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It is a priority to nurture the spiritual lives of children, parents & guardians, and families as a whole. All Saints offers resources, opportunities, and friendship to support families of all kinds along the path of a deeper experience of God’s love. Beth, the Director of Children, Youth, and Family Ministries, coordinates teachers and lay ministers that lead sessions, classes, and events for children and youth throughout the year, and she always is available to assist families in their spiritual development. Read below to learn more, and feel free to contact Beth with questions at any time.
At All Saints, the Eucharist is celebrated intergenerationally with children, youth, and adults worshiping God together. This is done because Episcopalians baptize babies and, once baptized, that person is a full member of the Christian community. All members of Christ’s Body are welcome and encouraged to worship together. Through intergenerational worship, children learn how to worship, not just from their parents or Formation teachers, but from all the adults, grandparents, youth, and young adults in the church. Everyone is responsible for helping each other deepen their lives in Christ, and the primary way to do this is through communal worship.
All Saints by-the-Sea supports families with children and youth in their life in Christ. The All Saints community can be a village for all those raising children and youth; All Saints has a monthly Parents’ Discussion Group that meets during Christian Formation Hour on Sunday mornings. The group is open to all parents of all ages of children. Each month, those present decide the topic for discussion based on the needs of the group. All Saints also offers Family Outreach/Mission activities so parents and children can work together to show God’s love to others through intergenerational ministry. There are also Parish Socials and Family Socials, which are opportunities to spend time together in fellowship to build community and integrate families into the fabric of the church community.
While Christians of all ages are always welcome in worship, sometimes very young children have difficulty sitting through services. Should this occur, childcare is available in the nursery during all Sunday morning worship times, and often available during other events in our common life together at All Saints. It is available for infants and children up to age 3.
In addition to welcoming families into worship, All Saints invites children and youth of all ages to participate in regular gatherings tailored to speak to the spiritual needs of their own age groups. You can read about the spiritual development curricula used at All Saints below.
Children age 4 – 3rd grade use Godly Play to guide their spiritual development. The program, created by Jerome W. Berryman, takes a Montessori based approach to help children experience spiritual practice and language in addition to learning beginning Bible stories. Children learn to locate themselves within the stories through crafting their own creative responses to lessons. By the end of the program, children come to view themselves as part of the tribe who share these stories.
Youth 4th – 6th grade use Weaving God’s Promises by Doris Ash, which builds on the concepts from Godly Play with a more academic approach that examines the text of the scriptures in more detail. At the end of the program children will see their Godly Play stories as Biblical stories that fit into the larger story of Christianity. Children can respond to these lessons both creatively and with their own language. The stories are presented with the level of complexity appropriate for children increasingly capable of making more difficult, nuanced decisions.
Youth 7th – 12th grade use I Will, with God’s Help by Rev. Mary Lee Wile, which narrows the focus to how the Bible relates to Episcopal practice. The curriculum examines the history of thought and reason in their faith, with an emphasis on how Episcopalians have interpreted scripture. Over the course of the program, the emerging adults in our church will figure out how to apply scriptural teachings to their daily lives.
All Saints by the Sea strives to create a safe and healthy worship environment for members and guests of all ages, especially children. Our children’s ministry is built upon developing caring relationships to help our younger members to grow into mature persons of faith.
All of our volunteers who work with children have been approved by our priest and church leadership and have completed training through SafeGuarding God’s People, a Diocesan mandated course designed to educate them about child abuse awareness and prevention. At least two adults are required to be present at all times when supervising children. Please click here to learn more about SafeGuarding God’s People.
At this time, we understand parents are also particularly concerned about the spread of COVID-19 and our measures for protecting children. For full information regarding COVID-19 safety protocols at All Saints, please see the link here. All adults serving in our Sunday School program have been vaccinated. We are following the Santa Barbara Public Health Department and Diocesan guidelines regarding COVID-19 precautions and adjust our protocols as needed.
