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St. Martin's Children and Family Ministries Department is called to lead St. Martin's members in nurturing and fostering the spiritual growth and Christian Formation of children, to honor and celebrate the gifts of children, and to recognize that children are members and full participants of the Church.
Through our Sunday School, and Children’s Chapel, children hear the Gospel and learn our heritage. Special activities throughout the year are also planned around the liturgical calendar and are designed to enhance our children's understanding of themselves as Episcopalians and as people of faith.
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 At St. Martin's, our care for children begins early. Before a new child is even born, prayers are offered regularly for expectant parents who request their name be put on the expectant parent prayer list that appears each week in the Bulletin, St. Martin's printed order of service handed out before services each Sunday. When babies are born into St. Martin’s parish, they are visited by a parishioner and given a wooden cradle cross. At this time, parents are also given information about infant baptism preparation and are encouraged to begin to incorporate their new family member into the life of St. Martin's.
New parents are also contacted by Michelle McDonnell, Coordinator for Children and Family Ministries, who shares information about baptism preparation classes as well as other aspects of St. Martin's ministry with children.
Part of this ministry includes the St. Martin’s nursery, which provides care for infants and toddlers through age 2 during Sunday school, and through age 3 during the 10:30 am liturgy, and special parish events. Debbie King, our Nursery Supervisor, receives additional help from parish volunteers in order to provide the very best care for our young children.
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Age 3 to 5th Grade |
 Church school at St. Martin’s begins in August each year, after the start of the Richland One school year, and ends in May. Each class has at least two teachers, following the Episcopal Church's Safe Church practices. Sunday school classes are held in the Christian Education building, which is located behind the parish hall with entrances at both the back of the campus and on the Winthrop Avenue side. Classes run each Sunday from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m. We currently have classes offered in these groupings:
- 3s and 4s, Room 4;
- 5K, 1st and 2nd-graders, Room 8;
- 3rd, 4th- and 5th-graders, Room 7.
During the 10:30 a.m. service, children age 4 through 2nd-grade are invited to participate in their own study of the Word of God during Children’s Chapel. Children process to chapel at the start of the service, following the child carrying the chapel cross. Children join this procession from their pews, where they initially sit with their families until the procession begins. Children are assigned the special task of carrying the chapel cross on a rotating basis throughout the church year. This act of service allows them to see that even the youngest members of this parish have a special part to play in our worship life.
In Children’s Chapel, we use the Godly Play curriculum during the school year, meeting in our Godly Play room, which is located in St. Elizabeth’s Room in the Parish Hall. Godly play is a Montessori-based curriculum that encourages young children to experience the stories of the Christian faith with their senses, including use of a desert box and wonderful, wooden diorama-type props.
During the summer, we follow a more relaxed children’s liturgy in our amphitheater, outside the back doors of the Parish Hall.
At the close of chapel, two child volunteers join ushers as the offering is taken to the altar each week, pulling wagons of food items forward for a blessing before they are donated to Harvest Hope Food Bank.
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Events of Special Interest to Children and their Families
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With the start of school, we prepare with a Book Bag Blessing. Children bring forward their book bags to be blessed at the altar and take part in a litany written specifically for them to address the concerns and needs they have as they begin a new school year. 
In October, we gather together for a St. Francis Day Celebration and a sometimes boistrous Blessing of the Animals. A simple reception that includes treats for ourselves as well as our animal friends follows the blessings. -
In November, we mark Martinmas, or St. Martin's Day on or around Nov. 11 by processing through the neighborhood surrounding the church collecting items for the needy. The event honors the legacy of St. Martin, who dedicated his life to caring for the less fortunate. As Advent I arrives we gather in the parish hall during the Sunday school hour for an inter-generational Advent Event designed to increase our awareness about the deeper meaning of the holiday season, and prepare our homes for the coming of the Christ Child. -
Our St. Nicholas Day Celebration comes on or about his feast day of December 6. On this day, we gather to hear the story by Nicholas himself, bless our stockings as well as those we will give away and enjoy a small feast of goodies. On Christmas Eve, we offer a Family Creche Service in which children bring pieces forward in preparation for the Christ child's birth. -
Shrove Tuesday's Pancake Supper is our one last splurge before Lent, when we celebrate Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday. Ash Wednesday arrives the next day. A Children's Lenten Retreat allows children to experience Lent in their own way. Holy Week includes multiple services as well as our Good Friday "Way of the Cross for Families and Children," when our children walk the Stations of the Cross, experiencing with sight, taste and sound of Jesus's last days. On Easter Sunday we rejoice in the Resurrection as we join in the flowering of the Cross and an Easter egg hunt. We round out the Church School year with the celebration of Pentecost and the birth of the Church.
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