by the young people themselves. Summer sports haven’t resumed since COVID, but we never say never!
With the courtyard and our 8 acre field available for their use, there are lots of possibilities!
When they are available, we offer our young people the opportunity to assume all the adult roles for which they are liturgically qualified and have an interest in trying out. Sometimes it’s a lot, and sometimes it’s just holding the box for the “Thank Offering” (They collect money to support a community outreach activity the young people themselves select each year via their monthly Thank Offerings.)
Several years ago, their partner in outreach was the Refugee Program at St. Mary’s Church. In addition to the financial donation, one girl tutored one of the Syrian girls in reading during the winter months.
Five years ago and for a portion of following year, the young people chose the Little Guild, an animal shelter in West Cornwall, as their outreach partner. They had a training session and spent three sessions working with the animals there to socialize them and improve their adoptability.
We have a Confirmation Class at Trinity when we have young people ready to be confirmed. There’s one in progress right now, with Confirmation planned when the Bishop next visits us in November. Please speak to Pastor Heidi if your young person would like to be involved.
Most years the young people stage a Christmas Pageant, usually on the third or fourth Sunday of Advent. These vary in scale from year to year — and there have been years when there was no pageant at all — but we always make an effort to stage one, remembering that the first Christmas Pageant at Trinity was held all the way back in 1942!
A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is worth a thousand pictures. So, here are five videos of Trinity’s young people in recent years.
ENJOY!
We predict that you’ve never seen anything like this in church! Anywhere!
Here’s a video the young people did a couple of years ago:
The young people studied the activities of the Apostles following the Resurrection and in the early days of the church. Here was the video they produced as part of that study.
Christmas Pageants at Trinity date back to 1942 — the dark days of World War II. This particular pageant (three pageants back, now) was written, directed, and acted entirely by our young people.
The Congregation of Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford recently traveled by bus to Trinity Lime Rock for a Sunday. Here are the processional and recessional from that day — and you’ll see Trinity kids as well as young people from the Cathedral in the procession.
Here was one of the earlier video efforts by our young people, superimposing a “60 Minutes” format on two Bible stories. Enjoy!!
By the way, you should know that we take the safety of our young people very seriously, and closely adhere to the Safe Church policies of the Diocese of Connecticut. Ask to see a copy when you come by, or you can download a copy from the Diocese of Connecticut website!
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