Children and Youth at Christ Church in Short Hills

NewsletterMarch 2014

For more information on our programs for children, tweens and teens contact the Rev. Krista Dias at kdias@ccshmail.org

table of CoNteNts

High School Trip to France......Pages 2-6 Sunday Children’s Worship......Pages 7-8 Christ Church Nursery School..Pages 9-10 Middle School Breakfast Club..Page 11

Children are born deeply connected with God. At Christ Church, children and teens are invited to encounter the Holy and learn the language of faith

through scripture, prayer, visual art, music and discussion in a

loving community.

High School Youth GroupPilgrimage to the Taizé Monastery in France

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February 14th-23rd

High School Youth GroupPilgrimage to the Taizé Monastery in France

On February 14th, six members of Christ Church’s youth group, Mo. Krista and Mo. Ellen, departed for JFK airport. There they were greeted by teens, priests and adult volunteers from two other Episcopal churches. The group of forty was setting out on a pilgrimage to the Taizé monastery in France. It was a journey that would change them forever. Taizé is a monastery for Christians of all denominations, founded during the Second World War as a place of reconciliation. It began in a tiny village church near the frontlines of war, with just a handful of brothers devoted to God’s peaceful presence. The brothers housed POWs, refugees and cared for children orphaned by violence in the region. Over the years, the monastery grew and became a place where tens of thousands of young people from all over the world, spend time in prayer and simplicity with one another each year. Before visiting the monastery, our group spent two whirlwind days touring Paris. After landing early in the morning, the group dropped bags off at the hotel and set out to see one of Europe’s finest cities. Day one included Jardin de Luxembourg, the Sorbonne, Notre Dame and a nighttime trip up the Eiffel Tower complete with sparkling lights. Day two was equally as wonderful with visits to the Catacombs, the Louvre, Tuileries, Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, Arc de Triomphe. It was concluded with dinner at A La Petite Chaise - Paris’s oldest restaurant built in 1680. Many of the teens were on their first trip out of the USA, and it seemed our tour of Paris would be impossible to top. It was hard to imagine, but Paris would end up being the least important part of this extraordinary journey. On the third day of our adventure the teens boarded the high-speed TGV train, traveling to the Burgundy region of France where Taizé is located. When we arrived at Taizé the monastery was quiet. There were only about fifty young people visiting at the time and each of them was busy in prayer. After about a half an hour of resting in the sunshine and waiting for our Taizé check-in meeting, a group of Germans came to greet us. Our group of thirty-three teens was immediately welcomed into monastery life. As soon as we put bags down in our rooms the brothers of the mon-astery asked us if we would begin working. We answered with a resounding “yes!”. Half the group set to work cleaning toilets, scrubbing mirrors and disinfecting floors. The other half of our group began the weeklong process of building a very large tent. Tents are essential at Taizé during spring and summer. Once Easter arrives there will be be-tween four and seven thousand young people visiting the monastery at any given time. The tents serve as dining halls, Bible study spaces and sleeping quarters. The young man overseeing tent building, a recent graduate spending a “gap year” at Taizé, was very

impressed by the strong work ethic demonstrated by our teens. They built the tent much faster than expected. This highlights one of the meaningful aspects of encountering an international community at Taizé. Many people around the world think Americans are lazy. We proved them wrong! Our group’s first prayer service was in the evening of that first day in Taizé. The bells started ringing just after dinner and we knew it was time to head in to church. As we entered it was obvious that there was something different about this place. Though it was filled with many people, it was not loud. In fact, it was silent. The teens grabbed songbooks and found a place to sit on the floor. The church was full of beautiful icons to look at and contemplate. Behind the high altar were large, orange fabric triangles sweep-ing our focus upward. They reminded us that our focus was on God. The brothers sat in the center of the church, separated from the monastery visitors by a short hedge. All of us, monks and pilgrims alike, sat facing the same direction. Coming from countries all around the world, we were united as one body of Christians in prayer. The service itself was mostly simple, chant-like songs in many different languages. We repeated the songs again and again, allowing us to sink into the meaning of the words and invite Holy Spirit into our lives. The songs were punctuated by short readings from Scripture and interces-sory prayers. In the middle of the service we spent several minutes in silence. This was a time to still the busyness of our minds and listen to God’s quiet voice. It was the first time many of the teens in our group had participated in this kind of quiet prayer. The second day began again with a prayer service before breakfast. A couple hours after our day began, the landscape of the monastery changed quite dramatically. Three-hundred teens from the St. Denis section of Paris arrived. We greeted them at our first Bible study of the trip. Bible study is lead by one of the brothers and is translated into whatever languages are necessary. After a short Bible talk by Brother Norbert, our leader of the week, we were split into many small groups. Most of the Parisian teens did not speak English, but a few brave people wanted to practice their English and joined our American small groups. Bible study met every day to contemplate a passage from scrip-ture. Brother Norbert asked them to think about questions such as “What are you looking for?”, “Where is God waiting for you back in your daily life?” and “How has God spoken to you today?”. Over the course of the week, as the teens settled in to monastery life, they were changed. Three prayer services a day, daily Bible study and hard work in community allowed them to let go of life’s stresses. The busyness of their minds slowed down and they were able to listen to God’s very real presence. The last liturgies of the week are the most powerful at Taizé. Every Friday is Good Friday and every Saturday is Easter. Dur-ing the Good Friday service a cross is laid down on the floor and everyone is invited to

