Children & Worship

Living The Good News:
Our older children will be studying from a new curriculum called Living the Good News. This program is lectionary based. The children will be following the Sunday readings and will cover most of the Bible in the three-year cycle of the lectionary. Included is a wide range of visual arts, music and literature from all around the world. We look forward to sharing this special curriculum with your children.

Sunday:
9:00am ages 8 and up
10:00am ages 6 and 7

Children & Worship:
The children here at St. Peter's enjoy each Sunday a multi-sensory approach to worship. “Children and Worship” enables our children to experience, not just learn about, God. It provides a special place for them to discover the ways and meaning of worship; to learn how to transform ordinary place and time into sacred place and time, how to discover the quiet place within themselves to listen and talk with God, and how to bring their experiences into dialogue with God in the biblical stories. Using visual materials, the Worship Leader tells the stories of the day and focuses attention on visual aids, drawing the children’s attention to them. When the story has been finished a “wondering session” aloud occurs, encouraging the children’s own wonderings relating to the story. A response time of arts and crafts follows as well as finishing with the story being read from the Bible.

Sunday:
10:00am ages 3-5

For more information or anyone that is interested in becoming a Worship Leader or just wants to enjoy the children please contact the church office - (973) 992-1932 or email Tara Gieger at: tara@gieger.com.

Children's Outreach: 2006-2007
St. Peter’s has become involved in assisting with a local soup kitchen in West Orange, NJ approximately four times a year. The children have participated eagerly and we look forward to continuing this mission to help feed the hungry. The children also frequently visit residents at a local nursing home in West Orange, NJ. They play bingo, sing, share stories or show and tell with the residents all of which bring smiles to everyone's faces!

This year the children will participate for the fourth year in a project known as Operation Christmas Child run by Samaritan’s Purse. OCChild sends a message of hope to children in desperate situations around the world through gift filled shoe boxes created by the children which are then distributed worldwide to children in over 95 countries. This project will reach out to suffering children while focusing on the true meaning of Christmas-Jesus Christ, God’s greatest gift. It will also provide an opportunity for our children (as well as adults) of all ages to be involved in a simple hands-on-missions project.
Weekly Offerings

As we have been doing for the past few years, each Sunday we will collect a class offering. Any family wanting their child to participate is welcome. This year we will be collecting to send to Millennium Promise, an organization that supplies bed nets for children to villages in Africa. These nets keep the mosquitoes from spreading malaria to sleeping children. Just $10 covers the cost of one net including shipping so we hope to be able to collect enough for a few of these simple life saving nets.

There will be several other opportunities throughout the year to have your child share in outreach projects such as Operation Christmas Child, Heifer International, feeding the hungry at Holy Trinity Soup Kitchen and our ongoing Pennies from Heaven drive for ERD. Look for a Children’s Newsletter we will be developing and distributing monthly to keep you informed on all that is going on here at St. Peter’s with our Sunday School!