Overseen by Sharon Knox-Hutchinson, our Pastoral Assistant for Families, the Advent's Church School program is a busy and exciting environment for Christian education! Nobody is too young for Church School - we even have a class for infants and their parents, "Beulah Land." On October 21, 2007, we had a special guest: the Right Reverend Roy Cederholm, Suffragan Bishop of our Diocese, visited the Church School to play his guitar and lead us in song.

Church School happens every week after the 9:00 a.m. Mass. Following Communion, our Church School teachers meet all children ages 4 & up at the rear of the church and head up to the third floor. Infants and toddlers and their parents can attend "Beulah Land" class with Fr. Patrick and Naomi Gray. Middle school students meet in Fr. Gray's office with Ms. Suzanne Miller. Read on for more information!

Paging System for Nursery and Godly Play:  The Advent has invested in a paging system for both the Nursery and the Godly Play floor (third floor).  Any parent who drops off a child in the Nursery or on the third floor will be given a pager, which is to be returned upon picking up the child.  During the 9 o'clock service, parents are to now accompany their child(ren) to the back of the church to meet church school staff after Communion, and pagers will be distributed to parents at that time.

"Beulah Land" Class for toddlers and their parents

More about Godly Play

Classes for Older Children

Photos from the 2007 Church School Christmas Pageant

Godly Play

The Church of the Advent uses a Montessori-based curriculum called Godly Play. The goal of Godly Play is to teach children the art of using religious language – parable, sacred story, silence, and liturgical action – to help interpret the events of their daily lives. Godly Play teachers tell Bible stories using multi-sensory materials that encourage children to enter into the stories and relate them to their personal experiences. Our Godly Play classrooms are staffed by parishioners Meg Nelson and Liesl Smith (3-4 year-olds), Julia Coffey and Sarah Connor (5-7 year-olds), and Laurie Glenn and Camilla Shannon (8-10 year-olds). The two younger age groups have story calendars and related projects, and the older children work on their own "long-term" projects as they fit in with the story calendar. All classes end at 11:10 am.

Classes for older children

Middle School classes are led by Suzanne Miller. Our curriculum is called "Faith in Motion." We encourage high-schoolers to attend Entr'acte. There are also various outings, retreats, dinners and other activities with our youth group.