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put his or her forehead on it in prayer. The prayers on the cross are supported by prayers from hundreds of other people. Jesus, God among us, experienced the fullness of hu-man life. He knows all the joys and sorrows, even to the point of death. In praying at the cross, all of us shared our joys and sorrows with Jesus. We knew God’s presence is here with us, working through us always. The teens returned from Taizé with that truth in their hearts. Christ is real. The task for the rest of all our lives is to make that reality visible and known in our every day.

Taizé Continued

our bible stories

Sunday Children’s Worship

Parable of the Pearl Jesus in the Desert

leNteN speCialChildreN’s suNday

Children are full members of our faith and it is important for them to have a meaningful Lent too. They spent the first Sunday of Lent with the rest of our Christ Church family in the full Eucharist. The children were enamored with The Great Litany and its procession that wound around the pews. Mother Krista gave a children’s homily about the season of Lent that reminded them our focus needs to be on the cross, and living as Jesus did to the best of our ability. After church there were Lenten arts and crafts. The children made prayer dice and Lenten journals. The prayer dice were boxes that the children could put prayers on. The children can roll the dice to pick a prayer for the day. Lenten journals were decorated with markers, and then taken home to be used for writing prayers. Children were especially encouraged to write five things they are thankful for each day.

april 2014

MarCh 2014

The Ten CommandmentsPalm SundayEaster

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Children’s Chapel With ChildreN’s baptisM art

Children’s Chapel during the month of February featured artwork about Jesus’ Baptism that the children created in January. Children learn best when they are actively engaged in their work. Rather than giving the children a pre-created craft project about baptism, each class was asked to remember key parts of the story and create an original piece of artwork about it. As they say, “the proof is in the pudding”. During Febru-ary chapel Fr. Tim and Mo. Krista held up the artwork and had the children re-tell the story from memory. One full month after creating the art, our children remembered John the Baptist, Jesus, the Dove and the water. They were deeply engaged with the work they created.

Christ Church Nursery School

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4 aNd 5 year-olds bakefor iNterfaith food baNk

In March Mother Krista worked with each four and five year-old class on a baking project for the Interfaith Food Pantry of the Oranges. The children started out by reflecting on the most important commandment to “Love God and Love One Another”. The children practiced loving one another by caring for people who don’t have enough food. They baked cookies that will be served at the Interfaith Food Pantry of the Oranges during Holy Week. The Interfaith Food Pantry of the Oranges is run by Christ Church along with several synagogues in the area.

Christ Church Nursery School

Middle School Breakfast Club

leNteN CoNfirMatioN aNd baptisM Class

Teenagers in 8th and 9th grade began an important period of faith formation on Ash Wednesday. This year’s Confirmation Class meets throughout Lent in preparation for Confirmation on May 4th. One teen who was not baptized as an infant, is also preparing for her Baptism. In the early Church, Lent was the time for “catechumens”, people learning about faith in preparation for Baptism, to pray and learn alongside other Christians. Today, most Christians are Baptized as infants. Babies are born deeply connected with God and infant baptism is a powerful welcoming into the Christian community for our youngest sisters and brothers. It is still, however, important to have a time of preparation and a sacramental mark of reaffirmed faith. That is where confirmation comes in. By preparing our young teens for Confirmation in Lent we are reclaiming the connection between Baptism and Confirmation in addition to providing a meaningfulformation experience.

shoes for Malawi

The 6th and 7th graders of Christ Church worked to help Jane Houston with our Lenten “Shoes for Malawi” project. The teens learned about the deeply impoverished African nation Malawi, and the work that GAIA (Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance) does there. They also heard stories about Mo. Krista’s journey to Malawi a few years ago. The people in Malawi were very sick and poor, but Mo. Krista discovered they still had a wealth of joy and faith. The teens reflected on why that might be, and ways that the teens could increase joy and faith in their own lives. Together they contemplated Lenten disciplines they could take on, or things they could give up in order to live a more faith filled life. The teens worked during coffee hour to raise money for children’s shoes in a small village supported by GAIA and CCSH parishioner Jane Houston.