Ministry of Discipleship & Education Chairperson Sharon Hobbs:   781-440-0652 or shobbs@aol.com

Nursery care is provided downstairs in the Parish Hall for children through age two by a paid staff person, offering a continuity of care which is reassuring to parents and children alike.. 

Parents sign up as helpers each week, on a rotating basis.  Teenagers are welcome to help as well.

Our 3 and 4 year olds are welcomed to a time of play and learning.  At this age, children are just learning about sitting in a circle, listening to a story and participating in an activity with others. 

We use the Godly Play curriculum to introduce Bible stories and the process of “wondering” together. 

Goals:  Learning that church school is a loving and safe place, and that God loves each child, exactly as he or she is.

Children at this level are ready to take in more information.  Through Godly Play, they begin to learn, not just hear, Bible stories, and to engage in wondering about their meaning. 

Goals:  To help children become active seekers on their own spiritual journeys.  To learn the Bible stories presented in Godly Play, as well as the books of the Torah and the Twenty-third Psalm.

 We continue Godly Play, with some supplemental material, since by this age some children will have heard these stories in the same format for several years. 

Goals:  We introduce the Bible as text, and practice  looking things up in the Bible.  They learn the Gospels and Lord’s Prayer.

We introduce the Bible Quest curriculum at this grade level.  Bible Quest emphasizes learning with all of our intelligences: verbal, kinesthetic, spatial, musical, dramatic, naturalist, interpersonal and intrapersonal. 

Children are given Bibles at the beginning of the year. 

They receive preparation for Holy Communion during the winter term

Goals:  To engage students as active participants in Bible story discussion.  They will become more competent in using their Bibles.  In preparation for Holy Communion, students will learn church terminology and symbols, become familiar with all of the apostles, and learn the Ten Commandments.

We continue with Bible Quest. 

There is a new emphasis on service and on social and environmental justice. 

Holy Communion is reviewed, and the class will receive communion, either with other classes or with the congregation, several times each year. 

Goals:  To learn how to apply Bible lessons in their lives.  To introduce the concepts of social justice, environmental justice, and Christian responsibility.  They learn the Epistles and the Beatitudes.

Biblequest will be introduced in the 7th and 8th grades this year.  The overarching theme for the year is “God Calls Us Into Relationship.”  Various aspects of covenants will be explored through the telling of classic biblical stories and hearing the stories of other teens who are making meaning in their life in the light of God’s Word. 

BQ, Be Quiet With God, a reflection magazine written by and for teenagers, asks probing questions and offers guides for prayers.

Goals:  To develop spiritual discipline by beginning the habit of devotional reading, to see that other youth are thinking about and interpreting their lives in light of scripture, to develop critical thinking skills when presented with abstract ideas such as truth versus fact, literal versus allegorical, etc.

Confirmation is taught by our pastor and seminarian. 

The goal is to make sure our confirmands clearly understand their baptismal vows, and the new commitment they are about to make.  We use “case studies” of teenage life to examine a Christian approach to issues of injustice, sexuality, peer pressure, and consumerism. 

Service is a component, and there are overnight retreats.

Goals:  To prepare students to take responsibility for their own spiritual journeys, become clear about their Christian identity, and prepare to deal with the pressures of adolescence in the light of their faith.

Formal church school classes are not offered for high school age students.  Youth are invited to worship regularly and participate in regularly scheduled Sunday activities. 

“Extreme Breakfasts” are held approximately twice a month with Josh Gray, our student seminarian.

Our Junior and Senior High Youth Fellowship, under the direction of our seminarian, meet approximately twice a month for fun, fellowship and service.

First Parish is committed to a safe church school environment.  We follow the United Church of Christ Safe Church guidelines for teachers, nursery staff, classrooms and procedures. 

Let us know if you have any concerns, or want to suggest any improvements.